ABSTRACT
This concluding chapter discusses the relationship between colonialism, nationalism and cosmopolitanism. By projecting the reform of art in China as a response to European and Japanese colonial expansion in the nineteenth century, it is argued that colonialism produced two intellectual currents: one nationalistic and the other cosmopolitan. The reform of art was a case in point: it was undertaken as one of the measures for national salvation and yet the very notions of aesthetic education and modern art practice were borrowed from Europe. This chapter further demonstrates that the choices made by intellectuals and artists, especially the connection between modern art practice and nation-building, were conditioned by China’s semi-colonial situation. As such, this chapter connects agency on the part of the Chinese intelligentsia with the nation’s semi-coloniality and shows that their prioritisation of art reform was inspired by, while at the same time being limited to, the models provided by the colonial powers.
