The late twentieth century has been marked by momentous political, economic, and social change throughout the Chinese world. Deeply rooted cultural assumptions and ancient visual traditions have been challenged by rapid modernization and conflicting global, ethnic, and local identities. Inside/Out: New Chinese Art was the first major international exhibition to explore the impact of these challenges on artists in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and those of the 1980s Diaspora. The multifaceted exhibition and accompanying catalog encompass an extensive range of artistic forms, including installation, video, and performance art as well as more traditional media such as oils and ink. The art is grouped according to themes, some specific to regions and others that reflect widespread and overlapping trends. With the inclusion of ambiguous territories like Hong Kong and Taiwan, the exhibition opens up a perspective of modern Chinese art from the "outside" as well as a looking-out from the "inside." The catalog features essays by eminent Chinese art scholars and curators along with leading curators and historians of Western art. Together they promote Chinese art's rightful place in the contemporary global cultural arena and at the same time acknowledge the influence of its rich heritage. The diversity and freshness of the exhibition reflects the explosion of creativity among Chinese artists during the past decade. The ironic social commentary of Li Shan's The Rouge Series, no. 24, the "apartment art" of artists reacting against the traditional patronage of large museums and corporations, and Wang Jin's sly humor in portraying consumer fetishes in today's China are a few examples of the spirited artistry awaiting the viewers of Inside/Out . Inside Out is the catalog for a groundbreaking exhibition organized by the Asia Society in New York, with venues also in San Francisco, Seattle, and Monterrey, Mexico. It discusses the first major presentation in the West of contemporary Chinese art and is the most important critique of the field to date. As they pursue their personal visions, Chinese artists tread between two extremes: embracing or rejecting their classical tradition. It is not easy for a Chinese artist to break away from such a rich treasury. For example, many works in the show deal with the written word--that most valued of China's art forms, with its dual connotations of calligraphic beauty and obsessive ritualistic copying. Song Dong writes on a flat stone with water that quickly evaporates; Xu Bing invents witty, new, but meaningless characters. Understanding a work may require acquaintance with the classics: a suspended boat impaled with arrows harks back to a third-century general who sent straw-filled boats down-river to attract hostile fire, retrieved the boats, and collected his enemies' arrows to use against them. There is an implicit anti-West message here. Other works, including installation, video, and performance art, have universal connotations that owe nothing to Chinese conventions. Contemporary Chinese art has been around for less than 20 years, but the freshness and variety of the work described in this book indicate that an original new force has joined the global art community. --John Stevenson This exhibition catalog is the most important contribution to the documentation and introduction of contemporary Chinese art since the publication of China Avant-garde (Oxford Univ., 1993). Organized by the Asia Society and the San Francisco Museum of Art, the exhibition is the first international show of its kind, encompassing contemporary art produced not only from mainland China but also from the "outside" regions such as Taiwan and Hong Kong and by artists in the United States and Europe. Covering the period from 1984 to 1998, it features the works of 60 artists in various media including installation, video, performance art, oils, and ink. The daunting images challenge the Western audience's perception about Chinese art. Essays by eminent Chinese art scholars and curators explore in depth two dominant themes of the exhibition?modernity and identity?relating them to the context of momentous political, economic, and social change throughout the Chinese world. This book enriches the viewer's understanding of Chinese contemporary art on both visual and conceptual levels. Recommended as an important addition to any art collection in academic and public libraries.?Lucia S. Chen, New York P.L. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. Gao Minglu is curator of the exhibition Inside/Out: New Chinese Art and a doctoral candidate in Art History at Harvard University. He is writing his dissertation on contemporary Chinese art.