After Arrow Factory: A New Chapter in China’s Grassroots Art Scene

For those unfamiliar with the history of China’s alternative art scene, a useful tip is to ask ChatGPT about “Arrow Factory Beijing.” People can quickly glimpse its epitomic significance: at just 15 square metres in size, it was established by three artists and curators in 2008, right before the Beijing Olympics. Located in a storefront within a hutong—a typical Beijing neighbourhood characterised by courtyards and narrow alleys where residents live—its distinctive operating model and its ideal of integrating art with everyday life inspired many community-based, grassroots independent art spaces and collectives to emerge in its wake. In October 2019, after being required to curtain off their storefront by the local housing office due to new urban regulations in Beijing—aimed explicitly at driving out “small and low-end enterprises” and implicitly cracking down on independent cultural initiatives and artist communities—Arrow Factory announced its closure.

The story and fate of Arrow Factory can be seen as emblematic of China’s alternative art scene, especially in Beijing where most alternative spaces are located. Despite a vibrant and seemingly prosperous art market and mega-museums offering blockbuster visual spectacles in China, non-profit, experimental, self-organised initiatives consistently find themselves in precarious and marginalised positions. They are frequently viewed with suspicion by the government and considered destabilising forces, with no public support allowed to operate outside of official endorsement, making their lifespan relatively short and extremely vulnerable. In the exhibition “The Other Lives of Alternative Spaces,” which I curated in the summer of 2019, I displayed, re-activated and revisited the archives of 12 notable alternative art spaces that had already closed by that time. None of these spaces had received any support from society, officials, enterprises, institutions, or individuals other than the founders, who funded them out of their own pockets. This situation has worsened over the past few years: following the Beijing government’s widespread eviction of migrant communities in 2017, stricter regulations in hutong areas, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this period witnessed the large-scale closure of such spaces. By the end of 2023, apart from DRC. No.12, an independent space in Beijing’s diplomatic apartment area exempt from government censorship, and Cai Jin Space, a small showroom in the 798 art district converted from an artist studio, most have either closed permanently or become dormant. As the title of an ArtAsiaPacific article indicates, this, in a way, signals “the end of alternative.” [1]

During this same period, however, if we broaden our perspective beyond Beijing and shift our focus to areas outside traditional art centres, we might find some comfort and hope in discovering that the alternative scene still thrives. The spirit of alternativity persists, albeit in a different form and under a redefined concept of art and “alternative space.” Notably, Guangzhou, a central city in China’s Pearl River Delta, just half an hour away from Hong Kong by train, is experiencing a growing recognition of community-based practices and artist-run, shared spaces that had previously gone unnoticed by the mainstream art world. A pivotal moment came with the 15th Documenta, when the curatorial collective Ruangrupa invited the Guangzhou-based independent art space HB Station to collaborate in connecting self-organised, community-based initiatives across China to their extensive network. Ultimately, they chose BOLOHO, another artist-run collective in Guangzhou, to participate in events in Kassel that summer. Unlike their predecessors and peers in Beijing, these initiatives focus more on the ethos of communal living and experimenting with “living/working together” than on creating art projects or exhibitions.

Originally an independent programme dedicated to researching and educating about contemporary art, supported by the Times Museum in Guangzhou, HB Station redefined its goals and transformed into a social enterprise in 2016. Following an extensive group tour where core members travelled to Hong Kong, Tokyo, and various cities in Indonesia to exchange ideas and learn from the experiences of activists, artists, alternative spaces, and self-organised initiatives like Ruangrupa in Jakarta and Hajime Matsumoto’s space Amateur Riot in the Koenji area of Tokyo, they decided to establish a co-governance initiative in Guangzhou called SoengJoengToi. In this initiative, each member participates as an “owner,” enjoying equal voting rights in deciding on administrative and operational matters. These owners, around a dozen in number, work collaboratively to shape the direction of the initiative and its activities, share the rent and collectively utilise the space for work and business. Most of the owners do not use the space as an exhibition gallery or studio but for other activities: tattoo shops, boxing clubs, tailor shops, grocery stores, screening bars, etc. Here, art unfolds as a way of communal living, creating, discussing, and self-education, where exercising and inspiring creativity to influence the surrounding community is considered more important than creating exhibitions or artworks.

Although SoengJoengToi disbanded after operating for six years due to its overly ambitious collaborative model that involved too many distinct units working together, its advocacy for solidarity, trust in peer-to-peer relationships, its commitment to practising participatory democracy in micro, everyday politics, and its innovative approach to sustainable operations paved the way for the development of small, decentralised, and co-governed communities that continue to emerge throughout the Pearl River Delta region. BOLOHO stands out as one of the most recognisable examples among these new communities. The members experiment with a communal business model for design work, challenging mainstream economic systems while opening their studio as a “living room” and “reading room” for the neighbours. Social Practice Laboratory, founded in partnership with the Guangdong Times Museum in 2020 and now operating independently with support from crowd donations and project collaborations, works extensively with artists, scholars, and community organisers to create events that bring together people from diverse social backgrounds and disciplines. It provides platforms for temporary, self-organised, and often performative communities to engage in meaningful public participation—an act that is otherwise nearly impossible in the highly controlled and atomised society of China. QianTai_osf, which started in December 2022 and is co-run by several former SoengJoengToi owners and social workers, serves as a youth autonomous organisation maintained by artists and activists. It has now become the most active and influential alternative space in Guangzhou, hosting lectures, workshops, cooking gatherings, and screenings that address social issues and cultivate neighbourhood solidarities.

Central to these self-organised initiatives is a collective dedication to societal change. Nevertheless, instead of pursuing grand projects for overall transformation or engaging in confrontational, rebellious gestures in making provocative art or exhibitions, they lean toward a collaborative, creative approach grounded in everyday life, where art serves as a tool to envision and work towards possible futures with others. Keywords such as community, mutual aid, and cooperation, along with non-confrontational resistance, have become common among these initiatives. The members and regular participants, primarily young people aged 20 to 30, have either abandoned hopes for top-down democratic reform or become disillusioned with the promise of meritocracy. They contend that these concepts frequently reproduce existing oppressive structures instead of dismantling them as intended. Furthermore, art, they assert, should not mimic the competitive, self-serving production modes of neoliberalism but should instead adopt a collective, collaborative, and socially conscious approach that is accessible to and benefits everyone. This belief resonates strongly with younger generations, and community-oriented, socially committed autonomous spaces with decentralised, co-management approaches have rapidly spread across China. In cities like Haikou, Guizhou, Changsha, Hangzhou, and even in small towns, it’s not surprising to find such spaces in the form of small showrooms, bookstores, or shared co-working spaces, where young people gather to practise woodcut printmaking, create zines, or participate in reading groups, screenings, talks, and very small pop-up exhibitions.

In contrast to the emergence and growth of alternative spaces in post-Olympic Beijing, this recent surge—which I refer to as “the second wave” of self-organised, independent initiatives—displays distinct characteristics. While continuing the spirit and ideals of the earlier movement—maintaining art’s independence and autonomy and integrating art seamlessly with everyday life—these new initiatives are more focused on “producing social space” as a platform for potential social change, a concept promoted by philosopher Henri Lefebvre. Community building is prioritised at least as much as art-making, reflecting a paradigm where these practices are seen as experimental endeavours in exploring the relationship among the political, everyday life, and art. Unlike the first wave of alternative spaces in China, which was primarily led by artists or curators, the subsequent wave is often co-founded by young individuals from diverse backgrounds who engage with communities from within, rather than operating as external observers. This approach is effectively expressed by QianTai_osf, who stated, “We think community is a place to stay healthy and autonomous in our daily life with mutual support, a place where our needs (physical, emotional, political) can be responded to, and a practice ground for political participation.” This vision is not only an ideal or an imagination but also a concrete direction for them, their camaraderie, and a potential future they are committed to demonstrating.



[1] H.G. Masters, The End of Alternative: Arrow Factory, ArtAsiaPacific, 1 May 2021



Jia Li is an independent curator and researcher based in Beijing, whose work explores the diverse and hybrid practices of collectivism, collaboration, and self-organisation as artistic strategies across Asia. She has a keen interest in socially engaged projects and artistic activism, particularly their roles in recent social movements. Li is also dedicated to re-narrating the history of contemporary Chinese art. Her recent research and curatorial projects investigate the hidden and underrepresented aspects of history through the lens of East Asian Hauntology. She was the 2024 recipient of the Asymmetry Curatorial Residency in collaboration with Delfina Foundation, which culminated in a research presentation at Asymmetry HQ in London. 




Feature image: Installation view of “Other Lives of Alternative Space” at Taikang Spaece, Beijing, 2019. Courtesy Taikang Space.