Living aesthetics in China: An introduction

This interdisciplinary edition dedicates theoretical and empirical articles to the topic of living aesthetics in modern and contemporary China, with the addition of one article on Hong Kong. Aesthetics is here understood as the discipline of sensual perceptions, rather than the study of beauty, taste or art only. In this editorial, I will firstly introduce the everyday aesthetic discourse, as theorized by scholars such as Yuriko Saito, Thomas Leddy, Ben Highmore and John Dewey, among others. Then, I will identify the emergence of a living aesthetics against the socio-historical and cultural context of China. Last, I will provide an overview of the articles, identifying intersections, differences and future directions. The title of the Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art ( JCCA ) 12.2&3 – ‘(Extra)ordinary Living’ – acknowledges the notion of everyday as a contested field to explore the tension, discontinuities and renegotiations of living in China during the transition from a socialist to a capitalist, urbanized and globalized country. The articles attend to different everyday(s), fostering new perceptions of China and contributing to the expanding scholarship on everyday aesthetics from multiple perspectives, disciplines and thematical approaches, including visual arts and culture, films and anthropology.