PhD Candidate Colin Zhongping Mao Publishes New Article in Burlington Contemporary

Congratulations to our PhD candidate Colin Zhongping Mao who has recently published a new article in the Burlington Contemporary journal, titled ‘Liu Xiaodong’s Sinophone spaces: Chinatown No. 4 and Chinatown No.2’. The piece critically examines the representation of transnational migrant labour through the lens of contemporary Chinese painter Liu Xiaodong’s Chinatown series, which depicts a Chinese family’s clothing factory in Prato, Tuscany. Moving away from traditional ‘diaspora’ paradigms that frame migrants in a state of perpetual exile, the article utilises the concept of the ‘Sinophone’ to argue that these immigrant communities are actively constructing hybrid, localised spaces within European industrial infrastructures.

Through a detailed visual analysis of two contrasting canvases, the research highlights the precarious socio-economic realities of global commerce. It contrasts the communal intimacy of a mahjong game in Chinatown No.4 with the debris-filled absence depicted in Chinatown No. 2. By situating these works within Liu’s career-long investigation into marginalised workers and mass displacement, the article demonstrates how the artist subverts traditional socialist realism through his practices. Ultimately, the piece reveals how global circuits of labour and capital shape complex, shifting identities that resist simplistic cultural categorisation.

Image: Liu Xiaodong, Chinatown 4, 2015. Oil on canvas, 220 × 300 cm (86½ × 118 in.). Photo by Alessandro Moggi. Courtesy of MASSIMODECARLO and the artist.

Image: Liu Xiaodong, Chinatown 2, 2015. Oil on canvas, 180 × 200 cm (71 × 79 in.). Photo by Alessandro Zambianchi. Courtesy of MASSIMODECARLO and the artist.