An Artistic Exile: A Life of Feng Zikai

by Geremie R. Barmé

This engrossing book, a brilliant blend of biography and criticism, tells the story of Feng Zikai (1898-1975), one of the most gifted and important artists to emerge from the politically tumultuous decades of the 1920s and 1930s. Barmé provides a closely woven parallel history, that of the life of writer-artist Feng, who was also an essayist and a translator, and that of China's turbulent twentieth century. He investigates Feng Zikai's aesthetic vision, its development, and how it relates to traditional and contemporary Chinese cultural values and debates.

Although Feng was known for his so-called casual drawings, he was reluctant to classify his art. According to Barmé, much of his writing and painting was rooted in a philosophy of self-expression. Difficult to position in relation to existing Chinese political and social nomenclature, Feng remains, to a large extent, an enigma. He was sympathetic to the average person and the impoverished peasant, yet he was a romantic, and often identified with the increasingly politicized intelligentsia. A devout Buddhist, he was a close observer of nature and children, and while his art appeared gentle, it often carried a strong message.

Much has been written about Feng Zikai, a figure who has become popular among elite and mass audiences in the Chinese world once more, but no other work has examined his place among May Fourth writers and intellectuals nor his position within the context of China's artistic, religious, and literary tradition. An Artistic Exile moves straight to the heart of debates surrounding modernization, religion, science, the essence of a tradition in an age of colonial modernity, and the ethos of political and social thought in twentieth-century China.

Genres: Biography, History, Art

558 pages, Hardcover

First published November 3, 2002

About the author

Geremie R. Barmé is an historian, cultural critic, filmmaker, translator and web-journal editor who works on Chinese cultural and intellectual history from the early modern period (1600s) to the present. He is Founding Director of the Australian Centre on China in the World in the ANU College of Asia & the Pacific, The Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, where he also edits the online e-journal China Heritage Quarterly.

Reviews

[Zhi Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

"It is thus not surprising that Feng Zikai's work found a place in the culture of revival and nostalgia, and its appeal to readers was manifold. It provided a vision that was both urban and rural, realist yet utopian, one that was grounded in the traditions of brush and ink while emotionally engaged with the modern; at the same time it expressed a spirit of deep concern about the depredations of political zeal and commercial avarice. Feng's was a cultural realm in which the reader could feel comfortable in the past, while appreciating the relevance of his message for the present. In his observations on the hardships and vanity of life, the pleasures of children and family, the delights of poetry, and the art of finding beauty in all creation, people recognized an artistic candor that spoke to them with contemporary urgency."

"It is in the ineffable regions of the artist's personality that we find in Feng Zikai, as an individual and as a creative figure, a measure of sympathy, something that he called 'the sympathetic heart.' It was, he believed, the foundation for whatever immortality that art could achieve. This is what marks him off from the majority of his contemporaries. It explains why much of his work remains animated today, while that of so many of his peers is of little more than academic interest or curiosity value. For in Zikai's sympathetic heart there is a message about permanence and worth, a subdued warning about the threats of mindless progress and mass culture, as well as the pitfalls of heedless plenty. There is also an implicit interrogation: Can modern man survive the moral collapse of his culture?"

"If anything, the life and work of Feng Zikai, though emblematic of an art in exile, are also evidence of just such as 'success of sympathy.' In this respect, perhaps, Zikai is no longer appears to the mainstream culture of China and Taiwan as a fringe figure of marginal interest. Rather, many readers now find in his work a spirit that has outlasted the evanescent changes of politics and the uncertainties wrought by economic weal and bane. In his exile, the condition of all humanity, many have come to recognize their own state of being, and in his work some find solace and - as Feng would put it - a temporary escape from the suffering, anger, belligerence, and sorrows of the transient world. The artistic exile of Feng Zikai defined much of his life and activities. It is in the world of his art and writing, however, that a permanent road back to his realm can be found by any who choose to seek it out."

[Louloulou · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very unique book, both in terms of its style of writing and its content. Geremie Barmé advocates "New Sinology." A stereotype of "sinologist" is a know-all who can talk about politics, culture, religion, and economy of China without a serious in-depth engagement in any field or in any time period. While Barmé's book breaks through all disciplinary barriers and moves freely from literary study to art history, from historical discussion to political observation, it is not without insights and persuasive arguments. What is more, his study is not limited within the mainland in the lifetime of Feng Zikai, but covers Feng's life and his afterlife in the Sinophone world including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.

This dense book touches on the history of manga/manhua, Sino-Japanese cultural interaction, May Fourth literature, the revival of Buddhism, the transformation of literati painting, the development of modern art education, the relationship between poem and painting, and many other very interesting topics. Each part is impressively precise and helpful for scholars if they want to explore further in these topics.

Another thing I love about this book is its subject, Feng Zikai. He is such a charming figure who leaves tons of fascinating artworks and writings, it is almost inevitable for people to get too empathetic with him and develop a very romantic feeling of his life. Such is the charm of an exile/artist.