Warning: Some art curators with their boxed-in minds are coming to China with money from major grants. They are determined to seek and hunt down those Chinese whose major occupation or preoccupation fits into these curators' boxes. The prestige and wealth has attracted many competent hard workers to join the band wagon named Contemporary Art in China. This phenomena has enabled, encouraged and has molded these Chinese into forming a trend that is just like the trendy art in the United States. The night of the Art Walk in 798 Beijing on March 10, 2007, at the signing for her book titled THE REAL THING contemporary art from China in Timezone 8 Books & Cafe, Karen Smith, under questioning by me, admitted that because she had been so involved with her kind of art for the last ten years, she had overlooked the rest of the art happening in China while working on her project to bring art from China to Liverpool. Her Choice of the word contemporary, was caused by the lack of better word. To me her title of the book is misleading, presumptuous and irresponsible. The word contemporary refers to time that is now. It is in simple English that contemporary art means art from today. The 18 Chinese artists she picked only represent a small part of a huge picture in China. Their works loosely fit in the categories of what in the United States called Art Performance, Media Art Installation, Environmental Art and Political Art. There are so many to these Avant-Garde that one could hardly keep them straight. I have heard that there are a few more of these art names on the horizon. Such curators, like Smith, with their one track minds, dismiss the rest of the artists who can still find art in ink, petroleum products, cotton, metal and stones. Perhaps more importantly, they bypass those who are developing their art in a grass-roots kind of way, with grasses that spring from the thousands of years of cultural heritage, transforming in pace with the times. Well, I say this is the real thing in China now. Beijing is having an art boom. But unlike the West, it does not have an established Chinese art critique community. It is important for Beijing to develop and to establish its own art critics and art philosophers They work on keeping the dialogue of art and creativity in the open .They educate the public about art and its changes. Those who have the sophistication to understand the world art and have a deep insight of Chinese people, culture and history should take on the hot topic of art in China. The Chinese should write their own books on Chinese Art. They should define for themselves what is a Contemporary Chinese Art identity in this global world. It is undignified when you have Chinese "artists" ejecting undigested hot dogs and hamburgers and call it art. And foreign critics telling the world the art from China now is pretty much just that. Finally, I am not suggest foreign writers should not write about the subject. I am only saying they better equipped themselves with much deeper insight about the people and the cultural history of China. Also they better edify themselves more with what is the “real thing” in their own back yard.

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Throughout history, people have demonstrated that greed is a dominant genetic trait of theirs. Without a conscience humans are capable of doing pretty bad things for money. I don’t believe what happens in the art scene in China is unique to and different from the rest of the world. I am certainly not naïve enough to believe that thousands of the rich and powerful art lovers are roaming in Beijing because the greatest art ever made by Chinese artists is now happening. As a matter of fact, I must say, the overall level of art in China as of today is rather juvenile. Here is one of my theories. This one is on the dark side. Where there is money to make, in this case, the Chinese contemporary art scene, the money making experts will emerge. They are in control of what sells and what doesn’t. It has nothing to do with art per se. So, hello Chinese public, here come the money makers from all over, converging to take and protect their share of the profit generated by the craze of collecting Chinese contemporary art. What is art, is the concern of hardly anybody in the circus. What about the artists? To be included in the circle of the rich and famous, one doesn’t rely on the merit of ones art but to see what sells and what doesn’t. Thus the art trend in China today is not one of red but green- the color of the USD. Contemporarily, art in China reflects minds that lack courage to be free to think, not gutsy enough to explore the unknown and to push the edge of creativity. The yet darker side is many of these so called top artists in China, are makers who produce with a cookie cutter. You see one of their works, you see them all. I will not hold my breath to wait for a day to see this same group of artists get together to talk about the issues in art and meaning. The Avant Gardes, have evolved into a new kind of people whose innate ability is to adapt in order to gain access to pop recognition. In other words, what is considered as Avant Garde art is everything that fits into the promotional scheme of the art marketers. Therefore it is not a question of needing new names and new works, but the very fundamental concept of evaluating art itself. Let’s take a step further to examine this by looking at the book store of a top art academy in Beijing. Their inventory of books consists mostly of the teaching of the HOW. (I could not find a single book that would challenge a young creative mind.) Upon viewing students art shows in this academy, it becomes obvious that these young artists are not being educated, let alone being edified. But they are TRAINED to copy and to follow the narrowest path of using traditional tools and media. Could we assume that a mind that thinks is very scary indeed to some establishments? In places where control of the minds are still in iron-hands, which critic who speaks with a conscience, could rise above to get a job and be able to write, publish and to be distributed for the public to read. Personally, I could not find a single periodical editor in Beijing willing to risk and publish my write-up on Contemporary Art from China. One editor actually complemented my view points but no cigar. Your keen observation at the sideline has certainly pointed out cans of worms. But the issues are so huge that it will take many many grass root efforts to make them be known. Meanwhile I will keep making my art and speak as I see it. Chatko