Bo ZHENG

Bo ZHENG

Dr. Zheng is a leading expert on Chinese socially engaged art. He teaches at School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. See his full profile: http://www.scm.cityu.edu.hk/profile/BOZHENG

Activity

  • Hi Andrea, we have a PhD program. You can find more information here: http://www.scm.cityu.edu.hk/postgraduate/research_degrees.

  • Dear Pavla, I have enjoyed reading all of your comments. They are thoughtful and personal. Thank you so much!

  • Not to my knowledge. I will mention it to Prof Chen.

  • Thank you Anabela! We will make another course, but it will take some time :)

  • I just visited the website. Thank you very much for sharing it!

  • Hi Ardis, great to know. Wish you a wonderful retreat.

  • Good point! I will send your comment to Wang Haichuan and ask him to share with residents in Tongyuanju.

  • Yes documentary films like "Hooligan Sparrow" are more revealing on more contentious issues. But these films tend to be available only to audience outside China. The s.e.a. projects we discuss in this course are created in China, and exhibited in China.

  • Which documentary was it? Yes, I feel the same.

  • Reference to feudal overlords, yes, very good point!

  • Thank you for sharing this Prema. I'll look into this.

  • Thank you for your comment Diana. I'll write more in this week's email.

  • Thank you Kevin! Have a great trip. The course will be open until March 19.

  • Thank you for sharing this. It's good to know that the discussion went beyond the theatre to parliament.

  • Thank you for describing this experience!

  • Any specific performance you can recall?

  • I just saw the images. Thank you. Do you know if there is any video footage of this event online?

  • Thank you for sharing this!

  • Good question. I have not analyzed the causes in this lecture. Will look into relevant research on this.

  • Your last point is important - whether it's manipulation or not.

  • Yes!

  • Good questions. Zhao Chuan (leader of Grass Stage) did a lot of research to develop the play, so I would say it presents his perspective, which was informed by research, factory visits, and interviews and workshops with workers. Who they are educating? Themselves, and the audience (middle-class, students, and workers).

  • This is my first MOOC. Of course it'll be good if the course can reach more people, but I'm very happy with the level of discussion, and that people are sharing resources. I'm learning a lot too. Thank you!

  • Good point! Pedagogical art activities were common, for example, in the woodcut movement (see Tang Xiaobing's book, "Origins of the Chinese Avant-Garde: The Modern Woodcut Movement")

  • Thank you Thea! I met two members of the British group in Shenzhen in late 2014. It's great to know that they did make a production!

  • Hi Kevin, yes, the play was created by a theatre group (whose members belong to the middle class) "for" migrant workers -- but also for themselves (members of the theatre collective) and for the middle class in general, because the middle class needs to be "taught" about this history and reality (which is highly invisible in China today). Section 3.6 shows a...

  • Hi Christopher, I just visited Cardboard Citizens' website. Very inspiring work! I think you will enjoy 3.6, which shows a workshop Grass Stage did with a group of workers in Shenzhen. Do share your experiences and comments. Great to know that you are taking this course.

  • Thank you Anabela for sharing the articles.

  • The main obstacle for LGBT community in China is "family value" - that we are all supposed to get married and have children. To have children is considered a a "filial piety."

  • Thank you for sharing this!

  • Thank you for the feedback Tina. We'll try to make the translation easier to follow when we revise the video later this year. He did talk very fast even in Chinese ...

  • Hi Diana, you can reload seachina.net and see if that solves the problem. The videos are hosted on vimeo, so it depends on the speed of access to vimeo in your country. If the problem persists, email Sarah (sarah.huang@cityu.edu.hk), and she can advise you what to do.

  • Thank you Ilaria for the link!!

  • Do continue to share your views. Many comments in week 1 are very insightful.

  • Hi Larisa, I completely agree - changing our attitude towards nature is very fundamental. My view is that both large-scale projects aiming for media impact and small-scale projects aiming for local change are important. In Week 6, we will look at more local projects.

  • I encourage you to read other learners' comments. Many observations are very insightful. It really demonstrates collective wisdom.

  • Her intention is to draw media attention to the impact of the highways: including garbage problem along the highways, and their roles in "development."

  • Thank you Andrea!

  • Good question. I will ask Wang Jiuliang. But I suspect that he may not know either. You raise a very good point on thinking through the impact of socially engaged art. I have to say, studies of socially engaged art is still very under-developed. In most cases, no one follows a project for a long time to study its impact. Many of us are aware of this problem,...

  • Thank you Meiqin!

  • We have not been able to translate the entire interview into English; only the excerpt. We will try to translate full interviews into English at a later stage.

  • No, because Chinese government in principle encourages environmental protection.

  • It's good to see a debate about the value of art here. The rise of socially engaged art really pushes all of us to (re)think the relationship between art and capital.

  • It's really great to see a discussion going on here!

  • Thank you for making very insightful observations. What is your view on the questions you posed in the last paragraph?

  • You can also visit the archive seachina.net to see many pictures of this project.

  • Yes, Xiong Wenyun received support from some officials, both central and local. It was critical to the success of this project. Later we will encounter projects that didn't receive state support.

  • Very good point. What is your view on this? How should we credit artists, collaborators, participants, etc.?