A Preliminary Study On The Creative Identity Of The Naxi People In Contemporary Art

They are southern ethnic minorities at the same time contemporary artists,but when facing the Western world,they are regarded as Han Chinese.Therefore,in different cultural fields,they may have different cultural identities.The issue of how to identify themselves arises,which is common rather than occasional.Nevertheless,this issue seems to be ignored by Chinese artistic academia.To acquire a sense of cultural belonging,their multiple identities are simplified as the primary and the secondary;or are evaded,hided or deserted.Moreover,some of them are anxious about their ambiguous cultural identities.No matter in the contemporary art scene or the research field,the artistic creations of ethnic minorities are seen and supported internationally.The current art world does not only focus on colonialism,west centralism and elitism : it concerns about the artwork of the minorities as well.However,in China,the ethnic minority artists haven’t been paid enough attention.Their creations have been marginalized,and the complex issue of cultural identities have been ignored further.This paper incorporates literature review as well as fieldwork which includes questionnaires,interviews and participant observation.Fourteen Naxi artists in Lijiang,Dali,Kunming and Beijing are investigated to explore the cultural barriers between Chinese mainstream art world and that of the ethnic minorities.The misunderstandings between the two are needed to be revealed.