China outdoes USA



Artist Zhang Bingjian poses before a selection of

portraits of corrupt Chinese officials.

BEIJING (by Bill Schiller on August 18, 2011) — When artist-filmmaker Zhang Bingjian first understood the extent of government corruption in China, he was stunned.

“The chief prosecutor announced that 3,000 officials had been convicted for corruption in a single year,” recalls Zhang. “I remember being shocked, a little angry and then confused.”

His friends, however, scoffed.

“They said, ‘Those are just ‘official’ figures. There’s a lot more than that!’”

And in that moment the seed of an idea was planted, which has blossomed today into the Corruption Hall of Fame, a Zhang Bingjian art installation that so far features 1,200 portraits of corrupt Chinese officials, with no end in sight.

“You have to call it open-ended,” says the 51-year-old artist, seated in his north Beijing studio on a recent afternoon amid countless portraits of corrupt officials hanging from walls and packed in crates.

“We don’t know yet whether this project will have a happy or a tragic ending,” he says, reflectively.

“For now, some are just calling it: ‘The Hall of Shame.’”  Read on

Quite honestly, it is a blessing that we are not like they are.