Editing Xu Bing (section)

====''A Book from the Sky''====
Xu Bing's ''Tianshu'' ("[[Book from the Sky]]") is a large installation featuring precisely laid out rows of books and [[hanging scroll]]s with written "Chinese" texts. Even so, this work challenges our very approach to language because of the unique nature of the text written on the paper. First presented in Beijing in 1988, the learned élite felt slighted by the artists' bold move to design and print over 4,000 characters that looked Chinese but were completely meaningless according to standard Mandarin.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Silbergeld |first=Jerome|title=Book from the Sky: A work by Xu Bing|year=2003|publisher=[[Princeton University Art Museum]]|pages=2}}</ref> Xu infuses his work with meaning by stirring confusion and discomfort in his audience, mostly due to the fact that the [[Chinese characters]] used in these texts are not "real" characters.

This piece was well received in China until 1989, whereupon the social and political drama of the [[Tiananmen Square protests of 1989|Tiananmen Square protests]] led the government to look askance at Xu’s ''Tianshu''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=De Kloet|first=Jeroen|title=Cosmopatriots: On Distant Belongings and Close Encounters|editor=Edwin Jurriëns|year=2007|publisher=Rodopi B.V.|location=Amsterdam|pages=141}}</ref> Leaving China in 1991 for the United States, Xu Bing continued to explore and express his thoughts on deconstructing language to challenge our most "natural" cultural assumptions. His thought-provoking work enticed Western audiences, and he soon became one of the leading artists in the modern Chinese art scene.