Non-European
The Chinese are extremely proud of China's five thousand years of history! The turmoil of Western imperialism, however, and the Communist political campaigns between 1840 and 1989 have left the Chinese with a sense of shame and sorrow. It sparked off a kind of ambition that may be hard for the West to comprehend. The Chinese people had to endure drastic changes, including the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976, uprooting millennia of Confucian values. This sparked off a movement in 1979, calling for political reform, including democracy, and culminating in 1989 with the Chinese students and workers demonstrations of Tiananmen Square.
Not until 1976, did the Avant-garde movement become crucial for modern and contemporary art in China. Many works reflected the tension between socialist ideals, which are still valid, and the wave of consumerism that has swept the country as a result of capitalist reforms. Their motto remains: 'Courage is precious, the soul is essential! Soul is the core matter of arts.' The influence from the West seems to dissolve in the search for a new identity, consciously adopting the techniques and formal language of traditional Chinese art and placing them in a new context. Famous are the 'laughing men', because facial expressions are the pride and dignity in Chinese culture. Likewise is the concept of 'yin' and 'yang', and their search for harmony and balance called 'feng shui'.
Chinese artists skillfully employ media, techniques and forms of expression; in comparison, however, to Western art, greater emphasis is placed on figurative painting. Since 1989, art is being characterised by a critical view of the political, economical and social system from the past.