https://www.scmp.com/rss/330754/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Chinese R&B has gone mainstream, and what used to be a niche genre is now gaining a following in China and overseas. According to a recent report released by Tencent’s research institute – which mined data from streaming platforms QQ Music, KuGou Music and Kuwo Music – R&B is one of the fastest growing music genres in China, with 2021 recording a 4.5 per cent increase in number of releases over the previous year. The genre trailed behind rap and electronica, which saw 13.8 per cent and 11.8 per... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3178944/5-chinese-rb-albums-listen-right-now-kuns-mystery-explicit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3178944/5-chinese-rb-albums-listen-right-now-kuns-mystery-explicit?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 May 2022 09:15:08 +0000 The Writing Life (1989), by American author Annie Dillard, describes the day-to-day processes, challenges and routines of her work as a writer, a profession she characterises as mostly laborious and alienating. United States-born, Hong Kong-based contemporary artist Christopher K. Ho, who in 2021 took over as executive director of the Asia Art Archive, explains how it changed his life. I read the book in the fall of 1993, when I’d just graduated from high school. I remember writing to my high... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3177021/why-book-how-be-better-writer-changed-artists-life?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3177021/why-book-how-be-better-writer-changed-artists-life?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 May 2022 09:15:18 +0000 The themed central exhibition of the Venice Biennale has made history by featuring mostly female and gender nonconforming artists. Yet “The Milk of Dreams”, titled after a book by the Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, scores poorly when it comes to geographical diversity, with few works reflecting Asian perspectives. That and the absence of India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan in the national pavilion line-up means that Asian presence in Venice is relatively muted. Still, there are 18... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3176365/venice-biennale-2022-7-most-interesting-highlights-asian?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3176365/venice-biennale-2022-7-most-interesting-highlights-asian?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 May 2022 08:15:23 +0000 Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei makes his directorial operatic debut in Rome on Tuesday with a new reading of Giacomo Puccini’s final, unfinished opera, “Turandot”. And with a storyline seeping with bloodshed and despotism, a new geopolitical focus and Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv in the pit, the new production – originally meant to have premiered in 2020, but delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic – comes exactly on time. From the ominous opening five notes, the audience is plunged... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3171455/china-dissident-artist-ai-weiwei-makes-operatic-debut-turandot-rome?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3171455/china-dissident-artist-ai-weiwei-makes-operatic-debut-turandot-rome?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Mar 2022 14:39:12 +0000 Mini sculptures of dim sum, pancakes, and donuts that look real enough to eat? Pan Baoxin, an artist based in Guangzhou who also goes by “Long-long,” has made more than 500 of these. The details and work that goes into each bite-sized artwork are more than you think, as she explains in this video. https://www.scmp.com/culture/artist-makes-colorful-tiny-dim-sum-and-donuts-out-clay/article/3170804?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/artist-makes-colorful-tiny-dim-sum-and-donuts-out-clay/article/3170804?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Mar 2022 07:40:08 +0000 It had all the makings of a classic romance. He a handsome Bohemian artist and she a beautiful, glamorous actress. Both were nursing a broken heart. Both were eager for a new start. In 1958, Zao Wou-ki had flown to Hong Kong from Paris, where the Beijing-born artist had lived for a decade, after his first wife, Xie Jing-lan, left him for her lover, a fellow artist. Friends eager to distract him from his woes introduced him to a fellow divorcee, Chan May-kan, also known as May Choo and Chen... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3169924/zao-wou-ki-works-donated-m-museum-hong-kong-late-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3169924/zao-wou-ki-works-donated-m-museum-hong-kong-late-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Mar 2022 13:00:14 +0000 The final touches have just been put to Horizon, a newly opened workspace for artists in downtown Los Angeles, California. “It was the only thing we needed,” says May Xue of the 4,800 sq ft (450 square metre) space, which will host its first artist-in-residence in February. “We were looking everywhere for something like this, something with high ceilings and light, where artists could create. This is perfect for that.” Xue would know – the China-born chief executive director and co-founder of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3165372/chinese-women-los-angeles-create-contemporary-art-spaces?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3165372/chinese-women-los-angeles-create-contemporary-art-spaces?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 31 Jan 2022 23:45:11 +0000 Only by mainland China standards could a city of nearly eight million be considered small. But despite a tech explosion’s gentrification that has made Hangzhou one of the country’s most expensive cities, the Zhejiang provincial capital, surrounded by pristine mountains and spotted with tranquil parks, still manages to feel bucolic. Denizens have been lake gazing, tea drinking and art making since AD589, and the city rose to prominence 30 years later, when it became the terminus of the Grand... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3161367/investment-art-thats-helping-hangzhou-emerge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3161367/investment-art-thats-helping-hangzhou-emerge?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Jan 2022 02:15:13 +0000 One of China’s best-known contemporary artists said after touring the newly opened M+ museum it had reassured him there is “still hope” in Hong Kong and that he was ready to live and work in the city as soon as quarantine restrictions on travel are lifted. Zhang Xiaogang, 63, has painted some of the most recognisable works of the post-1989 generation of Chinese artists, and a large reproduction of his Bloodline – Big Family No. 17 (1998) is displayed prominently in one of the M+ lobbies. Zhang,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3158288/there-still-hope-here-hong-kong-zhang-xiaogang-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3158288/there-still-hope-here-hong-kong-zhang-xiaogang-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Dec 2021 05:12:03 +0000 Chinese Art Since 1970: The M+ Sigg Collection, edited by Pi Li, pub. Thames & Hudson The Sigg Collection is the centrepiece of Hong Kong’s M+ museum of visual culture. An invaluable resource, its artworks range from the grand masters of the Cultural Revolution, through the art stars of the 1990s, to a younger generation that has emerged post-2000. But it is also a critique of most mainland Chinese museums, which have only recently begun researching and acquiring works that should be regarded as... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3155950/new-thinking-about-chinese-contemporary-art?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3155950/new-thinking-about-chinese-contemporary-art?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Nov 2021 05:15:07 +0000 When the 26-year-old, Shanghai-based designer Zhou Rui was awarded the 2021 LVMH Karl Lagerfeld Special Jury Prize in September, it placed a global spotlight on the latest generation of Chinese designers. Zhou and Rui, her genderless fashion brand, represents the emerging force of a wealth of home-grown talent hailing from the world’s largest luxury consumer market. The Tsinghua and Parsons graduate interprets fashion as a second skin with her bold designs which have been sported by pop culture... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3155865/chinese-designers-are-worn-rihanna-and-blackpinks-lisa?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3155865/chinese-designers-are-worn-rihanna-and-blackpinks-lisa?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Nov 2021 09:18:11 +0000 Paper cutting, a Chinese folk art with over 1,000 years of history, meets contemporary design and techniques at a new exhibition in Hong Kong. Artspace K in Repulse Bay is showing 90 intricate creations by seven artists, including Hong Kong-based Li Yun-xia and Taiwan’s Lee Huan-chang, two world-famous paper cutters. “Through the works displayed in this exhibition, we hope that visitors can deepen their understanding and love for the art of paper cutting,” says Monica Lee Yu-han, general manager... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3152442/chinese-contemporary-paper-cut-artists-put-modern-spin?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3152442/chinese-contemporary-paper-cut-artists-put-modern-spin?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Oct 2021 08:15:09 +0000 Art & Trousers: Tradition and Modernity in Contemporary Asian Art by David Elliott, pub. ArtAsiaPacific Foundation Trousers. A simple word that somehow has a ring of blustering pomposity about it. The item of clothing is, for cultural historian David Elliott, a symbol of the spread of Western imperialism, which exculpates the acquisition of territories by insisting on the West’s superiority compared with places where men wore the sarong, the changpao, the hakama. Hence the whimsical title of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3150844/ai-weiwei-and-cai-guoqiang-trousers-xinjiang-3000?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3150844/ai-weiwei-and-cai-guoqiang-trousers-xinjiang-3000?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Oct 2021 08:45:23 +0000 Hong Kong illustrator Lam Ka-hang is known for creating posters of Hollywood blockbusters in a unique east-meets-west style reminiscent of Hong Kong cinema in the '70s and '80s. It’s his way of promoting this lost art form to a larger audience. We find out where he gets his inspiration from. https://www.scmp.com/travel/amazing-hand-drawn-marvel-posters-vintage-hong-kong-movie-style/article/3149921?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/travel/amazing-hand-drawn-marvel-posters-vintage-hong-kong-movie-style/article/3149921?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Sep 2021 04:10:52 +0000 Angela Su, a versatile artist best-known for her gothic, biomorphic drawings and research-based pseudo-documentaries, has been chosen as Hong Kong’s representative in next year’s Venice Biennale. The arts exhibition some call the Olympics of the art world comprises national pavilions where countries or regions present their choice of artists. Su’s selection was announced on June 16 by the Hong Kong Pavilion co-presenters the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) and M+ Museum. They also... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3137659/venice-biennale-2022-artist-angela-su-represent-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3137659/venice-biennale-2022-artist-angela-su-represent-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Jun 2021 08:44:35 +0000 Artists around the world have spent the past year in varying degrees of isolation, with plenty of time to reflect on disease, death and universal questions such as the relinquishing of control and personal data, and our relationship with nature. On top of all that, artists in Hong Kong also have to contend with a home that is undergoing transformation, and whose deep wounds from the street protests of 2019 have yet to heal. That much is evident in a number of art exhibitions in Hong... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3126099/three-contrasting-art-exhibitions-grapple-big-issues-facing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3126099/three-contrasting-art-exhibitions-grapple-big-issues-facing?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Mar 2021 04:15:17 +0000 Contemporary artist Liu Wei is known internationally for his provocative sculptural works, such as Indigestion II (2004), a two-metre-long mound of human excrement studded with half-digested toy soldiers. Or Love It! Bite It! (2005), a model of the Colosseum, Guggenheim Museum and other iconic buildings in the Western architectural canon, all painstakingly assembled out of edible dog chews. But he is far more than an artist merely out to shock. What is NFT art, and will it kill the traditional... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3124863/how-has-covid-19-influenced-liu-weis-artworks-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3124863/how-has-covid-19-influenced-liu-weis-artworks-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Mar 2021 04:00:14 +0000 Comic-book artist Pat Lee has a new exhibition in Hong Kong of sketches that he did for Marvel and DC Comics between 1997 and 2007, for titles such as Batman, Superman, The X-Men and Transformers. It is his first show in seven years and his kind of hand-drawn art, already rare in a comic book industry that’s increasingly digital, might no longer exist had he left it any longer. “Pages of Power” at Shout Art Hub & Gallery, a three-storey space in the Star Street precinct of Wan Chai on Hong... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3123314/marvel-and-dc-comics-artist-shows-hand-drawn-art-thats?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3123314/marvel-and-dc-comics-artist-shows-hand-drawn-art-thats?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Feb 2021 04:15:14 +0000 On October 6, 2020, Huang Xiaopeng died of a heart attack in a small, rented room in Berlin’s yet-to-be gentrified neighbourhood of Wedding. On the seventh day, as is Chinese tradition, friends of the 60-year-old artist returned to the room with offerings comprising a tray of fruit with incense sticks protruding from an orange, and a vase filled with white chrysanthemums, the flower of mourning. The rest of the objects on Huang’s desk were as he had left them. Besides a German calendar showing... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3122962/chinese-artist-huang-xiaopeng-always-rebel-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3122962/chinese-artist-huang-xiaopeng-always-rebel-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Feb 2021 06:15:09 +0000 Che Xuanqiao isn’t like other multi-millionaire heiresses. At least that’s what she’d have you believe. Sitting in a coffee shop sporting a simple t-shirt, her clothes and make-up free appearance belie her position as one of China’s rich millennials. And one who is shaking up the Chinese art market. China now boasts as many young collectors as it does young artists. With money to burn, these wealthy second-generation young adults like Che are turning their purchases into exhibitions, joining a... https://www.scmp.com/arts/furniture-heiress-becoming-champion-chinese-art-scene/article/3119614?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/arts/furniture-heiress-becoming-champion-chinese-art-scene/article/3119614?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 Jan 2021 10:06:05 +0000 Shanghai-based photographer Lo Cheuk-lun has a knack for seeing the absurd in everyday objects. Most of his clients are luxury brands, but his work straddles the line between commercial and fine art. They show the photographer’s uncanny ability to bring inanimate objects to life—even something as mundane as shampooed hair. Lo started as a magazine photographer at the Hong Kong publication City Magazine in the early 2000s. But when his company noticed the mainland Chinese market taking off,... https://www.scmp.com/culture/lo-cheuk-lun-chinese-commercial-photographer/article/3040830?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/lo-cheuk-lun-chinese-commercial-photographer/article/3040830?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Dec 2019 13:29:46 +0000 Hong Kong artist Daniel Lau has chosen an unconventional canvas for an old Chinese art. Crouching on rocks by the sea, Lau, a classically trained calligrapher, moves his brush along a white banner he’s placed on the ground. He lets the rocks distort his strokes, and allows the ink to drip, splatter, and spill. “It’s like I’m blending my surroundings into my calligraphy,” Lau says. “I want my calligraphy to melt into nature.” Calligraphy has always been an essential part of Chinese culture, and... https://www.scmp.com/culture/chinese-calligraphy-giant-brush-nature/article/3011105?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/chinese-calligraphy-giant-brush-nature/article/3011105?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 May 2019 07:05:58 +0000 By her account, Chinese-born photographer Pixy Liao was a feminist before she even knew what the word was. As a child in Shanghai in the late 1990s, when China was still opening up to the world, Liao would buy CDs from the black market. Her favorite artists: Sinéad O'Connor and Björk. “They helped shape my expectations of who I wanted to be as a woman.” Pixy Liao “I found I was only attracted to these female singers,” Liao says. “They helped shape my expectations of who I wanted to be as a... https://www.scmp.com/culture/pixy-liao/article/3000967?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/pixy-liao/article/3000967?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Feb 2019 12:27:21 +0000