Three New Works on Modern Chinese Art and Visual Culture

Artistic endeavors in the People's Republic of China (PRC) are approached via innovative perspectives and methods by the authors of three recent studies that examine diverse examples of visual culture during the PRC era. These studies shift critical attention to reveal the formative processes of ideas—such as socialist realism, national-style cinema, or secrecy—that have been previously taken for granted, treat them as discourses, and disclose contestations, interconnections, and multidirectional movements across boundaries.

This essay discusses the following works. Daisy Yan Du. Animated Encounters: Transnational Movements of Chinese Animation, 1940s–1970s. Asia Pop! Series. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2019. 259 pp. $90.00 (cloth), $30.00 (paper). | Margaret Hillenbrand. Negative Exposures: Knowing What Not to Know in Contemporary China. Sinotheory Series. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2020. 292 pp. $104.95 (cloth), $27.95 (paper). | Christine I. Ho. Drawing from Life: Sketching and Socialist Realism in the People's Republic of China. Oakland: University of California Press, 2020. 308 pp. $70.00 (cloth).