Although highly acclaimed in the international art world, contemporary artists such as Wang and Zhang have seldom been recognized or exhibited by mainstream museums in China before and apart from small private museums devoting space to contemporary works, there is almost no serious collection process for the genre, explained Shi Dawei, deputy director of China Artists Association.

According to Shi, one of the main reasons that contemporary art is shunned by galleries is that the offcials hold "unclear" attitudes toward the art due to the works' often ironic refl ections on politics and problems associated with a rapidly developing economy.

"Why would the government spend money on contemporary art if they don't even know its importance in Chinese art history?" Shi commented.

Another reason for contemporary art's absence in state-run museums is the organizational structure of such institutions, he said. Most museums are geared toward a set collecting process: antiques and traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy have been the main focuses of almost all large museums, with contemporary art usually marginalized.

However, Shi insisted that Chinese museums should pay more attention to contemporary work and not only focus on traditional Chinese or Western classics.

"It's urgent to establish a serious collecting system for contemporary art, or it will be too late," Shi said. "Public art museums should take contemporary art as one of their main focuses while collecting."

Burgeoning in the late 1970s, almost simultaneously with the reform and opening-up policy, Chinese contemporary art has been deeply influenced by the Western art world, both in terms of artistic creation and the market, Shi explained. However, the core value of Chinese contemporary art lies in its reflections on a post Cultural Revolution Chinese society as well as the problems brought by fast economic development, he added.

"Without a sound collection of Chinese contemporary art, we will lose a real and fresh documentary on Chinese transformation during the past several decades, which will be a huge loss to the Chinese people," commented Ma Fenghui, director of the newly founded Zhejiang Art Museum.

"Nowadays the Chinese government and individuals are trying all ways to enable cultural relics to 'return home' from overseas, but they are unaware that one day they might need even greater efforts to gather precious Chinese contemporary artworks spanning from the late 1970s to now," Ma said.