Hard rock and soft power in New York
China's contemporary music and art scene gets a US showcase - but Hong Kong also has a big role as Beijing looks to build cultural influence
When Josh Case saw mainland band Second Hand Rose rocking the stage of the Modern Sky Festival in New York's Central Park, with their blend of fierce guitar riffs and traditional Chinese musical instruments, it dawned on him that rock music existed in a form beyond his knowledge.
"I knew nothing about Chinese rock before this. This is very cool," the 26-year-old audio-visual technician said.
The festival this month was the first Chinese-organised music festival to present Chinese rock 'n' roll alongside Western musical acts in North America.
Indeed, between the concert and a series of Chinese works at the Guggenheim Museum, Chinese culture appears to be having a moment in New York.
Concert promoters, artists and curators said China was a culturally diverse country, its people citizens of the world, and their contemporary culture needed to be presented in a global context.
They also said Hong Kong had a special role to play, the international city serving as a hub from which to export contemporary Chinese culture abroad.
The Hong Kong-based Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation launched its US$10 million programme, the Chinese Art Initiative, at the Guggenheim Museum last year. The first of three commissions, , opens today.
Exhibition curator Dr Thomas Berghuis said Wang's work spanned four decades of Chinese avant-garde art.
On Hong Kong's role, foundation chief executive Ted Lipman said the city "has a history for being a commercial entrepot, but now increasingly, a cultural" one.
Lipman said the foundation's latest effort was meant to showcase contemporary artists from the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau on a "global platform" and allow them "to create pieces unfettered by commercial constraints".
Contemporary art, he said, "gives us an insight into creativity and expression in a country which is more the subject of economic and geopolitical discussion."
Three solo and group exhibitions are scheduled for 2017 and the works will enter Guggenheim's permanent collection.
Alexandra Munroe, the museum's senior curator of Asian art, said the Guggenheim was interested "not in the nation of China, but the idea of China". She said the world needed to understand the diversity of Chinese contemporary culture, and that the global language of contemporary art would help expand people's awareness.
Cultivating soft power, such as cultural exports, is a key objective for Beijing, which included promotion of cultural industries in its 12th five-year plan from 2011 to 2015.
But the more than 300 Confucius Institutes worldwide, which teach Chinese philosophy and culture from thousands of years ago, do not tend to engage huge audiences - especially compared with Korean pop star Psy and his global hit .
Second Hand Rose's frontman Liang Long said China would stand a better chance of reaching a mass audience by exporting contemporary culture.
He said America and Europe spent decades putting money and effort into boosting education and culture, while China looked only at the money generated from art auctions.
"In money terms, China wins. But culturally, it is not recognised," Liang said.
Last week, Liang's band opened an exhibition in Beijing's 798 Art Zone on the history of Chinese rock 'n' roll music. The show will travel to Hong Kong in March, when the cultural world congregates in the city for Art Basel, the Hong Kong Arts Festival and the Hong Kong International Film Festival.
Beijing-based Modern Sky founder Shen Lihui said while he hoped to bring the festival back to New York next year, he was also looking into staging it in Hong Kong next year or the year after. "Hong Kong is a very international city, and staging shows there will help bring our music to the rest of Asia and the world."
