Beyond the Future: Papers from the Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

'socialism' in the picture, everything else depicted has already been 'gone beyond', overtaken by today. Uncle PLA soldiers at that time were wearing a uniform very similar to that in the Soviet Union . Chairman Mao once said, 'The Soviet Union's today is China's tomorrow'. This virtual tomorrow, of course, has been 'gone beyond' by the real today, but in a much different way from what was anticipated by Mao. You'll see that the background of the picture is the skyline of the Chao Yang District in Beijing. These crown-like roofs we see were there for about 500 years. Now let's take a look at how they are today after only 40 years of Communist rule. Celebrating the Fortieth Anniversary of the Establishment of the Chao Yang District, 1 998, Beijing These ugly concrete boxes have 'gone beyond' the grand old buildings of yesteryear. During the past 40 years, the new Beij ing has pu lled down as much as 90% of the old Beij ing. In the Chao Yang D istrict, the figure is 1 00%. None of the crown-like roofs stand today. But the 'today' that is depicted in this picture does have some elements of 'the future'. For a start, the picture is 'virtual'. The artist has used the computer to change the positions of these large buildings in order to make them appear more crowded and more su ited to the concept of modernisation in Chinese dreams. The large bird in the picture is the phoenix which symbolises the future of China. According to Chinese myth, the phoenix burns itself to ashes every 500 years and is instantly reborn . In the same sense, Ch ina's future is continuously being burnt only to be reborn in an attempt to 'go beyond' itself. The history of posters in China is not any longer than that of rickshaws. In China, modern day commercial posters originated from Shanghai and were first printed on bamboo paper. The Suzhou Train Steam and Veh icle Company Travelling to Wusong, 1 876, Shanghai Wusong is the estuary of the Yangtze River, close to Shanghai . This was the first commercial railway in China and its major shareholder was a British company. In order to express the meaning of 'steam train' - a concept that had previously been unknown in China - the advertisement designer enumerated a list of nouns such as 'train', 'steam' 'vehicle' and 'company' to get the meaning across . You'll note, though, that the designer made a grammatical error - it should be the veh icle not the company that is headed for Wusong Station . China back then was in the midst of a difficult period of enrightenment on its road to modernisation . Countless new objects had to be given names that could only be based on China's social reality and the level of comprehension of the people at the time. For instance, the term 'monthly magazine' was at the time called 'biography of observations of common custom in a monthly bulletin'; 'parliament' was called 'government of representatives of intellectuals and senior citizens from all provinces coming together for discussion'. 'Condom' was called 'small jacket for avoidance of toxins and birth control'. This train is speed ing towards a modern China, or more precisely, the future China. Unfortunately, this future died prematurely after only one year. It was the railway itself, not the railway company, that was accused of committing the crime of 'endangering state security'. The criminal act it had committed was to make it more convenient for people to travel and to make possible the speedy circulation of commodities . These were considered extremely dangerous deeds in an agrarian society where men still wore plaits and women had bound feet. So the Chinese government demolished the tracks and in accordance with the ying-yang adage that 'water overcomes fire', they carried the engine of the train to the open seas for a water burial so that it would never come to life again. 29