Painters between China and Indonesia: Visualizing an Inter-Asian Perspective in the 1950s

The art movement of realism that emerged during the anti-colonial revolutions in China and Indonesia converged and gave rise to the Yin Hua Artists Association in the mid-1950s. This association, comprising ethnic Chinese artists in Indonesia, played a significant role in fostering cultural exchanges between China and Indonesia. By examining Yin Hua’s artistic practices within the intertwined contexts of nationalism and transnational regionalism, this paper explores its contributions to shaping an inter-Asian perspective resonant with the “Bandung spirit.” It also addresses the complex challenges faced by the Yin Hua artists, including political censorship and public criticism. It argues that Yin Hua’s paintings not only evoked a shared memory of the anti-colonial struggles in both countries, they also envisioned an Asia in search of peace and industrial strength vis-à-vis the Asia defined by political turbulence and economic backwardness. Furthermore, the heterogeneous style of Yin Hua’s paintings demonstrated the artists’ plural cultural resources from Indonesia, China, and European countries. This research broadens the research scope of mid-twentieth-century Asian art beyond the binary framework of liberalism and socialism prevalent during the cultural Cold War. It provides a lens to reexamine the nuances of transnational artistic practices from an inter-Asian perspective.