China Expat is a cultural and literary forum for expatriates interested in China and has been published by Asia Briefing Ltd since 2001. The sites resident China culture writers have included such expatriate luminaries as 
Cai Guo-Qiang’s Exploding Cars
The Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang has been creating a stir internationally with his recent installations, most notably his “Exploding cars” sequences, which have been showing everywhere from the Guggenheim onwards over the last few weeks. Described as “an explosive moment expanded in time and space as if in a dream” Cai Guo-Qiang’s work is dramatic, severe and frighteningly beautiful.
Cai, who was born in Fujian, is busy now as a core member of the creative team and Director of Visual and Special Effects for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. His large-scale, mid-career retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York opened on February 22nd, 2008 and will subsequently travel to the National Art Museum of China in Beijing in August 2008. It’s well worth a look – a dancing array of lighting strikes out from a suspended series of cars – making a thing of beauty from rather a mundane vehicle.
The son of a historian and painter, Cai was trained in stage design at the Shanghai Drama Institute from 1981 to 1985 and his work has, since the outset, been scholarly and often politically charged. Having accomplished himself across a variety of media, Cai initially began working with gunpowder to foster spontaneity and confront the suppression that he felt from the controlled artistic tradition and social climate in China at the time.
Cai is about to become a household name internationally even more than he is now – it’s his fireworks displays that are going to be the highlight of the Beijing Olympics Opening ceremony – see more on his previous fireworks installations (including videos) from our earlier report on his work here .
In the meantime mark down his exhibits as a must see during August in Beijing – exploding cars and all will be on display at the National Art Museum.
Artists Web: www.caiguoqiang.com
National Art Museum of China: http://www.namoc.org/namoc/index.jsp
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