This is China of a particular sort, I do not know
2020
34:01 minutes
colour digital video, sound
This is China of a particular sort, I do not know is an artist film in response to chinoiserie, a European visual style of materiality imitating Chinese motifs popular in the eighteenth century. It is set and entirely filmed at the Royal Pavilion Brighton, a British pleasure palace built by George IV based on the idea of illusion, and hence its exterior being Indian Mughal and interior chinoiserie.
Across five dialogues and one monologue, the artist herself and relevant historical individuals - that are George IV the British King, Chien-lung the Chinese Emperor who received the Macartney Embassy, George Macartney who led the first British embassy to China, William Alexander the draughtsman from the Embassy, and Ang a Ching Dynasty royal family member and also the artist’s childhood neighbour in Taiwan – question, miss, argue and disagree with each other over the representation of Chineseness in chinoiserie at the Pavilion.
This film is one of the three case studies as part of the artist’s practice-based fine art PhD titled Reinterpreting English Chinoiserie from a Postcolonial and Personal/Taiwanese Perspective: Creating New Narratives through Art Practice.
credits
composer Ian Costabile
camera directing editing script Clare Chun-yu Liu
This film was made with financial assistance from PAHC Research Degree Fund, Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.