This book is an interrogation of Chinese contemporary art and the
particular concept of 'Chinese modernity', in terms of the legacy from
the Communist era and China's social fabric. It is firmly rooted in both
Chinese and western historical and cultural theories and from the
viewpoint of a Chinese from the diaspora. It is premised on an
interrogation of the validity of imposing a western modernity on the
Chinese context. The principle has been to reconstitute the idea of the
Orient, in this case China, as a significant Other, not at the periphery
of Western culture but with equal stature in terms of hegemony, history
and heritage. The outcome would be to establish a platform for the
awareness and identification of a more complex causal framework
influencing global discourses that can be applied to deepening our
understanding of Chinese Contemporary art.