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Surrealism in China
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Surrealism in China
The interplay between culture and art is indispensable. Artists use their skills and
platforms to depict their views about the prevalent cultural values. In many instances, artists also
use their artwork to engage in political ideologies. In most cases, they intend to show their
dissenting voices against the ruling political regimes. However, this goal can be controversial,
and political leaders may be intolerant of these expressions, mostly in countries that do not
embrace democracy. Nevertheless, artists use their skills to express themselves and their
communities. For instance, artists could express their views about poor leadership, unethical
activities by political leaders, violence, malnutrition, health, racism, and other themes. The
current treatise evaluates the surrealistic artistic work of Chen Wenling and Zhang Xiaogang and
how they used their artwork to oppose the undesirable political actions in China.
Chen Wenling, born in 1969*in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China, is one of the most
outstanding surrealistic artists. Wenling uses a variety of surrealist approaches to express his
views about consumerism. Through several varieties of surrealism, Wenling passed critical
messages about consumerism in the country induced by the Chinese Revolution. Wenling’s work
included grotesque sculptures executed in a bright red monochrome (Denver Art Museum,
2024). The artist uses his work to examine consumerism in modern-day China without violating
the communist parties. One of the works that reflects surrealism in his artwork is The Pigs. The
pigs depict the gluttonous, morally filthy, and lazy people in China during the revolution (Denver
Art Museum, 2024). The sculptures depict an opposition to the ideologies behind the prevalent
consumerism that emerged after the Chinese Revolution. The artist also used surrealism to show
how the Chinese people embraced unethical actions. For instance, the pigs reflect the dirty and
sexually immoral people in China (Denver Art Museum, 2024). Just like any other society, the
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changing Chinese economy triggered a series of changes in moral trends and an increase in
sexual immoralities in the urban areas. Although the artist could not express their views directly
because of the authoritarian communist party, the sculptures communicated Wenling’s views.
Wenling's work closely scrutinises the social realities in Chinese culture, the quality of life in the
post-war period in China, and the artist’s desire to embrace diversity.
The artwork by Wenling reflects the artist’s satire. Wenling was born in 1969 to a poor
family. The high level of consumerism in China affected the ability of his family to meet its
basic needs and led to poverty. As a former Xiamen Academy of Art student, Wenling was
exposed to international ideologies (Artnet, 2024). Thus, he developed an open-minded approach
to evaluating the political class and its contributions to the people's social challenges. Thus, the
artist used his history to design the sculptures. For instance, the sculptures of skinny naked
Chinese boys represent the artist's past as he lived in poverty. The work also depicts the poverty
and social challenges that affected the Chinese people during the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to
1976 (Xu & Reed, 2023). The new trends in the Chinese economy had adverse outcomes on the
Chinese people, triggering the thin children as a sign of poor diets and a lack of quality life,
mainly in rural areas like Quanzhou.
The other artist in the surrealist category is Zhang Xiaogang, a Chinese surrealist painter
born in 1958, famous for his introspective and emotionally charged paintings. His work usually
explores the themes of memory, identity and collective history. One factor that contributed to his
surrealism is that he grew up during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. His experiences at this
time influenced his perceptions and desires to induce a revolution against the undesirable
leadership in China. The political upheavals left a psychological impact on him, which prompted
his artwork (Duffy-Boscagli, 2021). The artist was among the people affected by Mao Zedong's
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rule during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and used his skills to depict the things he did not
like about the era.
Experiences during the Cultural Revolution had undesirable outcomes for the people in
China, and Zhang intended to reflect this outcome in his work. For instance, Zhang's parents
were forced to leave their government jobs and go to "study camps" in the countryside. This
event led to Zhang's separation from their parents, and they only met them after they left the
"study camp" (Duffy-Boscagli, 2021). During the separation, Zhang and his three brothers
endured lonely moments that were common in many families. Also, Zhang intended to show the
blinding policies of Mao Zedong, the then-communist party leader. In his paintings, Zhang
shows people with a blinder across their eyes or with similar eyes to show that regardless of who
they were, the government forced them to think the same and act blind to the realities in society
(Duffy-Boscagli, 2021). More so, the artwork showed the trauma Zhang and his family suffered
during Mao Zedong's era of the Cultural Revolution. More so, the artwork shows how families
broke. The ambiguity and mystery in the figures shown in Zhang’s work induce the viewer to
think about the layers of trauma, oppression, social challenges, and dictatorship caused by the
revolution (Wang, 2021). Thus, Zhang’s work represents the surrealist experiences in China
during the revolution.
Conclusively, the two artists use surrealism to depict their interactions with the Chinese
Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. The traumatising experiences in China, the cultural and
social changes in the period, and the undesirable economic outcomes that followed the revolution
are visible in the two artists’ artwork. Chen Wenling and Zhang Xiaogang represent
intergenerational artists whose surrealism brings up issues in the social and economic realms.
The historical background of each artist contributed to their surrealism because they suffered the
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brunt of the undemocratic ruling by Mao Zedong. The articulate and symbolic sculptures and
paintings by Chen Wenling and Zhang Xiaogang, respectively, represent China's moral values
and challenges. The artwork is relevant in the contemporary world because similar challenges
affect people today.
References
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Artnet (2024). Chen Wenling. https://www.artnet.com/artists/chen-wenling/
Denver Art Museum (2024). Pig. https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/object/2015.609a-e
Duffy-Boscagli, B. (2021). Intrinsically Linked: Selfhood, Politics and Complex Emotions in
Xiaogang’s Bloodline Series.*The Macksey Journal,*2(1).
Wang, Y. (2021). The political legacy of violence during China's Cultural Revolution. British
Journal of Political Science,*51(2), 463–487.
Xu, X., & Reed, I. A. (2023). Modernity and the Politics of Newness: Unraveling New Time in
the Chinese Cultural Revolution, 1966 to 1968.*Sociological Theory,*41(3), 229–254.
