Gong Yan

GY: For me, a local Shanghainese, because from the 1930s to the 1980s Shanghai had a rather glorious cultural scene. However, people may feel that, over the past several decades, the cultural landmark position formerly belonging to Shanghai has been transferred to other cities. And now, Shanghai is more like a cultural pier where different kinds of arts and phenomena come and berth for a while, and are then transferred to other places via this port. Shanghai’s local original art does not exist anymore. Hence, I feel that both we new artists and arts educators have a common mission – we want to retrieve Shanghai’s former glory, or the very original artistic impulse that Shanghai’s once had.

Gu Wenda

GW: I feel the contributions of artists toward society is limited. I don’t like to exaggerate my responsibilities and contributions. Look at Marxism… he wrote about political and economic science, but nothing on the discipline of art. I feel the artist’s responsibilities are limited.

Huang Kui

HK: It is the type of responsibility for artists and intellectuals, but not always. Intellectuals should have their own knowledge systems.
Contemporary art is totally different from art of the past. You need to oppose something or experiment with something. You must disseminate your ideas. 90 percent of you do not belong to the system. That is why I say artists do not need to bear responsibilities. But actually it is exactly here that the real responsibility lies.

Huang Yuanqing

HY: I think we should. An artist should first of all be responsible to himself; this is most important. And then he should be responsible to society. I personally believe that an artist should be accountable to himself first.

Li Lei

LL: If you are an isolated person, you do not have any responsibility. If there are 2 people, then there is human relationship, and then there is responsibility.

Li Shan

LS: You know, before and after the cultural revolution, and at the beginning of the opening up of the country, there were art exhibitions, like the Exhibition of Chinese Modern Art in Beijing, which really gave us a burden so heavy it was beyond description. Our works were tarnished by such kind of responsibilities. When we were freed from such restraints, we created good artworks. An artist’s responsibility is not towards other human beings, but towards the artwork itself. If you create good works, then you are already responsible to society.

Liu Jianhua

LJ: That is why I said just now, it’s interesting to be an artist because your art will remain here even after you no longer exist. Your art will at least be an image of the society of the time. This image determines your attitude, determines what your contribution to other people and to society could be. This is very meaningful. And this makes art different.

Lu Chunsheng

LC: Frankly I think art is not of much use to society… it’s hard to say. Even if there is any use, the influence is exerted perhaps in a slow and undetectable way. I almost feel art has no influence.

Qiu Deshu

QD: I don’t think about this question too much. As for me, art is just something for myself, something to purify my soul. I need it. I can’t live without it.

Shen Fan

SF: I’m just a small potato and I don’t want to shoulder any responsibility. This responsibility has nothing to do with me.
SF: Facing the public makes you feel responsibility, that’s problem. But do you really face the public? You think you do, but actually you don’t. You think you are an artist, while in fact you are not facing a great population of public.

Song Haidong

SH: I started having a sense of responsibility as an artist only recently. Before this I never gave this any consideration. Originally I only wanted my work to be as good as possible, but now I feel that I need to focus on traditional Chinese art. I think there are fewer and fewer people doing this, and fewer and fewer people know about this. So I think if I work on traditional Chinese art now, learning and creating at the same time, then I would be continuing this part of culture through my art. I think this can be called a responsibility.

Song Tao

ST: Definitely. It depends on which aspect. I try my best to be responsible for the things around me – the city I live in, my own live, etc. I am interested in these things. And I love everything around me – the flowers, the leaves.
ST: To talk about how I feel, and put the feelings into my work.

Wang Nanming

WN: As an artist, I have been emphasizing that art is a form of social critique.
WN: The standard depends on how rational your choice is in the object you critique, whether your mode of expression is unique in any way, whether it is able to touch the audience or stimulate their thinking.

Wang Xingwei

WX: I did not think I had any responsibilities. I began with an interest in drawing. I did not know what sort of responsibilities I had and I never thought about it, except my responsibility to myself. I did not want to work under responsibilities. I wanted to do things out of personal interest only.

Xiang Liqing

XL: There are many aspects to this. Some people are extroverts. He must
influence the people around him, that is, he has an impact on society. Others are introverts. They simply focus on perfecting their understanding of the outside world.

Xu Longbao

XL: Absolutely, but every artist is different. In the past I admired greatly some artists, but as I grew up, I found that lots of them took drugs and go for prostitutes. From our perspective, these are not the “perfect” people.
XL: Sometimes an artist cannot be measured by only his works. If you measure him only with his art, then Qin Hui’s calligraphy was good and his name should have been included in art history. But you cannot leave his name there because he was a bad person. So my view is this: first of all you measure whether an artist has made contributions to society with his works, and then with his entire life, his personal contribution to society.

Xu Zhen

XZ: Since I haven’t thought about this, I don’t know the answer.
XZ: No, really no. I don’t know what is meant by sense of responsibility. And I haven’t thought of this question.
XZ: To be an artist is interesting, fun. If there does exist some responsibility, it is nothing but a by-product. So I haven’t thought about whether I have a sense of responsibility.

Yang Fudong

YF: As a child, I was taught to take responsibility for even the smallest deeds, so I cannot say for sure that artists have any contribution to society.
YF: I believe it is those young artists who have made the greatest effort. They play an important role in… Those who are most forceful and aggressive bear the most advancing ideas. These ten years’ achievement is all made by those artists in their young age.

Yang Zhenzhong

YZ: I don’t feel it. And I don’t dare. I am kind of afraid to shoulder this responsibility.

Yu Youhan

YY: Of course, I do. First, we shouldn’t guide the public towards vulgar tastes in art. There are lots of people in society now. Hmmm… of course we cannot say our tastes are really good either… that is where our responsibility is.

Zhang Peicheng

ZP: The quality of the people in China should also be improving continuously. But the Chinese’s ability to appreciate art is not too good. You can say perhaps that it is not as good as those of Europeans. So my job in the gallery is to narrow the gap.

Zhang Haitian

ZH: Well, it’s a rather big question. About eight to ten years ago, I felt I had responsibility. But gradually, my sense of responsibility weakened.

Zhu Julan

ZJ: In the past, there was actually no concept called “artist”, I mean in ancient times. Actually an artist primarily was an intellectural. His knowledge, including everything he did, reflected a high level of cultural accomplishment. He may write poetry, or paint paintings, or create calligraphies, or of other things, and influenced a lot of people around him. The culture of a certain age maybe is created by such people. Or we can say after generations and generations of these people created works, we are left with a very rich and grand tradition. Every artist actually has this responsibility.

Yang Hui

YH: I think the first policy is to feel responsible, absolutely. Only by feeling responsible to your society, to yourself, and to other people, can you be responsible to culture as well.

Zhou Tiehai

ZT: Sometimes I feel I am responsible. I should shoulder the responsibility. Sometimes I feel perhaps the opposite is right. You initially want to do some good deeds but they turn out to be the other way round. To me, it is contradictory. You want to take the responsibility but you may feel that you are wrong for you shouldn’t do that.