(Re)made in China

The reuse and recycling of materials that were made in China has a short history in the daily activities of private households worldwide, but a long history in art, craft, and design. Focusing on the practices of artists, craftspeople, and designers, and their re-evaluation of unwanted, pre-used, and discarded materials, this volume presents new research on material culture from China, one of the world’s leading waste-receiving and waste-producing countries, in a global context. Through the lens of an ecocritical history of art, craft, and design, it studies creative engagements with matter related to aspects of (dis)connectivity, considering how the meanings and values attributed to objects and raw materials can change radically as they travel across historical and cultural divides.


"A captivating account of the cycles of use, waste and reinvention that animate modern and contemporary China. The authors capture the dexterity of artists and craftspeople who imagine, picture, signify, fashion and terraform the aesthetic dimension. With vivid detail, the chapters highlight the ingenuity of Chinese material culture in the complexity of its global circulation and planetary transformation. (Re)Made is a necessary volume for anyone seeking to inform their perspective of China’s impact on today’s political ecologies."

Amanda Boetzkes, author of Plastic Capitalism: Contemporary Art and the Drive to Waste

Anna Grasskamp, Professor of Art History and Visual Studies at the University of Oslo. Her publications include among others Objects in Frames: Displaying Foreign Collectibles in Early Modern China and Europe (2019; second edition 2022), and Art and Ocean Objects of Early Modern Eurasia: Shells, Bodies, and Materiality (2021). In 2024, she curated the exhibition The Art of Upcycling: Contemporary Jewelry from Hong Kong at the GRASSI Museum of Applied Arts in Leipzig. She is currently leading a five-year research project, An Ecological History of Eurasian Art: Natural Resources, Aesthetic Practices, and Early Modern Globalization, funded by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant.