Chineseness Sandra Gu Summary

The panel also discussed the notion held by Chinese critics that the use of ‘obvious signs of Chineseness’ “exoticizes” the Chinese culture to global audiences. Xu feels this doesn’t apply to himself since he grew in China and is ‘involved in Chinese culture in a very deep way’. Taking inspiration from his culture comes natural to him. He feels that to ‘use Chinese cultural elements to address global issues, to participate in global cultural debates, is a positive development’. Xu said that to ‘avoid using cultural elements to address larger issues’ is to give up your own culture; ‘you’re abandoning something of yourself’. He insists that the focus of an art piece should be on the ‘level of one’s reflection’, not the materials and cultural elements used. …show more content…
If there wasn’t a history of Westerners exoticizing Chinese culture, there would be no reason for Chinese artists to feel this while using their personal cultural experience. Thus, this criticism should apply globally to artist taking inspiration from their cultural roots, not just Chinese artists.
Lastly, the panel discusses the reasons for the languages they chose to base their revised version of pseudo language on. Sandra Gu said that, when displaying his work, she was asked by a Russian viewer why she didn’t use Russian, a Jewish viewer asked why she didn’t use Hebrew, and so on. Language symbolizes a person’s nationality, and on a global scale, every nationality should be represented. Hence, Gu has worked with over 25 languages. Xu Bing’s artworks