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Arts Clusters in Beijing: Socialist Heritage and Neoliberalism

Shao, Li
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1440187418

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Arts Policy and Administration.
This dissertation provides a Foucauldian genealogy and governmentality study on the arts clusters in Beijing, the first of which was established in 1990. By investigating how the emergence and disappearance of different types of arts clusters are produced by specific social conditions, I examine the changing power relation between artists and the political authority since the late 1970s and interpret how contemporary Chinese art has been governed. The genealogy of arts clusters takes into account not only arts-related topics but events and phenomena in economics, population migration, land regulation, international relations, etc. Therefore, the analysis also offers a window to Chinese society and its histories more generally. In addition, I conduct a case study on the 798 art factory – the most famous arts cluster in China and the one subjected to the most intense government intervention. An examination of the governance inside 798 provides an account for how contemporary art is governed at a specific site. Subscribing to the ascending research method advocated by Foucault, I ground my analysis on abundant empirical data gathered from interviews, observations, and document studies. In addition to data that accounts for people’s daily practices and lived experiences, I collect social discourses on various topics and issues from law, policies, regulations, development plans, entries in yearbooks, government briefs and Party leaders’ speeches. Based on these discourses and actual practices, I identify two dominant governing rationalities – Reason of Party and neoliberalism – and examine their interplay. Specifically, I interpret how neoliberalism as an exception to socialism has been promoted by the political authority to reinforce its rule and gradually extend into different social domains. I argue that artists are in a sense “pushed” to adopt the neoliberal mentality and prioritize economic calculations. I also interrogate socialist legacy within neoliberalism in my case study of 798. I articulate the different modes of governance employed by the two administrators in the cluster, the local government and the factory owner – the “socialist land master,” and evaluate the effect of governance. The findings of this research determines that after 798’s official designation, there has barely been space for artists’ counter-normative activities and possibilities.
Margaret Wyszomirski (Advisor)
Nancy Ettlinger (Committee Member)
266 p.
Art History; Arts Management; Asian Studies; History
contemporary Chinese art, Party-arty relationship, Foucault, genealogy, governmentality, neoliberalism, post-socialism

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Shao, L. (2015). Arts Clusters in Beijing: Socialist Heritage and Neoliberalism [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1440187418

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Shao, Li. Arts Clusters in Beijing: Socialist Heritage and Neoliberalism. 2015. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1440187418.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Shao, Li. "Arts Clusters in Beijing: Socialist Heritage and Neoliberalism." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1440187418

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1440187418
554
© 2015, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.