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AbstractThe mid-1950s saw the relationship between China and Indonesia evolve from one of mutual hostility to one of fraternity as a trend of détente emerged out of the Geneva (1954) and the Bandung (1955) conferences. This article explores why and how the two newly independent nations applied art diplomacy to reduce their ideological differences and facilitate their commercial and political rapprochements for the sake of Asian solidarity. Through contextualizing a series of art activities between the two nations, especially China's reproduction of President Sukarno's private collection of paintings and Chairman Mao Zedong's gifts of Chinese ink paintings to President Sukarno, this article argues that interactions in the name of art exemplify how China shaped its modern profile as an independent and industrialized power. It will also show how China deviated from its diplomacy of 'Leaning to One Side', formulated in the late 1940s, towards the 'Peaceful United Front' of the mid-1950s. More broadly, art relations between China and Indonesia reflect intensive cultural exchanges between the newly independent, yet ideologically clashing, nations of the Third World in the postwar period and offer a multifaceted history of the Cold War beyond the binary paradigm of the two superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union.

This thesis investigates the Chinese government's cultural diplomacy in the field of contemporary art in the 2000s. Since 2000, China has launched a cultural revival project with the political goal of strengthening national prestige in a global world. In a new global context, the Chinese government becomes aware of the important role that contemporary artists are playing in representing Chinese culture globally. The government's shift in policy on contemporary art from oppressing to supporting has brought in debates on the independency of Chinese contemporary art. This thesis researches the strategies and frameworks that the government adopted to make sense of and make claims for contemporary art in a new global context in the 2000s. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role that the government plays in the field of Chinese contemporary art in a new global context.