The New Commune: The Making of Artist Communities in Contemporary China

Abstract

This dissertation explores how artists in contemporary Beijing have been displaced and migrated from the urban centre to its peripheries, transforming marginal spaces into self-organised communities. It introduces the concept of the artist community (艺术家社群, yishujia shequn) to describe collective formations that sustain livelihoods outside the formal art establishment through shared practices, resources, and space. Drawing on secondary research, fieldwork, and visual analysis, the study traces how these communities emerge from and adapt to shifting political and economic pressures. Their communal practices offer material and emotional support while serving as platforms for artistic experimentation that engage with issues such as displacement, censorship, and representation. Though independently formed, these communities recall Mao-era people’s communes, emerging from artists’ needs rather than state mandate—yet still within the reach of surveillance. Attending to the experiences of women artists, the study interrogates internal hierarchies and conceptualises these spaces as “new communes” at the intersection of art, politics, and social life.