I have whole notebooks of scribblings. I'mma go to china & rich it up

KS

On 25/11/2007, andrew burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>  John Garnaut, Beijing
> November 20, 2007
>
>
>
> LIANG Xiaobin is most famous for his poem *China, I've lost my key*. It was
> about how much fun it was to "run wildly" and "cheer" during the Cultural
> Revolution and how little sense it all made looking back.
>
> Last month, Liang auctioned the poem's original manuscript for 80,000 yuan
> ($A12,000). If the Cultural Revolution was difficult to understand, he says,
> then today's Chinese art market is insane. "People don't know anything about
> the value of art," he says. "They don't even talk about it, or know what is
> good or bad."
>
> And yet China's new rich are snapping up paintings, sculptures and, most
> recently, poetry manuscripts in an investment frenzy. Earlier this month a
> Chinese buyer forked out a record 80 million yuan for a Ming Dynasty
> painting called *The Red Cliff Handscroll*, by painter Qiu Ying.
>
> Liang, voted China's best poet by China Central Television in 2004, sold a
> second poem for 70,000 yuan.
>
> Ye Kuangzheng, a young poet and critic, sold early scribblings for one of
> his poems for 110,000 yuan. "I didn't know these things were worth any
> money," he says, holding up a fistful of drafts he plans to put on the
> market soon.
>
> By the end of China's first major poetry auction, at Beijing's Kerry Centre,
> those five and six-figure price tags looked like bargains. Sichuan poet Li
> Yawei sold the manuscript for his poem *The Chinese Department* for
> 1.1million yuan.
>
> Zhu Wei, a well-known painter and sculptor, says he is so disgusted that he
> has gone on strike. "I worked too hard for too many years, I don't want to
> join the chaos right now," he says.
>
> The decision is not just a statement of principle. Zhu doesn't want serious
> collectors to associate his name with some of the "rubbish" being sold.
>
> As with many of China's frothing asset markets, the art bubble is attracting
> protests of foul play. A Hong Kong buyer, who did not want to be named, says
> her well-known gallery refuses to buy in the current environment because
> traders are routinely buying their own works at inflated prices to give an
> impression of hot demand.
>
> Liang says he is still waiting to be paid. He won't be surprised if the
> money doesn't come, nor will he be too worried; poets aren't accustomed to
> receiving money, he says.
>
> With *MAYA LI*
> Thanks to Ron Silliman's blog for the link to this article.
>
> --
> Andrew
> http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
>