ABSTRACT
The introduction presents the central thesis of the book, namely, that the rising bottom-up desire for civil participation and just society among Chinese intellectuals is what shapes the development of Chinese socially engaged art, and that the latter in turn embodies the growth of civil society in this authoritarian country. It then discusses the social and public turn of contemporary art in mainland China in relation to both domestic and global circumstances. With Ai Weiwei as a case study, it stresses the possibility and importance of art for social and cultural activism in contemporary China.
