ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to acknowledge the Zumberge Individual Research and Innovation Fund at the University of Southern California, which supported the field research of this project.
Notes
1 English translations of the Chinese names follow the local convention to list the surname first, unless an artist or the scholar prefers otherwise (hence, in the list of references CangXin appears, surname first, as Cang, Xin). The author has provided translations of the Chinese texts, unless otherwise indicated. The descriptions of my list of time-based objects are based on my analysis of archival documents, including images and artist statements, supplemented by my interviews with artists and other critical accounts.
2 Gu Dexin was included in the exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris: Magiciens de la Terre (1989), one of the earliest exhibitions to bring Chinese contemporary art to a Western audience. See Smith (Citation2005).
3 The exhibition, Asiana, was curated by the Paris-based Chinese expatriate Fei Dawei and organized by Milan-based Foundation Mudima as part of the Venice Biennale in 1995.
4 Polyphenylene was curated by Li Xiangting in Beijing.
5 The ‘waitress-escort’ is my coinage for a recently emerged Chinese professional identity, ‘sanpei xiaojei,’ literally, ‘triple-companion mistress,’ who would accept money to sing, dance, talk to and even date a client.