The current situation of Songzhuang Painter's Village

The painters' residence in Songzhuang, Tongzhou District, Beijing, has been dubbed "China's East Village". It may be very close to where the avant-garde artists of the "American East Village" lived 20 years ago, but the Chinese painters have worked hard to create a different path to prosperity.

International Herald Tribune article

More than a decade ago, the "Painters of the Yuanmingyuan" embarked on a new way of life that had yet to be seen in China: exchanging their art for food without any dependence or security.

From a survival point of view, this kind of risky behavior is unique in the world. Because artists in the "American East Village," even if they are equally poor, receive some government funds and unemployment benefits. And the U.S. gallery system and non-governmental organizations provide opportunities for young artists who have yet to make a name for themselves.

Unfortunately, the "Painters of the Yuanmingyuan" never attracted the attention of Chinese sociologists as a sample of their survival during China's social transition, and their barbaric state continued into the Songzhuang Painters' Village ten years later. Facing the rapidly changing social background, the survival mode of most painters in Yuanmingyuan-Songzhuang seems to have lagged behind the times. In the suburbs, farther away from urban civilization, they are still living a life similar to that of "artists" a decade ago.

The dream has become a gap.

Songzhuang Township in Tongzhou is Beijing's largest and best-known painter's village community, home to some 400 artists. Modern artists are one of the most influential groups, with about one hundred artists constituting the main creative force of modern art in Songzhuang. Songzhuang is located six or seven kilometers east of Tongzhou District, sandwiched between two rivers. One is the Chaobai River and the other is the canal.

In 1994, the "Painters of the Yuanmingyuan" came to Songzhuang's Baoxiao Village. The remodeled peasant houses were transformed into internationally popular townhouses or country houses: tall duplex structures, bright sunshine, and the huge space and tranquility that city dwellers seem to luxuriate in; the courtyards were planted with flowers, trees, vegetables, and fruits, and the rooms were decorated with the painter's finished and unfinished artworks. Mighty German shepherds and cars of all makes and models constitute a living sample of the artists in the Painter's Village.

Fang Lijun,, Yue Minjun, and Yang, who live in Songzhuang, are now important figures in China's contemporary art community.

After the "Yuanmingyuan Painters' Village" was banned in October 1995, many "Yuanmingyuan painters" bought houses and land in Songzhuang. Compared with the successful painters, the vast majority of painters living in Songzhuang still lead a simple and imaginative life. Successful people come first, and there is no reason for those who also have ideals about art to give them up. That's why there are more and more painters here, because a painters' village not only provides them with an environment for artistic creation and exchange, but also attracts galleries and collectors, providing them with more opportunities.

But the conflict in Songzhuang Painter Village today is the gap between rich and poor. Talking about the current situation of Songzhuang Painter Village, a reporter from Sanlian Weekly said:All Chinese people have been forced to become businessmen. Does a society need so many businessmen? Is everyone capable of being a businessman? Obviously not. Most of the Song dynasty painters were poor merchants, some lost their capital, some lost their money. Their current idyllic life may have been forced upon them.

From Hostility to Prosperity

When the Songzhuang Painters' Village was first formed, painters in the village were treated much the same as in the Yuanmingyuan. Villagers were very hostile to these strange outsiders, which is inevitable in a structurally stable village society. Whenever the village had to build a road or install an electric meter, the painters knew that they had to pay several times more than ordinary villagers. In any case, it's much better than the Yuanmingyuan, because there is no pain of eviction or internment.

Things have changed a lot since 2000. The village consults highly respected painters for any major initiatives, and painters have gained a relatively equal footing here. This result has been contributed by the painters living here, and is a good effect of the ever-opening society. The ensuing problem was that new painters flocked to the city and prices continued to rise. However, not all painters can sell their work in time to sustain the increasingly heavy burden of living.

2005 will be the most important year in the history of Songzhuang Painter Village. Several large art centers will be built and used here, and some important art museums and galleries will stay in the village. The orderly marketization of painters in the village will give rise to works that better meet market standards and a new way of life. But art is different from ordinary commodities, and painters need money as well as freedom and independence.

Mr. Song, who is in his forties, is from Handan. He studied painting as a child and was a classmate of the painter Fang Lijun. He bought dozens of acres of real estate in an industrial development zone in Baoxiao, Songzhuang. After a few years of idleness, he saw the development of the Painter's Village and decided to build the land into an art center with a capacity of 30 studios, renting it at a low price to painters who didn't have their own studios. His proposal was soon recognized by the artists, and the 30 studios had an owner - the first person in Songzhuang who dared to take the crab.

Recently, artists in Songzhuang have been talking about the artists' residential area that the district government is investing in by the Sixth Ring Road. It is foreseeable that a bigger, more scientific and more reasonable art community will appear in Songzhuang again.

Fantasies of independent creation

Two books on the survival of Songzhuang painters have done well on the sales list of Sanlian Bookstore. They are "Black and White Songzhuang," which was interviewed and filmed by photographer Zhao in Songzhuang over a five-year period, and "Don't Be an Artist," which was dictated by Li Yong. Both illustrated books reach out to painters in Songzhuang who live in unsatisfactory conditions. They are poor, persistent, and always self-deprecating. The novelty of their lives offers readers the most extravagant way of life in this era: not hesitating to choose a dangerous lifestyle for fantasy.

Beginning with the "Painter's Village in the Yuanmingyuan", it exists as an anti-establishment. Subverting the norm, creating a new humanistic ecology, and going against the mainstream are the ****same labels of the members of this "Chinese East Village". While breaking free from the boundaries of the original art system, they have won for themselves a great deal of autonomy in artistic production and creation in an extreme form. This model is both a manifestation of the imperfections of China's social system and the immaturity of China's community building.

However, the dilemma of survival has led these "artistically alive" artists into another kind of loss of autonomy: going to the market, especially with Beijing outsiders as the main target of sales, does not guarantee the painters' original boast of independence and independent creation. On the other hand, the pressure of personal survival and the unattainability of self-expectation, as well as the disorganization and disorder of the natural village, made it impossible for the "Yuanmingyuan Painters' Village" to obtain enough symbolic capital in the art market for its legitimate survival, and the painters in the village were unable to use the power of the village to obtain the resources for their survival and success. Its lesson is to be a pioneer, so that the current "Chinese East Village" can legally exist and contribute to the creativity of a pluralistic society in a more healthy and orderly form.