DSL Magazine: Issue 6

Fruitful but complex Wang Qingsong (b.1966) seems to keep a chronicle of the relationship with the West, from Follow Me! (2003) until Goddess (2011), representing the statue of liberty dressed in Mao costume and surrounded with bamboo scaffolding. The artist focuses in his work on this complex relationship to the West, who is influencing whom, and how can China adapt itself to the global system, unless the world will perhaps finally adapt itself to China. In Follow Me , a teacher points to an immense blackboard scribbled all over with a mixture of English and Chinese phrases, most of them being references to China’s recent history, words taken from school textbooks, and slogans. Wang alludes to a TV program of the same name dating back to 1982, the first-ever English-language TV program on Chinese television, thanks to which many Chinese could learn not only English but also the ways and customs of the West. In the background one can decipher the words: Let China walk toward the world! Let the world learn about China! For a long time, China was shut to the outside world, and Wang is curious to see all the new, and different, things happening now. At the beginning of the 1990s, the products sold by MacDonald or Coca Cola were considered luxury items in China. He would wonder whether this was because of their quality or because of the advertisements, which created new fantasies among the Chinese.