Chinese Dream(s): hopes and fears under Xi Jinping

Since coming to power in 2012, Xi Jinping has announced a new dream for China and its people, the China Dream. This assertive ideology, alongside China’s economic growth and the election of the charismatic Xi have attracted scholarly attention in the fields of international studies, politics and China. However, what is still emerging is a comprehensive discourse on the China Dream from the lens of visual arts, which can bring forth less visible aspects of twenty-first-century China and alternative narratives to the official one. This paper examines the visual works by Chinese artists, Jiang Zhi, Chen Wei and Cao Fei, to reveal the plurality of these dreams and even some of the nightmares and fears subtending the party’s Dream. Through visual analysis, semi-structured interviews and a socio-historical approach, this paper contributes to an emerging scholarship on visual arts in dialogue with the China Dream and the current socio-political circumstances.