Author: norofino

Xu Xiaoyan is an eco-feminsit, who specializes in oil paintings of landscapes. These landscapes typically show the earth being destroyed or polluted by the urbanization of China. Through her eco-feminist lens, the goal of these paintings are to highlight how urbanization is damaging mother nature, which she believes is symbolic of feminity and female identity. In these paintings, the way in which she exemplifies how urbanization is harming the earth and also female identity is through her use of the female anatomy within the paintings and her use of color. 

The use of female anatomy within the picture allows the viewer to clearly see the connection between the earth and femininity thus highlighting how man made urbanization is destroying it. In her painting Body of the Earth, the focal point of the picture is “a conspicious vaginal shaped hole” (156). This hole is being invaded and destroyed by the debris left behind from construction. This symbolizes how man made structures and Chinese urbanization are encroaching and destroying the female identity within China, as well as harming the earth. The action of the hole being invaded and destroyed shows how urbanization is harming the environment as well as invading upon female progress and masking female identity.(try not to repeat what you have already expressed)

In another one of her paintings in the foreground there is a river that is heavily polluted and in the background there are skyscrapers. Again, the river is painted in a way to resemble the female anatomy. The fact that this river is polluted conveys the same message as the last painting, that female identity is being harmed, invaded, and suppressed through these man made structures, which the skyscrapers in the background represent. (make a connection between mother nature and female body. in so doing, there would be more comments that could be made)

Body of Earth

In these two paintings she also uses color to portray the destruction of the earth and female identity. In the painting Body of Earth, she contrast the colors in the foreground and background to highlight this. In the foreground, where the hole is being invaded and polluted, she uses very harsh, dark colors. These colors are dark reds and browns to symbolize blood and destruction of the earth and the female. She wants the viewers to see that the construction from urbanization is physically harming the earth and the female. While in the back, where the landscape is untouched, she uses softer colors like greens and yellows, that symbolize the nurturing qualities of the earth and femininity. She uses these soft colors to highlight the beauty and femininity of the untouched landscape. Through these soft colors she tries to convey a feeling of safety and attractiveness to this version of the earth and compel the viewer to try and preserve the earth and femininity rather than destroy it. 

In the second painting, she paints the foreground, which is the polluted river, in very dark  harsh colors again like browns and blues. She does this to highlight how bad the pollution is and how urbanization has stripped mother nature of its femine and nurturing qualities. In the background, which is the skyscraper, she paints the buildings and sky with light and dark grays. She uses these greys in order to devalue the skyscrapers and convey the gloomy and destructiveness that urbanization causes to the earth. She does not want to glorify this urbanization in any way so she chose to paint them in the greys to make urbanization seem negative. 

Throughout Xu Xiaoyan’s artworks she tries to convey to the viewer that the current state of Urbanization in China is harmful to mother nature and female identity. Being a eco-feminist causes her to view the enviroment and feminity as connected and symbolic of one another. Therefore, in her paintings she tries to represent that ideology artistically through creating pieces that have elements that resemble the female anatomy. After, she has visually established the connection between the environment and femininity in her painting, she then highlights the destruction of the two that urbanization is causing. She also uses the colors within the painting to highlight this pollution and destruction of the earth and femininity to drive home this message to the viewer. 

 At a time where villages in China are either being torn down or abandoned, the Dafen Art Village thrives. It has become one of China’s most successful and sustainable villages, inspiring many others to try and duplicate their success. It has also become a popular tourist attraction, generating a lot of money for the Chinese economy. The reason for its unique success is because of its unique form of urbanization and transformation of identity. The Dafen Village has used art as its medium to transform the villages identity in multiple ways and urbanize without physically destroying and reconstructing the village into skyscrapers.

Through new artworks, the village has transformed its former identity as a solely reduplicative artistic village to an original, creative art village. The village was once known for only reproducing famous artworks from artists like Picasso or Davinci (Dafen comes from the artist name Davinci). However, now its identity has transformed from being a village where you could only purchase recreated artwork to a village where you can get unique, beautiful and original artwork. This transformation is highlighted by the new art museum and artist residencies in the village. The museum has become a symbol of the villages new identity by featuring mostly local artists original work, with very few reduplications. The museum highlights this newly formed artistic identity of the village, through displaying the unique and talented artists work for tourists and locals to see Dafens contribution to the art world. Furthermore, this transition can be seen by the new artist residency the Village has created. Now, artists are being encouraged  to come live and study art in the village, whereas in the past they were only being encouraged to come reduplicate art. The village and Government officials have identified this newfound identity of the village and have embraced it in order urbanize the village and make it sustainable.

The Village has also transformed its identity from a local producer to a global producer of art work. This is highlighted through the villages Main Street, where the artworks are sold. All throughout the street there are many shops and artist selling thousands of pieces of art. In the past many local Chinese and Chinese business vendors would come to Dafen to buy these works. However, now thousands of tourists and businesses from various parts of the globe flock to Dafen to buy the artwork. They still sell reduplicated works, but the main focus now is on original artwork produced by the young local villagers. This gives the villagers and the village a new incentive to embrace art as a medium to expose their talent and identity worldwide. This generates a lot of money for the village and the Chinese government, thus making the village sustainable.

The village has also modernized its architecture and identity through art rather than construction. Various buildings throughout the village are covered in murals and artwork. They also are painted bright, modern colors and have sculptures outside or pieces of art hanging from them. These buildings are a physical symbol of the ideological shift in the villages identities. The artistic buildings are representative of the villages shift from a once reduplicative art village to an original, unique art village. They also are a representation of the shift from the local to global because now these buildings are being used to house international art students in the Dafen Village.

The Dafen Art village has used art as its medium to transform their identities and modernize without destruction. Dafen is a symbol of success to other villages and is one of the most sustainable villages in China. It is a symbol of how villages can use identity and other forms of urbanization besides skyscrapers to modernize and thrive. For Dafen the medium in which they used to urbanize and transformed their identity was art. 

Shanghai Club 

The Shanghai Club was originally built in 1861 by the British. This original design consists of a three storied neoclassical style building made of brick. It was torn down and rebuilt in 1910, by a British architect named BH Tarrand. This new design was a six story building, built in a neo-classical style with touches of English Renaissance and Baroque components. The building was also built was built by Chinese workers with Chinese material and consist of many foreign countries architectural designs and influences. (what does the (re)built from one to another indicate: we need to make an argument here)

The exterior features of the building consist of 6 Suzhou columns on the facade, 3 horizontal divisions by strong bands similar to columns, pedimented windows, carved floral swags, and two Indo-Sarecenic style turrets on the corners of the building. The buildings exterior features are a mixture of many different styles that originated in many different countries. There are the Indo-Sarenic turrets which represent India’s influence over British architecture and in turn architecture in Shanghai built by the British. There is also the Greek columns made out of Suzhou, which is a material only found in China representing Chinese influence on the architecture. There were also other Chinese materials used and many other elements of Italian, French, Dutch, and Indian design. The blend of these elements and styles into this one building is symbolic of the foreign influence on Shanghai during this time period and even today. (make the claim at the beginning of the paragraph and serve as leading idea. then explain how each architectural transition participates in the identity making of the bund)

The interior was designed by a Japenese architect named Shimoda Kikutaro, which in itself is another symbol of how Japenese concession of Shanghai, and later the Japenese occupation of Shanghai influenced Shanghai architecture and art. The interior consists of a grand hall, class ceilings held up by 17 foot high Ionic columns, news room, billiards rooms, 40 bedrooms, barber shops, multiple dining halls, marble floors, a library with more books than the Shanghai library at the time, and the most famous feature, the long bar. The long bar was at one point the world’s longest bar and within the bar itself there was a hierarchical structure. The end closer to the bund was reserved for the wealthiest and most elite men in the world, the farther away from that end one sat, the less wealthy and elite he was. The hierarchy inside the club is ironic because even within the most elite in the world there was a hierarchy. While the members inside of the club were experience a minor sense of hierarchy, outside the club the local Chinese were dealing with a huge amount of hierarchical bias and discrimination. In fact, no Chinese were allowed in the club unless they were servants and many of the Chinese were not even allowed in entire foreign concessions. (again highlight the issue of hierarchy at the beginning of the paragraph, then use architectural evidence to support the argument)

Throughout its history the building has been used for many different things. It functioned as the Shanghai Club until the Japenese occupation of Shanghai in World War II. At that time it is unknown what it was used for. Then, once the communist party took over in 1949, it was repurposed into an international seamen’s house for foreign sailors. After that, in 1971, it was turned into the Shanghai Dongfeng hotel but saw little success and was turned into China’s first KFC in 1990 (what does the transition speak for). Now, it is apart of the Hilton Hotel group and is called the Waldorf-Astoria, many of its historical elements, including the long bar have been brought back and renovated. The history of how the building itself has been used is also representative of the foreign influences of Shanghai over time, most noticeably, the KFC and the Waldorf-Astoria. The KFC is a direct result of foreign, in this case American influence, on Shanghai culture and buildings. This historic building, which was originally built by foreigners, was now being used for commercial profit by another foreign company. The KFC was very expensive and a big deal to many people in China and allowed the spread of certain elements of American/Western culture to spread within China.. Similarly, with the Waldorf-Astoria, the building is now owned by another foreign power and being used for profit and mostly by foreigners. Not many locals stay in this hotel or use its services. (reorganize these material and allow them to support your claim)

The architecture of the original building and the buildings history and purposes are symbolic of foreign influence on Shanghai. The architectural elements were a mixture of many foreign countries and this was representative of how many different foreign countries influenced not just the Shanghai club but (the treaty port culture in Shanghai in general) many other buildings architecture features in Shanghai. The different purposes of the building throughout time is symbolic of how foreign countries have used the building for its own personal or commercial gain while spreading its own influence in culture throughout Shanghai.