Surrealism and the PRC

We are delighted that Dr. Lauren Walden's latest book Surrealism and the People's Republic of China: From Mao to Now has just been published as part of the Routledge Research in Art History series.

This study investigates cultural exchange between the Surrealist movement and the People’s Republic of China (1949-present). This book asserts Surrealism resolutely chimed with traditional Chinese thought whilst reflecting and refracting contemporaneous socio-political issues from Mao to now. A ‘historico-intrinsic’ relationship coalesces archival and primary sources consulted in Chinese, French and English, artist interviews as well as cosmopolitan political theory. The purported originality of European modernism is questioned, ascertaining traditional Chinese concepts of spontaneity were cited by Surrealists as redolent of automatism, the notion of creating without forethought.

Surrealist art was officially prohibited under Mao’s rule (1949-1976). However, the book interrogates potent tensions in clandestinely created surrealist artworks by Zhao Shou and Sha Qi, who discovered the movement while studying abroad. Furthermore, Walden explores how several European Surrealists aligned Chinese calligraphy with automatism as well as Michel Leiris and Marcel Mariën’s travels to Maoist China and their diametrically opposed visions of the nation. Amidst post-socialism, the book posits that the ’85 New Wave consciously employed Surrealism to process the traumatic Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and react to newfound societal freedoms. Subsequently, the volume considers why a new artistic tendency of ‘surrealist pop’ emerged in the 1990s. At present, Lauren Walden reveals how Surrealism has become officialised and even promoted by Chinese authorities owing to revolutionary resonances between traditional Chinese art and the western avant-garde.

This book is the primary outcome from a three-year Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship that offered dedicated research time and expenses. This enabled artist interviews, archival work and the consultation of rare primary sources in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Brussels and Paris.

Lauren hopes that the book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, Chinese studies, and Surrealism. Chapter 4 is available open access and the introduction is available via a preview PDF on the publishers’ website here.

CCVA Asia is holding a book launch on 10th December 2025 5pm to 7pm Lecture Theatre, School of Art, BCU, Margaret Street, B3 3BX. All are welcome. Please register via Eventbrite here.