Thursday 10 January 2013

MP/VISUAL RESEARCH - SHI YONG



Imagine: What if all Chinese had blonde hair? 1999

It echoes this perpetually recurring theme of how China looks towards the West: for industry, culture, and in the context of art (and the particular family in this piece), for aesthetics.  The historical contexts of Western influences upon China have trickled down to the foundations of Chinese society: the family.  Yong's comment upon Chinese families finds itself at an axis that is at the explicit convergence of Western influence upon China and the current trend towards globalization.  However, underlying the creepily saccharine semblance of familial bliss comes a damnation upon the Western influences and the forces of globalization.  What Yong seems to be arguing is that the picture is actually a facade where hopes and and ambitions are nothing more than an attempt to normalize everyone to a Western standard (in this case, the blonde hair as a standard of beauty).

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