BOOKS

Over Drawn: ​The Dilemmas Facing China’s Booming Online Comics

China’s wildly popular online comics struggle to reproduce the magic of the 1990s

GALLERY

Healing Strokes: A Gen Z Artist Explores Personal Pain and Historical Trauma

Sonia Jia explores trauma and the still-raw legacy of Japanese occupation on canvas

GALLERY

Sculpting Divinity: The Artist Creating Gods from Ancient Folklore

How a mural artist invents and builds deities inspired by the spiritual customs of Quanzhou

GALLERY

When Art Meets the Authenticity of Labor

How performance artist Li Liao, famous for his 45-day stint on Foxconn’s assembly lines in 2012, became a delivery driver to pay the bills

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE
LIFE

Temple of Pain: Three Chengdu Tattooists Reflect on the Pandemic in Ink

How tattoo artists stay creative amid economic pressures, and try to make sense of their pandemic experiences through ink

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE
GALLERY

Painting By Numbers: Is the Future of Chinese Art Computer Based?

How crypto-artist Reva combines her love of coding with artistic creativity

GALLERY

Written on the Walls: How Graffiti in China Went Mainstream

With artists enjoying lucrative commissions from governments and brands, and attracting millions of followers online, some are asking whether China’s graffiti art has forgotten its counter-cultural roots

GALLERY

Famous Chinese Artists Are Embracing NFTs. Can Crypto-Natives Catch Up?

In the Chinese NFT world, reputation and connections prove just as important as in the offline traditional art scene

ARTS

Coloring Outside the Digital Lines: Why Chinese NFT Artists Look Abroad

Regulations and low quality in the Chinese digital scene has led the brightest of the nation’s crypto-artists to pin their hopes on international markets

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE
GALLERY

Zhao Xiaoli Blurs the Line Between Online Influencer and Artist

With millions of followers, Zhao Xiaoli is China’s most popular artist on Douyin—so why do art critics not rate her work?