My research examines how artists from China use experiences of relocation to critically engage with cultural difference and develop new aesthetic paradigms. It focuses on the agency of mobile artists in shaping contemporary Chinese art within a global context, challenging fixed or homogenous interpretations of cultural identity. Rather than relying on explicit cultural motifs, the study explores how identity may surface subtly, like a ‘mother tongue’—an intimate register linking lived experience to artistic expression. 

Since the early 1990s, contemporary Chinese art has increasingly circulated internationally, evolving alongside global art world expectations. While some artists have embraced recognisably ‘Chinese’ cultural signifiers, others use more understated or hybrid forms that communicate in-betweenness, responding to shifting social and political conditions. 

Through fieldwork, interviews, and self-reflective analysis, the research will investigate how diasporic contexts shape artistic practice and propose a more flexible, heterogeneous understanding of contemporary Chinese art and its global formations.