Chinese Contemporary Art

Up until the banking crisis of October 2008 Chinese contemporary art (中国当代艺术, Zhongguo Dangdai Yishu) was perhaps one of the hottest investment opportunities out there. Galleries where springing up all over China but particularly in Beijing around the 798 art district. Many of these were lavish and foreign funded as money flooded into the art scence. However, the art scence itself has been developing since the 1980's and is fact just an evolution of the socialist realism of the Cultural Revolution period on the 1970s.

Contemporary Chinese art covers painting, film, video, photography, and performance. Until recently, art exhibitions deemed controversial have been routinely shut down by police, and performance artists in particular faced the threat of arrest in the early 1990s. More recently there has been greater tolerance by the  authorities, though many internationally acclaimed artists are still restricted from media exposure inside China or have their exhibitions closed.

Leading contemporary visual artists include Ai Weiwei, Cai Guoqiang, Cai Xin, Fang Lijun, Huang Yan, Huang Yong Ping, Kong Bai Ji, Lu Shengzhong, Ma Liuming, Ma Qingyun, Song Dong, Li Wei, Christine Wang, Wang Guangyi, Wang Qingsong, Wenda Gu, Xu Bing, Yang Zhichao, Zhan Wang, Zhang Dali, Zhang Xiaogang, Zhang Huan, Zhu Yu, Yan Lei, Ma Kelu, Ding Fang, Shang Yang, and Zhang Yue.

Construction of the 798 Zone

The Dashanzi factory complex began as part of the "Socialist Unification Plan" of military-industrial cooperation between the Soviet Union and the newly-formed People's Republic of China. However, China's huge need for an electronics industry and Russia's involvement in so many projects already meant the China had to turn to East Germany for assisstance. This project, which was to be the largest by East Germany in China, was then informally known as Project #157.

The architectural plans were left to the Germans, who chose a functional Bauhaus-influenced design over the more ornamental Soviet style. The plans called for large indoor spaces designed to let the maximum amount of natural light into the workplace. Arch-supported sections of the ceiling would curve upwards then fall diagonally along the high slanted banks or windows. Although the Russians were not happy about such a design it is this style which was to later make such distinctive gallery space.

The chosen location was an area of farmland in Dashanzi, northeast of Beijing. The complex was to occupy 500,000 square metres, 370,000 of which were allocated to living quarters. It was officially named Joint Factory 718, following the Chinese government's method of naming military factories starting with the number 7. Later is was sub-divided into other numeric factories including the now famous 798. Throughout construction disagreements continued causing delays to the project. The Russians thought the Germans were "over engineering" the project - meaning their standards were too high!

At the height of the construction effort, more than 100 East German foreign experts worked on the project. The resources of as many as 22 of their factories supplied the construction; at the same time, supply delays were caused by the Soviet Red Army's tremendous drain on East Germany's industrial production. The equipment was transported directly through the Soviet Union via the Trans-Siberian railway.

The 798 Zone's industrial period

Joint Factory 718 began production in 1957, amid a grand opening ceremony and display of Communist brotherhood between China and East Germany, attended by high officials of both countries.

The factory quickly established a reputation for itself as one of the best in China. Through its several danwei or "work units", it offered considerable social benefits to its 10,000-20,000 workers, especially considering the relative poverty of the country during such periods as the Great Leap Forward.

Workers' skills were honed by frequent personnel exchanges, internships and training in cooperation with East Germany. Different incentives kept motivation high, such as rewards systems and "model worker" distinctions. At the same time, political activities such as Maoism study workshops kept the workers in line with Communist Party of China doctrine. During the Cultural revolution, propaganda slogans for Mao Zedong Thought were painted on the ceiling arches in bright red characters (where they remain today).

However, the factory came under pressure during Deng Xiaoping's reforms of the 1980s. Deprived of governmental support like many state-owned enterprises, it underwent a gradual decline and was eventually rendered obsolete. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, most sub-factories had ceased production and 60% of the workers had been laid off.

Artistic rebirth

The Dashanzi factory complex was vacated at around the time when most of Beijing's contemporary artist community was looking for a new home. Avant-garde art being frowned upon by the government, the community had traditionally existed on the fringes of the city.

Then in 1995, Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), looking for cheap, ample workshop space away from downtown, set up in the now defunct Factory 706. This temporary move became permanent and in 2000.

Through word-of-mouth, artists and designers started trickling in, attracted to the vast cathedral-like spaces. Despite the lack of any conscious aesthetic in the Bauhaus-inspired style, which grounded architectural beauty in practical, industrial function, the swooping arcs and soaring chimneys had an uplifting effect on modern eyes, a sort of post-industrial chic. At the artists' requests, workers renovating the spaces preserved the prominent Maoist slogans on the arches, adding a touch of ironic "Mao kitsch" to the place.

Gentrification

The district's popularity has exploded since the opening of BTAP and 798 Space in 2002, with scores of galleries, lofts, publishing firms, design companies, high-end tailor shops, and cafés and fancy restaurants setting up. In 2003, around 30 artists and organizations had set up studios or offices in the area, with 200 more reportedly on the waiting list to move in.

In keeping with the area's "community spirit", most galleries and spaces in Dashanzi do not charge either exhibitors or visitors although this is starting to change. Instead, they generally sustain themselves by hosting profitable fashion shows and corporate events.

Another sign of creeping gentrification is the increasing number of luxury cars parked near the galleries. Some (but not all) of the resident artists are rich compared to the other occupants of the area, the remaining cells of factory workers. Despite threats to demolish the area to build yet more offices and apartments for an ever expanding Beijing a beautification project to c'lean up' the area was carried out in 2008 in time for the Beijing Olympics suggesting a more secure future or perhaps the begining of the end for the rawness of the factory gallery complex that made it so attractive to contemporary artists in the first place.