Body and language as carriers of transculturality in two Sinophone transnational artists

Bibliographic Data

ID21875764
AuthorsValentina Pedone (0000-0002-2617-6886, University of Florence), Federico Picerni (0000-0001-8113-8113, Ca' Foscari University of Venice)
Year2022
Volume9
Issue1
Pages133-155
Publication date2022-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary Chinese Art (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2051-7041 • E-ISSN: 2051-705X
PublisherIntellect (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1386/jcca_00059_1
OpenAlexW4288056499
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited10

In a global context characterized by a growing complexity of the dynamics of Chinese transnational mobility, we find the need to resort to a new vocabulary to understand the localized artistic expressions related to such dynamics. In this article, we focus on two Chinese artists, Musk Ming (1979–present) and Tony Cheung (1987–present), who live and work across China and Europe, reflecting on how their transnational life trajectories combine with the transculturality expressed in their works. Considering body and language as two privileged sites of ethnicity, the article suggests that, in their representation, the authors engage in a process of critical deconstruction of ‘national culture’ and ‘ethnic identity’. Such deconstruction is achieved by disconnecting cultural tokens from their ‘ethno-national’ or historical referents, creating instead unlikely or unexpected associations with elements extracted from non-Chinese contexts, or using them to critique the very cultural lineage they are supposed to embody. Considering the critical reception of the artists’ work in Europe, the article also discusses how this act of defamiliarization provokes the viewer by contesting both the ‘Chineseness’ and the ‘westernization’ of the artwork itself. The critical representation of body and language thus creates a powerful discourse to question the equation of ethnicity and culture, compelling viewers to go beyond a superficial characterization of the two artists’ work as either ‘genuinely’ Chinese or ‘critically’ hybrid

Aesthetics · Art · China · Critical discourse analysis · Ethnic group · Ideology · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Vocabulary · Westernization · Anthropology · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Gender Studies · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Philosophy

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