Painting into Being

Co-organized by School of Chinese and the Department of Art History, HKU

Painting into Being: Underground Art during China’s Cultural Revolution

Date: 2 November 2026 (Mon)
Time: 5pm-6:30pm
Venue: Room 4.36, 4/F, Run Run Shaw Tower HKU
Registration: required, via School of Chinese website

Abstract: Painting into Being is the first in-depth study of underground art during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It focuses on the Wuming (No Name 無名) Painting Group, active from 1972 to 1981, in conjunction with other clandestine cultural movements. Aihe Wang brings a singular perspective to this history as both a former Wuming artist and a Harvard-trained historian and anthropologist. In this book, she examines how underground artists cultivated individual agency and forged collective solidarity in challenging times, while creating a distinct form of Chinese modernism. Interweaving art, history, theory, and lived experience, Painting into Being expands our understanding of modern Chinese history, global modernism, and the power of creative expression.

Speaker: Aihe Wang is a former member of the Wuming (No Name) group, and her paintings have been collected by M+ and Tate Modern. She served as an Associate Professor in the School of Chinese at The University of Hong Kong 2001-2015 and is currently an Honorary Associate Professor. For this book project she was selected as a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 2013. Her other books include Cosmology and Political Culture in Early China (2000, Chinese translation 2011) and the 13-volume Wuming (No Name) Painting Catalogue (2009).