The Bishan Commune and the practice of socially engaged art in rural China

1. Introduction - Radical Rural Intellectuals -- 2. Fields of Socially Engaged Art -- 3. Imagining the Commune -- 4. The Great Leap Into Utopia -- 5. Trojan Horses or the Artist as Realtor -- 6. "Whose Countryside? Whose Community?" -- 7. Conclusion - The end of Utopia?.

Intro -- Acknowledgments -- Notes on the Text -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Prologue: Bishan Village (碧山村) -- Chapter 1: Introduction: Radical Rural Intellectuals -- Closing Down -- Extradisciplinary Investigations -- Chinese Artists Going Rural -- A Rural Intelligentsia? -- The Rural Crisis -- Guanxi Aesthetics and the Dance with the State -- On Methodology -- Language Strategy -- Inside-Outside -- Aims and Structure of the Book -- Literature -- Chapter 2: Fields of Socially Engaged Art -- Dialogue, Participation and Relational Aesthetics -- Trojan Horses and the Head of Medusa -- The Temporality of Socially Engaged Art -- Reciprocal Aesthetics: Defining Socially Engaged Art in China -- Art That Serves the People: The Mass Line -- Socially Engaged Art in Rural China -- Political Art? -- Literature -- Chapter 3: Imagining the Commune -- Imagining the Agrarian Utopia -- The Bishan Commune: How to Start Your Own Utopia -- Communal Emblems -- Communal Architecture -- The Anarchist Proposition -- The Paris Commune and Other Communes -- School of Tillers and the Well-field System -- Rural Reconstruction and the Relationship to Local Community -- Regrouping Opposition -- Connecting the Chinese Village -- Leaping into Utopia -- Literature -- Chapter 4: The Great Leap into Utopia -- The Art Festival as Rural Economic Development -- Rural Reconstruction and Anarchism -- 2011: Bishan Harvestival -- I Don't Know Who They Are -- 2012: Yixian International Photo Festival -- Playing a Game of Cards in Bishan -- Changing the Terminology -- Alternative Currencies -- Fleeing the Difficulties of Collectivity -- Literature -- Chapter 5: Trojan Horses or the Artist as Realtor -- Moving to Bishan -- The Spatial Approach -- Creating a Space for Bishan Commune -- The Old Becomes the New -- The Artist as Realtor -- The Bishan Bookstore.