From Jean-Paul Sartre to Teresa Teng: Cantonese Contemporary Art in the 1980s

Interviews with leading Cantonese artists and their memories of a developing art scene in the 1980s.

“The 1980s was a seminal period in the history of contemporary art in China. However, the contribution and experimentalism of the art scene in South China, in particular, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, have generally been overlooked. Due to the proximity of Hong Kong, western ideas from translated books and articles, as well as popular culture in the form of TV shows and Canto pop, flooded over the border to Guangdong at the end of the Cultural Revolution. This influx of new ideas and popular culture sparked great excitement, debate and experimentation in the arts.

Based on primary research, rare film footage and personal interviews with key artists, this documentary bears witness not only to the reading fever that gripped the Chinese art world in the 1980s, but also highlights the experimentalism and verve of artists and critics in South China whose contributions to the development of contemporary art have been long lasting and fundamental.” Source: Arts Asia Archive [www.aaa.org.hk]

Interviewees include: Chen Shaoxiong, Chen Tong, Deng Jianjin, Feng Yuan, Hou Hanru, Huang Xiaopeng, Li Zhengtian, Lin Yilin, Shao Hong, Wang Du, Wang Huangsheng, Xu Tan, Yang Jiechang and Yang Xiaoyan.