If to say there were something in common to share amongst the most valued works that’s been produced in the 1990s, then it is the focus they all paid to the change of people’s ways of attitude and action under the bigger environment of China’s economy development during the period of time.

This is just a direction to explore art in a very explosive way.

Computer age is not just a concept of mechanical duplication, but also a concept of advancing homogeneity between daily living and spiritual life. Daily living has infused into people’s life through advertisements and tabloids, and by batch replication of media and publication, the latter one has directly lead to the result of mediocrity among intellects and middle class. In a computer age, art form has no originality, nor is there counterfeits, all the forms that produced by computer can be replicated into infinity, therefore they are the originals too, it has broken classical art’s handcrafted quality, feeling of mystery, authority and exclusiveness. And here comes the disappearance of concepts of original and copy.

Here comes the age of standardization.

Standardization can also be seen as formatting and programmed. We are living in a standard life, it can be seen in standardization of industry, of market acceptance, of products, of consumption, of choosing a spouse and of fast food. Everyday in this city, people are busy checking out of standards of goods related to daily life, but the goal and truth of life has become so vague and far from us, what really is the standard life of this time, the question puzzles us.

Artist Gao Xiaowu has revealed the life of standardization by showing us the standard posture, the standard smile. And these have reflects on the standard high-rise buildings and streets, which make up the standard expression of this international metropolitan.

Dr. Yin Shuangxi is an art critic, Deputy Editor-in-chief of Art Research magazine published by the Central Academy of Fine Arts.