2014-07-18
A prominent Beijing-based artist has been evicted from a studio in the capital by China’s state security police after he made artworks of fetuses aborted and babies abandoned under the country’s controversial family-planning controls.
“My works showed aspects of the family planning issue, and a lot canvases showed fetuses that had been thrown away,” Wang Peng told RFA on Thursday after an altercation with the authorities, who seized some of his work before taking it away in a truck.
“They saw this as a threat to the absolute power of their dictatorial regime,” he said. “The family planning regime highlights all sorts of inequalities in human rights.”
Wang said his paintings were seized after he laid them out on a public square near the Songzhuang Artists’ Village on the outskirts of Beijing, in protest at his eviction.
Around a dozen urban management officials, or chengguan, were dispatched to clear them away, prompting scuffles with Wang and his supporters, he said.
“I have black and blue marks all over my arms and legs,” Wang said. “My ear isn’t working well.”
“They sent 20-30 chengguan as well as a bunch from the local police station to snatch my paintings and to threaten me, saying I couldn’t lay them out there,” he said.
“After that, the state security police sought me out for ‘a chat’ and threatened me, saying I had to leaving Songzhuang,” Wang added. “I also had to stop making artwork related to the family planning policy.”
Bystanders intervene
Wang Peng’s friend Wang Zang said he was also at the scene.
“They seized the paintings and put them on a truck,” he said. “They twisted his arm.”
“A lot of bystanders—some of whom were Wang Peng’s friends and others who were just passersby he didn’t know—couldn’t bear to watch, and were criticizing the chengguan,” Wang said.
