Like most Chinese people born in the 1980's, the artists are usually only children in their families. Typically this generation has been spoiled by their parents and relatives and has never had to experience economic hardship or political change. The generation is often labeled as "self-centered" but most of the artists said it was simply self-confidence.
Despite being considered as the lucky generation, the absence of siblings, huge family pressure and bombardment by a commercialized outside world, has exacerbated the feeling of isolation and loneliness for many 80s young adults once they left their "ivory towers," according to the artists.
"Hey! We're 80s" is a broad collection including a work with fish swimming in the sky and girls huddling in an aquarium, as well as toys and dolls from the 80s, blurred by the lapse of time.
Young artist Li Donghan, born in 1987 in the city of Yingkou in Liaoning Province, is among the young artists who focus on people's inward world.
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Li Donghan's "Play with My Ego" [Global Times]
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His series "Play with My Ego" is a personal interpretation of his generation. A building and two images of the artist himself are featured in one piece with one persona much larger than the other. The bigger image on the roof of the building is more melancholy that the smaller image which is being manipulated by the larger image like a puppet on a string.
"We are so lonely and sometimes we have to play with ourselves," Li said. "So in my work, the expression on the bigger image's face always looks sad."
The fact that many artists born in the 1980s grew up as the center of attention and without brothers and sisters is one of the reasons why much of their work focuses on their inner minds, according to Feng Boyi, a well-known Chinese art critic. He believes that the young artists turn to their inward world because deep in their hearts they need to express themselves and are eager to be understood by their peers.
"One of the most salient features of the young artists' work is that they are very sensitive to every change around them, at the same time they are kind of self-loved," Feng said.
Such a perspective is close to the true nature of art, he added.
(Global Times August 17, 2009)
