Graffiti Finds its Niche in China

In China, with its supposedly authoritarian government, you would never have guessed that graffiti—an art form considered illegal in most countries—would be alive and kicking.

You can see China’s nascent graffiti culture as soon you arrive in the nation’s capital, Beijing. The city’s unofficial “graffiti wall of fame,” located on Jingmi road, runs parallel to the airport express rail line, greeting passengers on their way in and out of the city. This long stretch of wall has served as a canvas for graffiti writers from all over the world, including a small but growing niche group of Chinese taggers.

Graffiti may have been born in the ghetto and has traditionally been associated with gangsters and crime, but in China, the tagging culture is bolstered by the middle class, mostly art students with disposable income who draw their inspiration from American hip-hop culture. Lance Crayon, the director of Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, said a good tag takes about 15 cans of spray paint and can cost about 300 to 400 RMB ($49 – $65), quite a steep price for something that may be whitewashed away at any time. This makes it a pastime for the affluent, leaving Beijing with no more than 25 and China with only 200 artists by Crayon’s estimate.

China’s graffiti-ers ply their craft in broad daylight, and spend hours or even days to perfect their “writing” without fear of being tagged by the authorities. Although graffiti is technically illegal and punishable either with fines or imprisonment, Chinese taggers are rarely punished. To show how lax the rules are, Crayon said he has footage of a police officer approaching a tagger and telling him to keep on painting. He was quoted on Public Radio International as saying, “I couldn’t have made this film in America without having to look over my shoulder. It took about six or seven months to relax while I was filming, because I was always so nervous thinking ‘we’re going to get caught and I’ll be deported or they’re going to smash my camera and throw us in jail and that’s it.’ None of that happened. Not even close.”

But no matter how lenient the rules are, graffiti art still falls into a gray area and practitioners must know where to draw the line. Staying away from anything political or other sensitive issues such as pollution and social unrest is imperative to avoid government censors and retaliation. They also put down their spray paint during big government events, and scout their canvases carefully, avoiding sacred or state-owned buildings.

But according to Crayon, the very fact that graffiti is a grey area is what gives local taggers more freedom, a privilege that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world.  With that kind of leeway coupled with the growing influence of Western culture among China’s urban middle class, this culture is expected to gain traction in the Middle Kingdom—as long as the government continues to turn a blind eye to it.

Crayon said, “There is so much concrete in Beijing, that when these guys paint on walls that aren’t designated by the government, the locals think they are making the city look prettier—and indeed they are.”

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