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From The Sky To The Ground
The Transformation Of Xu Bing’s Language
D.P.D
Art 413: Arts in Modern and Contemporary China
Professor Meiqin Wang
November 28, 2007

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Let’s say someone is learning a new language. He or she must learn to speak and
listen to the new phonetic sounds, read and write in the new formations of familiar letters
or even completely foreign “characters.” Some of the sounds or words maybe similar to
one’s mother’s language but bear a totally new meaning. Not only the words, the
grammar, the situation to one’s use of the expression may also be so different that if one
is unconsciously using it wrong, he or she can get into serious consequences. Therefore to
learn of a new language, one must also be aware of the customs and tradition, to the
culture of which houses the language. Culture molds language, and continues to affect the
ever transforming of the form. Xu Bing’s projects mostly deal with language and culture,
but looking from his monumental piece Book from the Sky to the new ongoing project
Book from the Ground , we see a major change in the form, content, and medium. The
audiences are gradually allowed to interact with his art, and while they look at the art and
reflecting on themselves and the world they are in, they consequently become part of it.
Book from the Sky to English Square Words
His famous work, the Book from 1988, was only giant sets of unintelligible
characters, but brought completely different reactions from Eastern and Western
audiences. The Eastern, more correctly, the Chinese whose language is the root of style
of these new meaningless words, reacted with shock, confusion, and wonder. They tried
to read the apparently Chinese text they thought they know and understand, but failed to
do so. They became doubtful of their own literacy. When they read on they would find
out that all the text were incomprehensible. They would wonder why someone created so
many meaningless words. Those who know Chinese would be occupied with the context
of the piece, rather than enjoying the idea and the form like Western audience. One work
2

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of art, when displayed in different places, exposing to different audiences, received
different reactions. “Chinese audiences lose part of the meaning, and Western audiences
lose another part, but each side gets the part that the other doesn’t,”
1
Xu Bing himself
expressed. By receiving different reactions from different audiences, the piece of art
appears more meaningful. Ron Eyerman implied that art is “a form of meaningful
communication, and that “art encourages response. Artistic expressions can be
characterized by the intention to engage the observer, to form a relation and create a
connection.” 2 Audiences’ reaction is part of the art’s meaning.