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The World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports on an art exhibit in Beijing that the artists say is a commentary on how China is developing – in haphazard or slapdash fashion.

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MARCO WERMAN: China’s rapid development has changed cities and lives. But not always with close attention to quality and detail. A current art exhibition in Beijing explores and even celebrates that fact. But some visitors aren’t so sure that the way China approaches change is worth celebrating. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad introduces us to the man behind the exhibition.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: A funny thing’s been happening in the gritty, northern Beijing neighborhood where artist Chen Xinpeng shares a studio. Humble brick houses have suddenly sprouted second floors and extensions. Some entire new office buildings have gone up. All this in a neighborhood the government intends to knock down for new development in a few weeks. And that’s the idea. The government is compensating those who have homes and buildings here based on their square footage. This rush to build is kind of a scam. But Chen salutes spirit behind those who seize the chance to improve their lot.

CHEN XINPENG: How we do things you know we can critique it as good or bad now but actually we achieve certain things by this way of doing things.

MAGISTAD: But as a taxpayer there’s no little bit of annoyance that someone’s throwing up a building a month before it’s going to be torn down so they can get money from the government?

XINPENG: That’s the point. We’re not a taxpayer. I think the big company are the taxpayer in China. Like big government-owned company. We artists, I don’t know. I don’t … .

MAGISTAD: So you kind of look at that and think good for you. Very clever. You found a way of getting something back.

XINPENG: Everybody does that. Everybody does that.

MAGISTAD: Chen says there’s a word in Chinese for this kind of approach and this kind of development. It’s “couhuo.” Chen has put together an exhibit exploring its meaning in China today. Artist Michael Zheng who contributed a piece says couhuo is hard to define.

MICHAEL ZHENG: It could mean doing things in a makeshift way. It could also mean a casual way of achieving something or cutting corners if it has a kind of negative connotation. But could also mean being pragmatic when you try to do something. So we are actually taking both sides of the meanings to do this show. So through pragmatism we actually achieve a lot of things in China typically. And also even though we do achieve a lot of things, a lot of the things don’t necessarily stand up to scrutiny.

MAGISTAD: The couhuo exhibit is a huge inflatable golden tent that moves around to different locations. It’s meant to be a temporary, transient space kept aloft by blowers. And Chen does worry about electricity brown outs. There’s already been one for a few seconds that caused the tent to sag a bit. Inside are works by Chinese and foreign artists celebrating the slapdash and ephemeral. There are sculptures made of household appliances, pipe cleaners, and a feather boa. There’s one of a skeleton of a cat chasing skeleton mice. Not everyone who comes gets what this is all about.

OLDER WOMAN: [SPEAKING CHINESE]

MAGISTAD: This older woman says, I don’t understand this. When it’s explained that this exhibit explores the idea couhuo she smiles and says, yeah actually China is pretty couhou these days.

OLDER WOMAN: [SPEAKING CHINESE]

MAGISTAD: But she adds, I don’t think that’s a good thing. I think it’s better to do things more slowly and do them right. A young, modern dancer named Li Qi agrees.

LI QI: [SPEAKING CHINESE}

TRANSLATOR: I think for the government they’ll pay more attention to speed because it will show what they’ve achieved. But ordinary people will pay more attention to quality. And having fast development doesn’t mean you have good quality. If you don’t have good quality, the development isn’t very stable because you don’t have a sound foundation.

MAGISTAD: Others here say they’re proud of how China’s developing. Twenty- year-old sales clerk, Liu Jin, says she thinks whatever couhuo there is in China’s development is tolerable.

LIU JIN: [SPEAKING CHINESE]

TRANSLATOR: A system can’t be perfect. It’s bound to have some flaws. And if the advantages of the system outweigh the disadvantages, I’ll still support it because it makes my life easier.

MAGISTAD: That said, Liu Jin says she doesn’t really get how this exhibit is about couhou and in that she’s in good company.

XIAO LAN: [SPEAKING CHINESE]

MAGISTAD: Central Academy Professor Xiao Lan sniffs as he comes out from the exhibit saying good art shouldn’t need an explanation for you to be able to understand it. But this exhibit does. The signage in Chinese is pretty couhuo. Of course artist Chen Xinpeng says that’s kind of how people have to make their way in figuring out China’s development.

CHEN XINPENG: We generalize lots of energy, activities, actually doing things. Actually these actions raise lots of new questions. You know and people will solve these new questions. By solving these new questions we’ve got more questions. More problems to solve. I think that’s the energy.

MAGISTAD: The energy that’s transforming China. For The World I’m Mary Kay Magistad in Beijing.

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