The China Project

131 Three Decades: The Contemporary Chinese Collection WANG Jinsong Influenced by the first wave of avant-garde Chinese artists, as well as drawing upon his formal training as an ink painter at Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now the China Academy of Art) in Hangzhou, Wang Jinsong began painting in a cynical realist style in 1990. Initially taking photographs as a basis for his paintings, by the mid 1990s Wang had started working more actively with photography and video as media in themselves. His work is concerned with contemporary life in China and, in particular, the effects of social upheaval and the influence of cultural history on its population. Wang’s first major photographic work, ‘Standard Family’ 1996, examines the far-reaching implications of the One Child policy on contemporary Chinese society. The series consists of 200 photographs of single-child families, reflecting the official policy launched by China’s State Council in 1979 to control population growth. Although the policy was directed at urban families, it has resonated across China and throughout the world: while a resulting unbalanced ratio of men to women is now affecting the future formation of Chinese families, the policy has also been credited with moving vast numbers of people out of poverty, and aiding the country’s enormous economic growth over the past two decades. 1 To find his subjects, Wang sought pupils from a local school where a friend was teaching. Each child was sent a letter of invitation with an explanation of the project. Although he feared some resistance, the power of the single child within the family resulted in full participation. 2 Wang was interested in documenting a particular condition that will extend far into the future, with generations of children growing up without an extended family — no brothers or sisters, no aunts or uncles, no cousins. Wang’s use of a documentary style provides a pragmatic representation, rather than a prescribed or pessimistic reading, of a policy that the Chinese have described as the ‘no-other-solution-solution’. 3 Wang has stated that ‘The work raises questions for the audience to think about, but it doesn’t take a position one way or the other. The single-child family could be a good thing or a bad thing’. 4 Each of Wang’s photographs uses identical composition and, when the entire series is shown, its repetition and grid format provides a subtle sense of tension between the individual and the community. While there are external similarities, each family experiences the policy in their own way. Wang has said: In China there is a saying that repetition is power. That’s part of the work, but it’s not just about repetition. The portraits are similar but different, which allows the viewer to make comparisons. 5 Although based in documentary, the repetition in display of Wang Jinsong’s series locates it within a conceptual turn in Chinese photography from the mid 1990s. Such works are able to convey specific local conditions while simultaneously connecting with a visual language that reaches beyond China’s borders. endnotes 1 Malcolm Potts, ‘China’s one child policy’, British Medical Journal , issue 333, 19 August 2006, <http:// www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/333/7564/361 >, viewed 12 December 2008. 2 Karen Smith, ‘Wang Jinsong: Introduction’, in Representing the People [exhibition catalogue], CourtYard Gallery, Beijing/Chinese Art Centre, Manchester, 1999, p.133. 3 Smith, p.133. 4 Wang Jinsong, interviewed by Stephanie Smith, in Wu Hung and Christopher Phillips (eds), Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China , David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Chicago; International Center of Photography, New York; and Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, 2004, p.184. 5 Wang Jinsong, p.184. Untitled (No.6 from ‘Standard family’ series) 1996 Colour Cibachrome photograph, ed. of 5 / 50.8 x 61cm / Purchased 1998. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant Untitled (No.5 from ‘Standard family’ series) 1996 Colour Cibachrome photograph, ed. of 5 / 50.8 x 61cm / Purchased 1998. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant