Chinese views on art laid bare as students’ nude drawing class offends Weibo users
- Teacher describes ‘unbelievable’ backlash after largely negative comments on photos of life drawing lesson at arts institute
- ‘Art is the behaviour of hooligans,’ one person says of lessons that the institute’s principal says were approved by the authorities
Photographs of a life drawing class in southwest China have prompted criticism on social media about the use of nude models.
Pang Maokun, the principal of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, was shown teaching students to draw a naked woman in a post last Saturday on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, which said: “Mr Pang teaches sketching by himself. He’s really excellent!”
The post, by Yi Shu Wu Yu – an account that posts about fine art and has 2.7 million followers – amassed more than 120,000 comments, largely negative.
“No matter how the West reveres nude painting, this is China. Can’t we learn something good?” one person wrote.
“Art is the behaviour of hooligans. Why can’t you paint something else? Why bother to draw people not wearing anything?” another said.
“Our college’s art department cancelled a body sketching class because of objections from some students’ parents and teachers from other departments,” another person commented.