The intimate relationship between art and politics crosses historical epochs and cultures. In continuing the theme of “Art and Politics in China and Taiwan,” as represented in the last special issue of Modern China Studies 2011.2, our second volume features a new series of articles focused on art institutions, identity, gender, and body.

The main theme of Hsin-tien Liao’s article is how artists in Taiwan responded to regime change in the light of the 1945 Japanese renunciation of its former colony, and how they imagine their cultural identification.

Paul Gladston seeks to address the contestation of the significance of contemporary Chinese art critically with reference to emerging debates relating to the concept of contemporaneity.

In examining the human body in art, An-yi Pan discusses the impact of environment, particularly on body performance in contemporary Taiwanese art. In examining two generations of artists growing up in postwar Taiwan, Pan’s article parses their distinctive viewpoints on identities and memories, and their voices in different temporal and spatial continuums as represented in their art works.

Ying-ying Chien’s paper aims to clarify the characteristics of Taiwanese women’s visual arts from the angle of spirituality. Based on case studies of many female artists and their works, Chien maintains that their concern for ecology and respect for all living things illustrate their open and spiritually sympathetic attitude towards life and art.

Yu-chun Lin tackles the issue of how Taiwanese painters living at the time Japanese occupation created new artistic styles in constructing their own cultural spectrum and identification. Based on several exemplary painters, Yu-chun Lin explores issues of identity, cultural impact, and stylistic development of the arts in the early twentieth century.

Ying-ying Lai examines art institutions in Taiwan, in particular, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, in reviewing how exhibitions in a government-funded museum fulfill cultural policies and administrative orders. Her study also points to how the frequent entanglement between power and production reveal that the value of culture and its significance are undergoing a transition in contemporary Taiwan.

The two major themes of Wei-lih Yeh’s research on “The Era of Rebellion and Identity: A Study of Chinese Contemporary Artists” probe the development of different processes of art policy in China and the evolution of contemporary Chinese artists within that context.

Art and politics may be expressed as flip sides of a coin. On the one hand, artists may take politics as the theme of their works. On the other hand, art may reflect the restriction of reality or act as a means of propaganda or protest. Contemporary art of China and of Taiwan evolve differently in reflecting different social contexts and changes as well as experiences of their own reformations and innovations.