Striking the maid's buttocks

Author: Li Luming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-04-01
Features: The "Experimental Art Series" focuses on the spirit of exploration, experimentation, and innovation that has been prevalent in world art since the 20th century (especially after 1960). Through the publication of works, essays, reviews, biographies, and interviews, it showcases experimental achievements in various fields such as fine arts, literature, film, theater, music, architecture, and photography, while also presenting the social and cultural contexts that gave rise to these achievements. The series has been published intermittently since 1992, aiming to provide textual references and theoretical research opportunities for contemporary Chinese art workers. This small book tells a story that is both exhilarating and suffocating: the maid enters her master's bedroom every morning with cleaning tools and the confidence of pleasing her employer (unveiling the bedsheet to find all sorts of strange and terrifying things), but what the master sees are only her irredeemable mistakes—he wants her to understand that achieving perfection in work is merely to pursue a higher-level ideal. The maid willingly accepts the punishment and resigns herself to her situation, while the master strictly carries out his responsibilities according to the teachings of a manual, his obedience to the manual being as absolute as the maid's to him. Although both have thought of ending this repetitive scene, what else could they possibly do? When Robert Coover's central metaphor magically unfolds, it reveals an unspoken cycle of life and death, creation and destruction.