Chen Danqing

Born on August 11, 1953 in Shanghai, China, he created propaganda art as teenager depicting the feats of Mao Zedong. Chen went on to enroll at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. In 1982, the artist immigrated to the United States, where he spent the next 18 years writing and painting in New York. During his time in New York, Chen befriended fellow artist and activist Ai Weiwei. In 2000, he returned to China, and became an outspoken critic against the state. Ai and Chen published the book Interviews Not About Art in 2007.

With the long lost humanity and strong personality, Chen Danqing, unlike many contemporary Chinese intellects, dares to question the social reality, and reflects and criticises many social events with a senesce of detachment that should have been possessed by an intellect. He is awarded the prizes for ‘The Fifty Public Intellectuals Who Have Influenced China’, ‘2005 Top Ten Male Elites in China’, ‘Elites of the Era”, etc..