A Symposium on US-China Economic & Cultural Connections

In collaboration with Metropolis Now! A Selection of Chinese Contemporary Art, Meridian International Center presented a symposium featuring prominent members of the art and museum community in China and the United States. Panelists included Director Fan Di’an, Director of the National Art Museum of China, as well as key representatives from the US Department of State and other experts on US-Chinese relations.

Speakers addressed the ways in which urbanization and globalization have influenced the direction of Chinese contemporary art. In this remarkably varied, fluid, and creative cultural “landscape” ancient art forms and social practices are re-used in new contexts, industrial materials are adopted to tell traditional stories, and technology and new media influence artistic production. The Meridian exhibition is timed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of U.S. - China relations. This presentation, considered by Fan Di’an to be “the first time anything like this has traveled to America,” is in some respects a result of three decades of Chinese artists’ exposure to global influences and how these have been perceived and reinterpreted within their own cultural idiom.