Performance Art in China: A Historical Process

LI Zhiqi

【Abstract】This paper contains the developing process of performance art in China shortly after Reform and Opening-up policy landed， offering a basic glance of performance artworks standers， and analyzing the cause of those significant steps within the specific background inside of the country and affected by the world. The usage of the body as a medium of Chinese artists would also provide a general idea of the opening ideology in the contemporary Chinese art system.

【Key words】Performance Art; China; History and development

1. Research Background

After 2010， when Marina Abramovi? engaged in an extended performance called， The Artist Is Present， presented in MoMA. People around the world have been attracted by this performance and body art. Performance art， as one of the representative multi-media art form which emphasizes liveness and body， has widely captured peoples eyes， and researchers of art have somehow turned their attention to study this body-media art form. It becomes popular among other traditional art forms generated all around the world， especially in the stream of contemporary art among the western culture.

Performance art has emerged as an art form in the west since the 1960s. However， while people in the western art system were deliberating， generating and exchanging this art form drastically， performance art seems just started in the east. It is considered incomprehensible for people outside of China to obtain the idea of Chinese performance Art duel to the scarcity of research and language barriers. Therefore， the article would offer a general idea of the procedure that performance art has gone through in China， and could be divided into sections based on the timeline： Birth and mutilation， stylization and Diversification.

2. Foundation laying and birthing： the end of the 1980s to the mid of 1990s

Performance art， which uses the body as a medium begins to immerse inside the 60s of western. It was formed and became an important express method in contemporary art in the late 1980s， together with industrial， post AIDS， queer and cyberpunk cultures in 1990s （Johnson， 2015）. Since then， using the body as a medium seems to arouse more resonance around a mass audience around the world.

However， due to the political situation of unstable society movements， it only came in to being around the1990s in China. Besides influencing the flow of western， the background inside China was also mature enough to make performing art happen in China， from the perspectives of economy and ideology.

The transition from a planned economy to the commodity economy from 1979 has brought the concept of “market” into the art system. Under the dual pressure of system and capital， artists need to support their creation through market competition. To attract peoples attention and consider mass consumption trends on aesthetics and values， their stander of Chinas “artistic contemporariness” has gradually evolved into a typical “meaningless” feature （Li & Hu， 2011）.

A great movement has been made when Chinese artists held the official exhibition at the Chinese Art Museum. The exhibition explicitly prohibits live performing arts， which could only be presented in the form of pictures. However， seven groups of behavioral artists expressed their irony to the current situation of Chinese art from different perspectives involving their bodies. Xiao lus Dialogue（1989） is the most prominent work， which directly leads to the interruption of the exhibition. She used a real gun when China prohibits the usage of guns and shot at her own work Dialogue （1988） which aimed to show the pain brought to people when it was a taboo to talk about emotions between heterosexuals. And those artworks could be a stander for the magnificent beginning of Chinese performing art.

After those performance arts have walked into peoples views， artists such as Zhu Fadong， Cang Xin， Ma Liuming （unable to perform in his own country most of the time） and Zhang Huan were at the forefront of Chinese performance art. New， eye-catching and interesting works of art appeared and emerged. Their works reveal the use of their practical actions to resist and filter the false or hypocritical experimental and “post-perceptual” ideas in art.

3. Stylized： the end of the 1990s

Chinese performance art has recognized as exaggerating under the packaging of Qiu Zhijies so-called “post-perceptual” theory. Works of Zhu Yu， Sun Yuan， Peng Yu， and Zhang Zihan， who appeared after 1995， showed an unacceptable discomfort. Zhus most notable piece titled Eating People （2000）. In this performance piece， the artist recorded himself in his kitchen eating what appears to be a six-month-old fetus， purportedly stolen from a medical school.

This style of involving violence is continuing nowadays， and works like A Rib （2008） appears from time to time. During this period， critics and artists have never stopped arguing about the rationality of extreme body art， and the governments intervention has not completely stopped the actions of Chinese performance artists. They still shuttle between law and morality， questioning peoples spirit and body.

4. Diversification and Ambiguity of Boundaries： after 21c till the recent

In the 21st century， facing the prominent style of performance art in the direction of violence and stimulation， critics have widely discussed this phenomenon. Many behavioral artists try to find the right balance. Although it still shows nudity， injury， and unusualness to some extent， it could be understood and accpected. He Chengyaos series of works： Salute to Mother （2001）， Mother and Me （2001） and 99 Needles （2002）， has intuitively express the mother-daughter relationship， with the most original body to transparent continuous and delicate emotions， play the media advantage of performing arts， giving the audience a continuous emotional transmission. The artist has never explained her motivation and direction but uses the body as a medium to deepen her impression and create more possibilities to communicate with the audience.

In the second decade of the 21st century， unprecedented changes have taken place in Chinese art circles. Some young and new generation performance artists have not stopped their practice and exploration. For example， Gao Yuan， He Liping， and Liu Chengrui. On the other dimension， Older generation artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu have inserted their performance into a brand-new body. Cant help myself （2016）， a technical body seems to have opened the direction of the development of performing arts in the new era， which could apply the advantages of high technology to show more possibilities of the body.

5. Conclusion

Since Performance Art has defended it is selfs meaning and appearance in China， it has been making headway amid twists and turns. Nowadays， at the end of the second decade of the 21st century， what should be paid more attention to the developing of performance art is managing the balance， which would probably exist between the bodys relationship and applying new technology into the art itself. Therefore， it might require more performance-related researches and studies exploring its possibilities.

References：

[1]Johnson， D. The Art of Living： An oral history of performance art[J]. Macmillan International Higher Education，2015.

[2]Li，Q.黎青，& Hu，S.胡莎莎. The Phenomenon of “Nothingness of Meaning” in Contemporary Chinese Art in the Post-colonial Context中國當代藝術在后殖民語境下的 “意義虛無” 現象[J].Journal of Xiangtan University： Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition湘潭大學學報： 哲學社會科學版，2011（6）：96-98.