Han Bing: Walking the Cabbage
Esteemed reader Tanya Vrodova says, “I love cabbage. I will do anything to spread the word about how awesome cabbage is.” To that end, she just introduced me to Chinese multidisciplinary artist Han Bing and his mischievous Walking the Cabbage (2000-2007) series.
Walking the Cabbage in the Subway Beijing, 2004 © Han Bing
Born in 1974 in an poverty-stricken village, Han Bing spent his childhood helping his parents farm the land and was the only student in his class afforded the chance to attend university. There he studied oil painting before moving on to less conventional mediums. His post-university work has focused on creating spontaneous, open-ended discourse that includes members of society who are often excluded or dismissed. He, like many other young Chinese artist, seems compelled to confront the dubious side effects of his nation’s obsession with urbanizing and modernizing at whatever cost.
From Bing’s website:
Walking the Cabbage (2000-2007) series of social intervention performance, video and photography works, Han Bing walks a Chinese cabbage on a leash in public places, inverting an ordinary practice to provoke debate and critical thinking. Walking the Cabbage is a playful twist on a serious subject—the way our everyday practices serve to constitute “normalcy” and our identities are often constituted by the act of claiming objects as our possessions. A quintessentially Chinese symbol of sustenance and comfort for poor Chinese turned upside down, Han Bing’s cabbage on a leash offers a visual interrogation of contemporary social values.
The Cabbage Walking Tribe in Harajuku I, Tokyo, Japan 2006 © Han Bing
If a full stock of cabbage for the winter was once a symbol of material well-being in China, nowadays the nouveau riche have cast aside modest (monotonous) winters of cabbage in favor of ostentatious gluttony in fancy restaurants where waste signifies status. They flaunt “name brand” pooches, demonstrating how they no longer rely on the lowly cabbage, and can not only fatten themselves to obesity, but also pamper a pedigreed pet. Yet, for the poor and struggling, the realities of cabbage as a subsistence bottom line have not changed—what’s changed is the value structure that dictates what—and who—is valuable or worthless in Chinese society…
Me and My Cabbage at Suma Bay, Jiangsu 2005 © Han Bing
Bing has taken his cabbage on a leash to the far corners of the globe, from the Great Wall to the Mississippi River; from Miami Beach to the Champs Elysees; from Harajuku to Haight-Ashbury; from Tiananmen to Times Square. Walking through settings as varied as beaches, rural villages and the financial hubs of cosmopolitan cities, his “social intervention performance art practice” raised eyebrows among day laborers and the bourgeoisie alike.
Walking the Cabbage on the Old City Walls, Dali Old Town 2006 © Han Bing
Bing has created several more similarly interventionist art pieces that seek to turn public assumptions on their ears, as well as to bring the lives of marginalized people into the foreground. His “Urban Amber” project consists of a series of dreamy photographs of Beijing’s fairy tale high-rises reflected in the toxic waste and garbage- clogged waters that flow through shanty towns built around the buildings’ bases, and in New Culture Movement, he examines the shift China’s cultural values, “wherein the book has been replaced by the brick” and greater emphasis is placed on property ownership and capital gain than on education, community, or philosophy.
March 14th, 2008 at 2:13 am
Oh, thank you Coilhouse for that Lolita shot!
This artist seems interesting, too. I have to look for that Champs-Elysées picture.
March 14th, 2008 at 7:51 am
Take THAT, Amelie’s lawn gnome!
March 14th, 2008 at 8:17 am
“wherein the book has been replaced by the brick”
I’m curious how honest that sentiment really is…it’s easy to see why one would feel that or use it as inspiration for artwork but given the honest reality of China before the economic shift of the last 20 years it’s hard not to take it with a grain of salt.
Plus some would even argue if the books allowed by communist authorities even have as much future value as a well made brick. China has serious issues that should be explored by artists like Han Bing yet in this case it’s no different than those who railed against the industrial revolution…the heart is in the right place but it just seems incredibly unrealistic to think that modern China would not (yet again) ignore its recent past in favor of a new (if sordid and polluted) future.
Its history is filled with that…new eras built on and sometimes erasing the past. From my perspective anyhow artists like Han Bing serve more as a living conscience that try to remind a society about its social responsibilities than much else. Ultimately I like to think that has more value than whatever attention they get from overseas critics and fans.
March 14th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Cabbage called to say “Thanks!”
March 14th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Hmmm. A sort of vegetarian Gérard de Nerval.
March 14th, 2008 at 11:32 am
I’d be impressed if it was the same cabbage used over the course of seven years….
March 14th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
the heart is in the right place but it just seems incredibly unrealistic to think that modern China would not (yet again) ignore its recent past in favor of a new (if sordid and polluted) future.
Hmm. Well, Tequila, I didn’t I read it like that. It’s only one interpretation, obviously, but it seems to me like his focus is primarily on highlighting how awkward, jarring and dehumanizing the shift has been, not so much a call for a return to communism. He simply seems concerned with the fate of all those who are still hungry and impoverished, despite the golden promises of China’s “new future” as a capitalist regime, and is comparing and contrasting.
It’s such a corrupt and floundering system right now. The society has destabilized. There are thousands of protests a year there, despite harsh penalties. Even the glittering publicity stunt of Beijing can’t hide the fact that all of these inland cities and rural areas are rotting, suffering, starving. Seems to me like it’s very realistic for China’s citizens to want to discuss their country’s past in relation to its present.
March 14th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
“From my perspective anyhow artists like Han Bing serve more as a living conscience that try to remind a society about its social responsibilities than much else.”
I’m with you on that Tequila. More than the art itself, I get struck by the fact that this guy even exists at all. In China…damn, WAY more difficult to be the flower that grows up through the pavement cracks. The pavement runs thick and the restrictions are right up in your face. Gotta be a little bit “Tiananmen square guy” just to take a damn cabbage for a spin. Nobody over there is going to be doing a Coum Transmissions “Prostitution” show anytime soon, that’s for sure.
Walking a cabbage seems like a pretty clever idea to use if you’re planning on staging “happenings” in China. For all the reasons on Bing’s website…but also if the state decides it wants to crack down, you can just tell them that you’re flaunting the excess provided by state-sponsored economic growth :)
March 14th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
From what I understand, there’s a true underground art movement in China. It’s a thriving counterculture participated in under fear of imprisonment, or even death.
March 14th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
“It’s a thriving counterculture participated in under fear of imprisonment, or even death.”
China is the “1984” to our hedonistic “Brave New World”. They have to conspire to get a single message out…here we all scream white noise at each other. Hopefully it all ends up pooling into baby bear “just right” porridge eventually…
March 14th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Hmm…it wouldn’t have the symbolic resonance but if I was going to drag a vegetable with me I’d have to drag a romanesco. Do vegetables get any cooler than fractal cauliflower? I think not.
March 14th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I like it when people do things public art things that are described as “interventions.” Skerror, LOL @ “if the state decides it wants to crack down, you can just tell them that you’re flaunting the excess provided by state-sponsored economic growth.” A tactic used by some of my favorite people in the world; taking the system more seriously than the system takes itself.
The Urban Amber images really struck me as well. They’re so colorful and crisp (and feature amber+cyan, one of my favorite color combinations) that they really do look like they were done in Photoshop or Illustrator, but they’re all single-frame photographs. They look so dreamlike, and of course there’s something sad about all of them.
March 14th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
“…He simply seems concerned with the fate of all those who are still hungry and impoverished, despite the golden promises of China’s “new future” as a capitalist regime, and is comparing and contrasting…”
That’s the rub of it though. It’s capitalist up to a point. Many forget China is not Beijing. It’s really massive regions that function almost like city states with some of them as “special economic zones.” Couple that with the fact a Chinese citizen can only move to other villages, regions, and cities if they are given proper permission and you have the root of many problems. It’s good to see someone brave enough to shine light on the problems of modern China but the cold reality is as bad as things are now…they were indeed far worse after the cultural revolution with rampant starvation being a primary killer. The rural areas of China are indeed rotting…and the shiny new cities won’t save everyone but that’s another cold reality few seem to explore…
That Modern China isn’t about saving or improving everyones lives…
It’s about survival as a whole over the individual. Taken to a bit of an extreme in some cases. Sad as it is to say the body count is gonna be very high as a result…corruption is bad but what’s worse is the generations coming into power as the system is slanted toward the Machiavellian of the culture over the Idealists and Freedom Fighters. That is largely due to the structure of the government over their political ideologies…it’s rife for exploitation and pretyt much a closed world really.
March 14th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
“…China is the “1984″ to our hedonistic “Brave New World…”
Good way to put it. Their underground art scene while alive is filled with party spies though…ever since Tiananmen the party has been trying to distract the students and youth with western vices, filtered freedom, and nationalistic pride. Trying to keep them loyal in one form or another in hopes peer pressure to “keep the peace for the sake of prosperity” stays the hand of even the most radical. Seems to have worked to one level…while failing miserably with those old enough to know better.
There is a lot I like about China…both then and now…but the storm clouds are gathering and the gamble of modernization by forced hand really is their only option to succeed without falling into a civil war. Unfortunately it seems they are investing even MORE into their military…that more than anything can screw things up as they try to find that “just right” porridge…their military has a lot of pissed off people in it these days.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Love Han Bing’s work.
I agree with Mer, in the comments, at least some, and if there is a huge underground movement, Han Bing is at the lead of it. What an incredible person and artist, performer… I am glad this kind of art exists, and I enjoy reading the issues that it stirs in us.