The Errant Æsthete

“Like everything else in Beijing, the 798 district has evolved at warp speed. Just a few years ago it was funky, brave, cutting edge, postindustrial and vaguely dangerous, like the Soho district of New York in the 1960s. It took 30 years for Soho to become dominated by boutiques and chic restaurants. It took only five years for the same phenomenon to happen in Beijing.“

It was the maddening mobs of tourists that finally drove Fu Lei from the art studio where he had been quietly painting his quirky and surrealistic canvases for the past six years.

Back in 2002, he was one of the first Chinese artists to find refuge in the 798 district, a jumble of abandoned military factories where cheap rents and empty spaces had allowed an underground art scene to emerge. The bohemians were an odd sight in the factory buildings, attracting gawking stares from the passing migrant workers, but 798 was the perfect place for Mr. Fu and his friends to work in peace.

When the artists attracted the attention of the Chinese authorities, they had to endure a wave of police raids and demolition threats by government officials, who failed to grasp the cultural value of a low-rent district of studios and galleries.

But in the end, it was 798’s unexpected commercial success that ultimately killed its soul and forced the artists to flee. [via link]