The recent boom-and-bust of art museums in China has attracted global attentions (Hsieh 2021, Fei 2025). Revealing the industry's instability rooted in entanglements the financial sector, the wave of museum closures in P.R.C. indicates the changing horizon of art institutions as public space for political cacophony. Drawing on book Flora and Fauna: Domestic Nature and Private Collecting in Reform Era Beijing (2025) and the exhibition Contested Waters (2024-2025), in this talk Hsieh addresses art as public sphere in the crossstrait worlds. Her book’s ethnographic lens captures the rise of private collecting as alternative to the diminishing public realm for political expressions. While, on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, Taiwanese artists and art institutions increasingly showcase projects with a focus on geopolitical tensions. It is the worst of the time and the best of the time for political art in the cross-strait worlds.
Works cited: Hsieh, I-Yi. 2021. ‘Art Malls and Popular Collecting in Post-socialist China,’ Researching Art Markets: Past, Present and Tools for the Future, pp. 51-63. E. Lazzaro, N. Moureau, A. Turpin eds. London: Routledge
Hsieh, I-Yi. 2025. Flora and Fauna: Domestic Nature and Private Collecting in Reform Era Beijing. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan
Lei Fei. 2025. ‘A Eulogy to China’s Art Museums,’ ArtReview Asia 11July 2025. https://artreview.com/a-eulogy-to-chinas-art-museums-opinion-lai-fei/ (Accessed July 17, 2025)