Embodied Narratives: Body Politics in Contemporary Chinese Artistic Discourse

This dissertation examines the visual construction, politicization, and transformation of the body in Chinese contemporary art from the Cultural Revolution to the present. Using a Foucauldian genealogical approach combined with theories of embodiment and art theory, it explores how representations of the body reflect shifting regimes of power within China's evolving social landscape. The dissertation is organized into two main parts. The body here does not appear as a static subject; instead, it emerges as a dynamic site continually shaped by state control and sensory experience. In the first part, the study traces the evolution of bodily representation across distinct historical stages. It begins with the figure of the "Socialist New Man" during the Maoist era, demonstrating how bodily images enforced ideological discipline and collective identity. In the 1980s, as state cultural controls relaxed, artists began to treat the body as a medium of individual expression and sensory exploration, signaling a shift from political instrumentality to sites of new subjectivities. The 1990s witnessed performance artists pushing the body to its physical and psychological limits. Using pain, these artists challenged institutional violence and articulated dissent transcending spoken language. From the 2000s onward, artists have reimagined the body in digital and virtual forms, negotiating identity within state-regulated, algorithmic environments. This section demonstrates how visual art in China has continually redefined the body in terms of shifting structures of power and perception. The second part focuses on two recurring figures within contemporary Chinese art. The first is the mutable image of Mao Zedong. Contemporary artists destabilize this political icon through repetition, parody, and ironic citation. By fragmenting and recontextualizing Mao's likeness, these artists reveal the mechanisms of visual authority, historical memory, and ideological control surrounding his figure. The second is the representation of the woman's body, which emerges as a contested arena for negotiating the tension between objectification and agency. Through experimental media, performance, and self-representation, women artists confront the legacy of the male gaze and assert new forms of bodily autonomy and subjectivity. This analysis examines how gender, nationalism, and visual control intersect in contemporary Chinese art, revealing how artists mobilize the body as both a material and symbolic resource for challenging dominant narratives, renegotiating identity, and exposing the structures of power embedded in everyday life.