Peng Lei is a Beijing-based film director, artist and lead singer of the popular indie band New Pants (新裤子). As one of the leading icons of China’s new creative generation, Peng Lei straddles the music and visual art worlds and is one of the few recognizable figures in China’s creative community.
This month, Wallpaper interviewed Peng Lei, discussing his influences, varied interests and views on Chinese & Western culture. Here is an excerpt:
Wallpaper: How are young artists, designers, architects and creative students changing Chinese culture?
PL: I think that these people are studying and imitating the West. Because of them, China is becoming more and more like the West. I don’t think this is a good thing because no-one has developed a contemporary language for Chinese art. In the last two years, the situation for modern art has improved in the sense that a distinctive ‘Chinese feel’ is gradually creeping into all kinds of art work.
Wallpaper: We’ve recently had unprecedented insight into Chinese culture thanks to the Olympics – do you feel this is the beginning of a more open cultural relationship between China and the rest of the world?
PL: Yes, certainly. Today’s Chinese people are not as backward as the foreigners may imagine and we do hope the whole world can look at today’s China with brand new eyes. The Olympic Games was really a great party that left the whole world in shock. What’s more, in a sense, the cultural environment in China is even freer than that of the Western countries.
Below is one of Peng Lei’s drawings and a link to a sideshow of his work.
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