Shanzai: Deconstruction in Chinese by Byung-Chul Han

Short and interesting essay that compares Occidental and Chinese/sino-systems of thought.

According to Han, "Far Eastern thought begins with deconstruction" (p.11). Unlike Western thought that is based on ontological assumptions of an unchanging essence/Being that undergoes ruptural transformations, sino-systems of thought "empties out Being in the process or way that has neither beginning nor end."

These two systems of thought read works of art differently. While the Occident values the Original artwork as a creative event, the Chinese masterpiece "is regularly overwritten by connoisseurs and collectors" (p.13) and is a constant process. While copying original masterpieces is forgery from a Western perspective, it is a "sign of respect" (p.15) from the Chinese perspective, and these copies regularly make their way into the artist's oeuvre.

Han continues by analyzing the Chinese 山寨 or fake from this perspective; the Chinese fake is not a mere copy, a lack of creativity, but a specific display of creativity that adapts to the specific context.

Short but very interesting and provocative. It's in the "Untimely Meditation" series, but I think that such works are rarely divorced from the historical conjuncture, I wonder what Han was thinking as he wrote this.

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