In 2014, China announced the epic new silk road initiative as a global co-prosperity project. As the factory of the world at that time, it has a gripping power on the material domination of the world, and the vision was to transform itself in the next decade to emerges as the new superpower of the world.
Altas of the Yellow Magic Era is an art project devoted to observations on the Chinese influences of our future. I am fascinated about the flow of Chinese goods and desires to the rest of the world, and how it soft power infiltrated our everyday lives. From what we eat, what we wear, what we listen to, what we watch and everything around us may be “Made In China” but designed in somewhere else in the world. It is a complex and intriguing process to understand and make sense on the Chinese ambitions.
Altas of the Yellow Magic Era investigates the cultural production of a yellow tinted future, and the sheer unbelievable nature of Chinese advances in technology, science and economy. A decade after the launch of the new silk road initiative, the world may had slipped into the realm of the Yellow Magic Era. However, the old dominant forces from the West seem to be in refusals, to accept the new order of reality of the globe South and the East. While the West had lingers onto many ideologies still rooted in the resonance of coloniality, they are staring into the possibility of their own eschatology of power and knowledge.
Capitalism has a new colour, a yellowing process is taking place, and it changes everything, invisible forces are driving the new order of our future, a future that may already arrived without us knowing. Thus, the questioning of these new norms and new realities are urgent, no matter where and what color we are. We hope to collapse borders in a future world that seems increasingly divided.
Altas of the Yellow Magic Era is a project undertaken by Choy Ka Fai between 2024 to 2034. It aspire to research and document a decade change and prompt for understanding, critical reportage and intellectual discourse through artistic endeavours.