Surveying the last forty years since the end of China’s Cultural Revolution, this book redefines contemporary Chinese art by placing it in the context of unprecedented cultural, political and urban transformation.

Writer and curator Jiang Jiehong takes a thematic approach, examining how artists have responded to concepts of the collective, tradition, urbanization and development outside the constraints of contemporary China and beyond the conventional art space. Artworks by important, internationally recognized artists and emerging practitioners are represented through curatorial discussions, as well as images of original installation views and historical art events. Illustrated in full-colour throughout, this concise and far-reaching survey offers new insights into the relationship of contemporary Chinese art to the past and the present.