Exit Babel

Author: Pan Yaochang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: On a plain in Shina, the immigrants decided to build a city named Babel and planned to construct a tower that reached the heavens, challenging the heavens. Jealous and fearful of the all-powerful abilities of humans speaking the same language, God, in order to limit them, confused their languages, making them unintelligible and unable to cooperate, thereby disrupting the tower-building project. Thus, the word "Babel" carries the meaning of linguistic confusion. To step out of Babel, or to cross Babel, means to overcome linguistic barriers and achieve mutual understanding between people of different cultures. This book focuses on the open Chinese art, that is, the modern and contemporary Chinese art since the 18th century, aiming to objectively present reflections on the theory of modern and contemporary Chinese art from multiple perspectives, primarily painting but also including other forms. This collection attempts to explore the following questions by combining specific historical facts: In a specific time and space, how did Western art and its concepts influence the Chinese, how did they conflict with traditional China, and how did the Chinese make different choices, as well as the significance of these choices? The book primarily discusses the various responses of Chinese intellectual elites and artists to the entry of Western art into China in an intercultural context, as well as the reflections it has triggered; it pays particular attention to the problems and corresponding strategies faced in fields such as patronage, education, aesthetics, dissemination, and exchange. Most of the essays and articles collected in this book are published works from the author over the past two decades, with a few exceptions being recent works. The book is accompanied by numerous illustrations, greatly enhancing the visual impact of the articles.