With all great nations, there are hidden events within their historic past. While governments can destroy evidence and censor information, the memories of the people are deeply embedded into their memories. Within the last fifty years, The People’s Republic of China has gone through dramatic changes that has transformed the country profoundly. Emerging as one of the world’s leading economy, the country has gone through rapid socio-economic reforms as began a re-evaluate their heritage in the 1990s to create new ideological shifts away from communism (Svensson and Maags 15). By illustrating a heritage shaped by China’s communist political system as pre-communist past, China promotes for culture based on a nationalistic discourse by the Chinese institution (Svensson and Maags 14). However, by reinterpreting and presenting a fabricated heritage, there are many, including Ai Weiwei, who acknowledge these actions by the Chinese government and condemns their hypocritical actions (Sorace 402). Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966 - 1976) was a decade of chaos and great heritage loss initiated by China’s founding father, Mao Zedong was heavily protected and censored by the government. Despite the government’s suppression of the event, it continues to be an defining part of China’s history. Ai Weiwei, a Chinese conceptual artist who’s famous for  advocating freedom of expression within China, provoke controversy in one of his works to shine a national spotlight onto this matter. Ai Weiwei’s “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn” (1995) shows the artist’s justified actions of destroying a cultural relic as the gesture is similar to the purge of cultural and traditional object during the Cultural Revolution under Mao’s communist institutions. In this essay, I am arguing how Ai’s photographic still frames expose the theme of heritage loss during the Cultural Revolution while uncovering the current Chinese government’s hypocrisies through the reclaims of their cultural heritage. I will make this argument by exploring Ai’s performance as well as analyzing academic articles and books that explain the tragedies of the Cultural Revolution and China’s current mission to rebuild their cultural heritage. 

The infamous “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995)” by Ai Weiwei is a performance captured in three photographic still frames. It shows the process of Ai dropping a cultural artifact from the Han Dynasty Urn in three scenes. Despite capturing a simple act, the work itself is surround by themes on destruction and censorship.  

 Ai Weiwei, who was personally affected by China’s Cultural Revolution, began to make art inspired by that period since the beginning of his career as an artist. After coming back from New York in 1993, Ai’s works began to reflect more on the heritage loss initiated by General Mao during his regime. With this in mind, Ai began to collect batches of Chinese antique urns in the 1990s (Aloi 42). Through these antiques, Ai began a series of “ancient ready-mades”, a term coined by Philip Tinari, that transformed traditional artisan pieces into surreal sculptures (Aloi 42). His identity as an iconoclastic artist began to develop within the art world after his reconceptualizing series of Chinese antique urns; an act that symbolized a destruction of China’s heritage. The artifact was created during the Han dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE), which was a defining period in Chinese history as porcelain ware was first discovered around that time. Ai began the creation of his work “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn” (1995) outside of his mother’s home in Beijing. He dropped two precious urn to the floor at his feet as his photographer did not capture the first dropping.

This destruction was captured in three black and white photos. The first photo, the urn is floating between Ai’s hands as if it had just been released from his hands. The second photo shows the urn floating near Ai’s feet with his hands in the air. In the final photo, Ai’s hands are still in the air while the urn finally dropped on the ground, shattering little pieces around Ai’s feet. The dropping, taken with a simple camera, shows the transfer of agency from human to object (and physical law) as weight and gravity pulls the urn down in each photo. The urn is shown to have a long neck that extends to a rounded base that’s covered in a dark hue filled with a lightly coloured inside. The urn looked to be 10 to 15 inches as it was big as Ai’s head. Standing in the middle of the frame with a blank expression on his face, the artist is captured dropping the urn on the ground. Ai wore a plain long sleeve shirt and loose long pants with black shoes as he stands legs naturally apart in front of the camera. Behind Ai is a brick wall with nothing surrounding him. Ai’s confident stance and expressionless gaze at the viewer shows his own lack of remorse in destroying the urn. This gaze allow the viewer to understand the artist’s dissociation between the artist and the urn’s cultural and historic value (Aloi 42). Ai weiwei gave a famous response to the public regarding the criticism surround the piece: “General Mao used to tell us that we can only build a new world if we destroy the old one.” This proclamation by the artist shows his intention for the viewer to reflect on the cultural and traditional purge during China’s Cultural Revolution. Under the Mao regime, the Cultural Revolution was said to be responsible for breaking heritage to promote the recreation of a new world; however, their aim was purely politically driven to mainly destroy Mao’s political enemies (Svensson and Maags 12). Ai, acknowledging this hypocritical act, claims the act of destroying a cultural artifact isn’t comparable to what the regime did. Not only that but China’s government carefully monitors access to information surrounding the cultural revolution as an act of censorship to the people. Both the current and past government rely on the suppression of information for control and Ai reminds his audience of freedom and right for information constantly in his works. 

The Cultural Revolution was initiated by the urge to “clear away the evil habits of the old society” (G.King 403) as the government led by Mao Zedong was determined to create a new government. This event begun in May 1966 as an attempt to destroy his enemies through the control of his party. The period lasted for 10 years and ended with a ruined economy and millions of deaths and starvation. Like many Chinese people during revolution, Ai Weiwei’s father, Ai Qing, was imprisoned and his family was exiled away. While leaving many of its citizens in a devastating state, Mao commanded his army to challenged and discredited historiographies, cultural manifestations, and heritage policies of previous political and economic elites around the nation (Svensson and Maags 17). Not only that but historic sites and cultural artifacts were transformed into backwards ideologies and completely rewritten through the regime’s ideological lens (18). The way the Cultural Revolution destroyed China’s traditional culture was unimaginable. To prevent further spread of tradition, Mao had specialist who practised and taught traditional forms of art and culture to be demoralized and broken down mentally (R.King 30). The revolution’s action had destroyed China’s traditional culture in an unimaginable way that’s uncomparable to most iconoclastic reformers of the early twentieth century (29). Mao’s intention in ridiculing tradition rather than respect it was successful. Their reign was further emphasised by replacing all old art with socialist images that promoted communist beliefs and Mao’s ideologies. By the early Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong became an iconic image that was permanently encrusted on the nation’s visual history (30). While Mao’s regime was officially declared to have ended in 1969, the regime’s true end was after Mao’s death in 1976.

These events, however tragic, are buried and carefully monitored by China as they denied these events as part of China’s history. With the impact of the market economy and globalization, the country has departed radically from the Mao Zedong era (Svensson and Maags 15). Within the last few decades, China has developed significantly that has pushed a international spotlight onto them. This incentivises the Chinese government, officially called the People’s Republic of China, to pridefully present their country’s long history and rich tradition; the same traditions and history that was condemned and removed from the nationalistic discourse (14). Beginning their own heritage discourse around the 1980s, China saw how cultural heritage can be catalyst the country into political legitimacy, boost local economic development and create economic assets through tourism (17).  By reconceptualizing the cultural heritage and selectivity in the choice of sites and practices to govern and control, the government controls the cultural heritage narrative. This control is gain by governing behaviours of organization and their citizens to alter society and maintain social order. Within China’s institutions, like their government, are identified with a social purpose to transcend individuals and intentions my mediaing certain rules to govern. China does so by controlling and managing traditions, cultural practices, religion, and to steer people’s memories, sense of place, and identities in certain wairs (20). For example, Ma Bufan’s residence in Zining, Qinghai was a Ma Bufang was a Sino-Muslim warlord and like many other heritage sites, the site was transformed from oblivion during the reform period. Characterized as a “negative example”, the site’s complex issues of ethnicity, religion, naton-making and political struggles has let the site to connect issues presented in contemporary society (26). It must be noted that there are still censorship that hides parts of history from the public. By curating what can and can not be seen, the government develop and function in a patterns that’s beyond conscious intentions to the individuals involved. However, there are citizens in China that are resisting against China’s heritage plans by maintaining vernacular heritage narratives and practices outside of the official discourse (Svensson and Maags 22). These injustices also created a lot of controversy within the larger Chinese community and has gained international recognition. Ai weiwei, an avid supporter for China’s democratic freedom has spoken up and challenges the Chinese government. Besides “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995)”, Ai has created works like “Study of Perspective Tiananmen Square (19950” and Ton of Tea (2008) that also critiques China’s censorship and heritage loss. Quoted by Ai Weiwei “History is always the missing part of the puzzle in everything we do. I think we are coming from a long history and especially today, at the time of information age. … For the first time, we have an opportunity to know so much more and to understand mankind better, and what we have been through in the past.” In this quote, Ai acknowledge the Chinese government’s actions in censoring events like the Cultural Revolution and believes the public should seek out information to learn about those events. In a society that carefully monitors access to any information, Communist China With “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn” (1995), Ai sacrifices a part of China’s heritage to make the world notice China’s past and present. 

While scrutinized by the Chinese government, Ai uses social media as a platform to re-evaluate his ideas on democracy and freedom against China. He speaks openly about Chinese politics and the ideas behind his artwork. Since the beginning of his career as an artist, Ai’s work has always been openly critical of the Chinese Government’s stance on democracy and human rights. “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn” (1995) was the first recorded work Ai Weiwei gain international recognition. His provocative action on destroying a cultural relic reflect on the past hidden by China that’s still actively being censored today. By using gaining recognition, Ai gained a public platform to critique this censorship and hypocrisies as they reclaim their cultural heritage while exposing the heritage loss during the Cultural Revolution. 

Bibliography:  

“Ai Weiwei Overview and Analysis.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist-ai-weiwei.htm. 

Aloi, Daniel. “Ai Weiwei: Smashing Chinas Traditions in Art and Architecture.” World Literature Today, 1 July 2007.

King, Gary, et al. “How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression.” American Political Science Review, vol. 107, no. 02, 2013, pp. 326–343., doi:10.1017/s0003055413000014. 

King, Richard, et al. Art in Turmoil: the Chinese Cultural Revolution, 1966-76. UBC Press, 2010.

Steinfeld, Jemimah. “Art Attack: Ai Weiwei and Other Artists Have Increased the Popularity of Chinese Art, but Censorship Has Followed.” Index on Censorship, vol. 45, no. 3, 2016, pp. 12–16., doi:10.1177/0306422016670329.

Sorace, Christian. “Chinas Last Communist: Ai Weiwei.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 40, no. 2, 2014, pp. 396–419., doi:10.1086/674120. 

Svensson, Marina, and Christina Maags. “Mapping the Chinese Heritage Regime.” Chinese Cultural Heritage in the Making, 2007, pp. 11–38., doi:10.2307/j.ctt2204rz8.4. 

“Why Did Ai Weiwei Break This Million-Dollar Vase?” Public Delivery, Public Delivery, 20 Nov. 2018, publicdelivery.org/ai-weiwei-dropping-a-han-dynasty-urn/.