Xu Bing and Contemporary Chinese Art: Cultural and Philosophical Reflections 

Ames, Roger T., Tsao Hsingyuan

2011

Bei Dao of Xu Bing’s characters in Book from the Sky and Square Word Calligraphy: “You are a nothing but a pictograph that has lost its sound.”

Historical context: pre-and post-1989, art operating inside, trying to influence a Chinese audience using western ideas, and post 1989, outside China, those who were of the avant-garde, and emigrating to US, responding to Western post-modern philosophy and welcomed by the West as signs of a “Chinese Spring”- who was their audience? Western/ external influences being brought to bear. (Art and many news outlets banned in PRC)

Cultural exile + exhibitions in western galleries.

Argument that Xu Bing has created a third cultural space.