DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 380 082 IR 017 003

AUTHOR Ma, YanTITLE A Reader-Response Analysis of "A Book from the

Sky."

PUB DATE [95]

NOTE 21p.; In: Imagery and Visual Literacy: SelectedReadings from the Annual Conference of theInternational Visual Literacy Association (26th,Tempe, Arizona, October 12-16, 1994); see IR 016 977.Illustrations may not reproduce clearly.

PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143)Speeches /Conference Papers (150)

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DESCRIPTORS Age; *Art Criticism; Art Education; *Chinese;Cultural Influences; *Data Interpretation; Ethnicity;Foreign Countries; Imagery; Professional Occupations;*Reader Response; *Reader Text Relationship; Sex;Visual Arts; Visual Literacy

IDENTIFIERS *Book from the Sky (A); China; Gender Issues; UnitedStates

ABSTRACTThis study applies reader-response criticism to

investigate subject positions of gender, age, ethnicity, andprofession through the poststructural analysis of an art workentitled "A Bcok from the Sky," and examines the relationship amongviewer, text (the art work), and artist. A description of the artwork is provided as an introduction. The study's general concern is"What meanings do viewers with different ethnicity, gender, age, andprofession construct from viewing this work of art?" The studycompares the similarities and differences of the interpretationsgiven by United States (novice) viewers and Chinese (expert) critics;ascertains the author's intention in making the "Book"; compares, hisintention with viewer reactions; and describes the codes in the"Book." An introduction to the Chinese language is provided, and thefoll,wing language codes are defined: images; sounds; radicals;grammar. Three illustrations of the "Book" are provided. (Contains 39

references.) (MAS)

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A Reader-Response Analysisof A Book from the Sky

U.S. DEPARTMENT Of EDUCATION

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Introduction

Yan Ma

This study applies reader-responsecriticism to inve3tigate subject positionsof gender, age, ethnicity, and professionthrough a poststructural analysis of an artwork entitled A Book from the Sky(hereafter referred as Book). This studyexamines the relationship between andamong viewer, text (the art work), andartist. It explores the relationshipsbetween and among subject positions ofviewers, text, and historical moments ofviewing, and investigates how the artwork positioned viewers in the socialchange and meaning construction. Sincethe Book possesses political, social, andcultural values, the study is a postmoderneducational enterprise. The study is alsoa contribution to postmodern arteducation. For the purpose of the study,both textual analysis and social scienceresearch methods, such as survey andinterviews, were used.

Description of A Book from the Sky

In his essay The Work of Art in theAge of Mechanical Reproduction, WalterBenjamin (1936) described a crisis thatoccurred in the late twentieth century.He warned that the originality or the"aura" of an art work had been lost

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because of mass production in theindustrial society. The late twentiethcentury has witnessed the innovations oftechnology ranging from telephonenetworks, communication satellites, radarsystems, programmable laser videodiscs,robots, biogenetically engineered cells,computer networks, rocket guidancesystems and to artificial intelligence. BillNichols (1988) has carried Benjamin'sinquiry forward as he describes the massproduction in the age of cybernetics. Theaura of a cultural product has been lost inmass production of copy machines,computers, etc. Although critiques of artworks based on the ideas of Benjamin andNichols have been carried out in theWest, Eastern scholars have notarticulated these ideas. An ambitiouswork of art, however, has appeared inChina and it incorporates both ofBenjamin's major topics, namely, theaura of an art work and the nature ofmass reproduction with letterpressprinting.

The art work is entitled A Bookfrom the Sky. One copy of the Bookconsists of four volumes each 40 cm x 36cm. The Book's format resembles that ofChinese holy classics. The artist, XuBing, spent :nree years making thevolumes. The characters in the Book are

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made up, designed, carved, and printedby the artist. They look like real wordsbut they are not real words. The artisthas created a totally "new" language, bycombining traditional Chinese printingwith book-making. He kept the aura oforiginal art by creating more than fourthousand individual "characters," themethod of printing applied and thenumber of copies printed are related tothe concept of mass production discussedin Benjamin's essay. The artist usedletterpress printing to print one hundredand twenty copies of the Book. When itwas exhibited, it was installed in threefashions: thread-bound books, ceilingdraperies (an exaggerated form of aChinese scroll), and wall hangings (anexaggerated form of Chinese painting onwalls).

Artist Xu Bing, spent three yearsmaking these unrecognizable charactersduring the time when China was openingits door to the rest of the world; allowingthe flow of Western ideas into China;accepting and rejecting ideas andphilosophy of old and new, Eastern andWestern, traditional and contemporary ina mixed condition. As Erickson (1991)pointed out, "denying the meaning ofChinese culture by deconstructing thewritten word has political overtones initself. It echoes young Chineseintellectuals' frustration with a system ofculture tightly constrained by theauthorities and questions the validity of acivilization that could produce such asituation" (p. 12).

The appearance of the Book inChina spurred reaction from art circlesand other viewers as well as reactionsfrom other countries in Asia. Viewerswith different social, economic, political,educational, and cultural backgrounds

reacted differently to this Book. TheBook was praised highly and discussedheatedly in China before the TiananmenSquare incident on June 4th, 1989. From1985 to 1989, there was a new trend inChinese art which was labeled as the"New Wave of Fine Arts." Art worksinfluenced by the New Wave were similarto Western art in style orconceptualization. After the June 4thincident, the government set a policy tocontrol arts. The Book was criticized bysome conservative critics as an exampleof the product of "bourgeoisliberalization" during the "New Wave"(Yang, 1990).

The Book is deprived of thestandard means of communication:reading. Though it is considered a bookin its form and format, it resists reading.Because it resembles a real Chinese book,it invites viewers to read, understand, andinterpret, but its characters are simply artforms. It was presented to a UnitedStates audience during the period from 30November 1991 to 19 January 1992.

The Book is a challenge to viewersnot only visually but also culturally. Itchallenges viewers to rethink the meaningof language and the relationship with itsculture.

The general concern of this studyis "What meanings do viewers withdifferent ethnicity, age, gender, andprofession construct from viewing thisBook?" . The study compares thesimilarities and differences of theinterpretations given by United Statesviewers (novice viewers) and Chinesecritics (expert viewers); ascertains theauthor's intention in making this Book;compares his intention with viewerreactions; and describes the codes in the

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Book. Because the investigator hasavailable only the critiques written byChinese critics, these critiques are usedfor comparison.

Objective and Focus Questions

A number of focus questions are relatedto the objective of the study. Followingare the objective and focus questions forthe study:

Using reception theory to compare andcontrast between and among the artist, theBook itself, and the viewers, theresearcher asked the following focusquestions:

1. What is the intention of the artist whocreated this Book?2. What are the codes in the Book?3. What meanings are constructed when

viewers interact with this Book?3a. How do Chinese critics react to thisBook?3b. How do the United States viewersreact to this Book?

4. How do the Chinese critics' perceptionof the codes compare with the UnitedStates viewers' perception of the codes ofthe Book?5. What are the similarities anddifferences between and among theintention of the artist . and theinterpretations of the Chinese critics andthe United States viewers?6. What are the similarities anddifferences of the interpretationsgenerated by the United States viewers

from groups differing in gender, age, andprofession?

Methodology

In order to examine the research

questions stated earlier, a research design,which consists of personal interview,survey, and a poststructural analysis usingreception theory to analyze collected datais developed.

Interviews are used to gather responsesfrom viewers of the United States.Interviews are used to ascertain theintention of the artist who created theBook.

Survey is used in case there are moreviewers than the investigator could handleat one time. A questionnaire is mailedonly to those who have been to the showand whose gender and age group areknown to the investigator in order toavoid sensitive questions. Therefore, thisgroup of respondents are those whom theinvestigator personally knows.

Ttxtual analysis is used in this study. Itcc; sists of the analyses of the text (i.e.,the Book); the critiques of Chinese critics;the transcriptions of interview andquestionnaire of novice viewers, and theartist: interview transcription. Chinesecharacters are the symbols of Chineseculture. When the cultural symbols aredeconstructed and reconstructed intofamiliar but new symbols, how do peopleof different ethnicity, age, gender, andprofession construct meaning when theyare interacting with these new symbols (inthis case those in the Book)? AsDeVaney (DeVaney & Elenes, 1990)pointed out "A post structural textualanalysis has the power to answerquestions about cultural meanings. " Codesor syntax of the Book are analyzedbecause a close textual analysis is ofprimary importance to a further analysisof the relationship between and amongtext, reader and artist. The textualanalysis of the Book consists of the

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following elements: codes of Chineselanguage, codes of Chinese characters,codes of classic Chinese books, and codesof installation of the Book. These codesare used in analyzing expert viewers'critiques, novice viewers' interview andquestionnaire transcriptions, and artist'interview transcription.

A Book from the SkyThe Book is a text in this study.

Chinese characters are the symbols ofChinese culture. When the culturalsymbols are deconstructed andreconstructed into familiar but newsymbols, how do viewers of differentethnicity, age, gender, and professioncreate meaning when they are interactingwith these new symbols (in this case thetext)? In the fol! -wing discussion, codesor syntax of the Book are analyzedbecause a close textual analysis is ofprimary importance to a further analysisof text, reader and artist. The textualanalysis consists of the fo!lowingelements: codes of Chinese lanF.uage,codes of Chinese characters, codes ofclassic Chinese books, and codes ofinstallation of the Book.

Introduction to Chinese Language. T h eChinese language has a history of morethan six thousand years (Zhen, 1983, p.3). It is the oldest language still beingused in the world today. Unlike otherlanguages, Chinese language grows onitself without the influence from others.Chinese language uses images as the basisof a character to combine with sound andmeaning. This combination forms anintricate and diversified language system.Since China has the highest population inthe world and Chines:, is the officiallanguage of the country, Chineselanguage is used by the greatest numberof people. In addition, Japan is still using

Chinese characters; Vietnam and Koreawhich formerly used Chinese characters,have kept some of the Chinese charactersin their languages, making the populationof Chinese language users even bigger.Because Chinese language is not aphonetic based language, it causes moredifficulty in its use than do most of thelanguages in the world. Chinesecharacters consist of three parts: image,sound, and meaning.

Codes of Images. Chinese characters areconstructed on the basis of the imitativesymbols or the characters that carryimitative components. As an origin, aChinese character is created based on animage of a real object. The system ofChinese characters is basically anideographic one. "Because of theretention of the ideographic script, inChina no conceptual separation occurreddividing writing from painting and theother arts. Calligraphy, in fact, had been'the mother of Chinese pictorial art andalways its ally" (Miller, 1983, p. 44).As a result, Chinese language becomesthe only language in the world that is anartistic language. Chinese charactersremain in square shapes. Thearrangements of components of eachcharacter are constructed in a square fromtop to bottom, from left to right, andfrom Gutside to inside.

The Book strictly follows thispattern of structures to create thousandsof new characters. These retainedstructures in the newly inventedcharacters attracts a Chinese reader tobelieve that they are real characters.

Codes of Sound. Chinese language is nota phonetic based language nor a languagebased on images alone. The specialfeature is its combination of sound and

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image. This feature began even duringthe time of inscriptions on bones. Moreand more characters bearing this featurewere added to the vocabulary. By theCling Dynasty (1644-1911), in the KangXi dictionary, there were about 49,030characters which had the combination ofphonetic and image occupying ninety-twopercent of the total vocabulary (Zheng,1983, p. 4). Since so many charactershave phonetic components, the phoneticsgive clues to the sound of characters andthe image provides the clues to themeanings.

The Book retains all the phoneticparts of Chinese characters, but newlyinvented characters do not carry theoriginal meanings of the phoneticcomponents. Thus, in appearance, theyseem pronounceable but actually they arenot.

Codes of Radicals. A Chinese characteris put together by a number of strokes.Several strokes, when combined becomecharacter components or radicals, whichthemselves have specifically definedmeanings. Radicals are the essence ofChinese language. They are originallyindividual, independent words. When aradical becomes a part of a newcharacter, it carries its own meaning overto the new one, which is influenced bythe meaning of the radical.

Codes of Grammar. Grammar is thesystem of structure in a language.Chinese grammar contains three basicunits. They are words, phrases, andsentences. English grammar ischaracterized by the changes in verbs toindicate tense; and -s or -es or -ies toshow plural. In English, nouns,pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs havetheir distinctive features. For example,

nouns have suffixes, such as -tion, -ness,-ism and so on; adjectives have suffixessuch as -tive, -ful, -less and so on; andadverbs have suffixes such as -1y.However, in Chinese there are no suchgrammatical functions to differentiate thefeatures of speech. The form of plural isreflected in measure words. The featureof possessive concepts, changes of tenses,and conditions of mood are characterizedby the uses of auxiliary words which is"an unstressed form word that performsthe grammatical functions of structure,tense, or mood (Departmer. of EnglishLanguage, Beijing Foreign LanguagesInstitute, 1985, p. 917). Therefore, it isimpossible to tell which word is a noun,an adjective, or a possessive noun inChinese language without knowing themeanings of characters in a sentence. Inother words, it is possible to create a fakeEnglish sentence with correct grammaticalstructure without retaining the meaning ofindividual words. For example, "This isa futication that was grotecticallyprecuted." This made-up sentence invitesreader to believe this is in Englishlanguage simply because the Englishgrammatical structure was retained.Though it is not possible to do this inChinese, Chinese radicals, square-shaped,well constructed characters in realparagraphical arrangements, sentencesarranged in book page formats providethe syntax patterns or codes of Chineselanguage. To arrange all the fakecharacters in book form, as was done inthe Book, invites Chinese-speakingreaders to read them. Therefore, thefashion by which the Book was presentedadds another element for the analysis ofthe Book (Figure 1).

Traditional Chinese books areprotectively covered in wood boards or inwood cases. The title is pasted on the

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cover board. The whole Rook was keptin a protective wood case (Figure 2 showsthe comparison of an actual classicChinese book covered in wood boards andthe Book covered in its wood case). Thebinding of this Book is traditional Chinesestitched-binding style. Stitched-bindingrepresents centuries of evolution inChinese book-binding.

Codes of Installation of the Book. Theinstallation of the exhibition was not atraditional one in terms of the usualexhibitions of Chinese prints. The wholeinstallation clnsisted of three parts: threelong, scroll-like strips were suspended ordraped from the ceiling in a sweeping arc(Figure 3 shows the comparison of aChinese scroll and the piece exhibited inthe Museum); printed sheets of fakecharacters covered the walls from floor toceiling; and hundreds of stitch-boundbooks in traditional Chinese classicformat were laid open in rows on thefloor with a number of wooden cases oneither end of the rows. The mainexhibition walls were black. To bind abook in a roll dates back to the earliesthistory of Chinese book-binding.Martinique (1983) indicated, "the firstexample of Chinese written literature tobe found was the rolled or folded slips ofbamboo and wood" (p. 65). Therefore,to a Chinese, a book in a roll signifies thetraditional Chinese classics. To anAmerican, it may seem to be a preciousancient document. The installation wasopen to the viewers' reactions.

In summary , the codes of Chineselanguage: images, sound, and meaning;phonetic components; radicals; structuresof Chinese characters; Chinese grammar;form of the Book; and finally, installationof the Book are actually syntax patternswhich may be called codes. A syntax

pattern gets created by the conventions ofproduction which are repeated daily. Thesyntax patterns or codes are culturallyconstructed. They need to be examinedfor paradigmatic meanings, which

supplied by syntax patterns orcodes and readers can only workwith codes with which they arefamiliar and they are only familiarwith codes that come from theworlds or paradigms to which theyhave access or which they haveexperienced, in other words, theirculture (DeVaney, 1991).

Expert Viewers' CritiquesVarious critiques by Chinese

critics are used for analysis. Tie codesin the Book are used to analyze thecritiques of expert viewers in order tocompare the similarities and differenceswith the interpretations of the Book of theUnited States viewers. The analysis alsoincludes an examination of the expertviewers' readings of the Book at differenthistorical moments. In addition, theanalysis compares the similarities anddifferences between the artist's intentionsand the expert viewers' reception of theBook.

Novice Viewers' Intervie andQuestionnaire Transcriptions

The data collected from UnitedStates viewers' interviews and survey aretranscribed. The poststructural textualanalysis consists of an examination ofUnited States viewers' responses to thecodes in the Book; comparisons of similarand different interpretations of the codesby United States viewers of differentsubject positions (i.e., age, gender,profession); and a comparison of UnitedStates viewers' responses toward the Bookand those of Chinese critics.

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Interview Transcriptions of the ArtistA telephone interview and a

videotaped interview with the artist wereconducted. Transcriptions of theinterviews are analyzed to compare thesimilarities and differences between theChinese critics' interpretations and theartist's intentions. The same comparisonis also made between the United Statesviewers and the artist.

Theoretical Foundation

Research on educational televisionand computer programs, applyingreception theory, has been carried outrecently. One examc:Le is an analysis of17,7tere in the World is Carmen Sandiego.Reception theory was used to examine theprocess of creating meaning while usingan educational computer program(DeVaney, 1993, p. 182). By applyingreception theory, researchers examinedsuch issues as gender, ethnicity, and race.Art work is also a media text that caninitiate interaction between and among theviewer, artist, and the art work itself;however, no research using receptiontheory has been done on art work.Therefore, DeVaney's model is adaptedto carry out this research.

DeVaney's model is based onreception theory as shown in the works ofHans Robert Jauss, Roman Ingarden,Stanley Fish, and Wolfgang Iser (theirworks on reception theory, 1970, 1973,1985, 1978, respectively). DeVaneyemphasizes that a reader/viewer createsmeaning when interacting with a mediatext that is coded and in which theauthor's intent is embedded (DeVaney,1993). Reading, text, and community ofviewers, the key concepts of receptiontheory, are defined in DeVaney's model.DeVaney also stresses that codes are

socially and culturally constructed,shared, and communicated by themembers of certain communities. Hermodel and these concepts serve as thetheoretical and methodologicalfoundations to investigate the interactionsbetween and among viewer, artist, and artwork.

Reader-response theory . has itsorigin in the theories of literary criticism.Structuralist theorists believe that themeaning of a literary work resides only inthe text (i.e., the text has coded messagesgiven by the author). Though earlywriters Walker Gibson, Georges Poulet,Gerald Prince, and Michael Riffaterre,attempted to address the importance ofthe reader in the reading process, theirviews were still text-oriented (i.e.meaning is located in the text itself).Unlike the above structuralist theorists,"all reader-response critics focus onreaders during the process of reading"(Mailloux, 1982, p. 20). Reader-response theory "replaces examinations ofa text in-and-of-itself with discussions ofthe reading process, the 'interaction' ofreader and text" (Mailloux, 1982, p. 2).It examines "the role actual readers playin the determination of literary meaning,the relation of reading conventions totextual interpretation, and the status of thereader itself" (Tompkins, 1980, p. ix).

Historically, Hans Robert Jaussrepresents the German phenomenologicalreception theory, which stresses theinseparable aspect of the reader and thetext from a historical perspective.Though Jauss saw the relationshipsbetween author, text, and reader, hestated them in ? historical connotation. Areader's position is related to the textfrom a present and historical point ofview as well.

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Different from Jauss, WolfgangIser's phenomenological reader theoryfocused on the reader's activeparticipation in the production of textualmeaning (Tompkins, 1980, p. xv). Iser(1978) pointed out that "reading is not adirect 'internalization," but a dynamicinteraction between reader and text.Though Iser emphasizes the reader'sparticipation in the reading process, hedoes not mention the social relations theindividual reader possesses that influencethe meaning creation process. To him,the reader is able to experience themeaning creating process provided by thetext. To him, text and reader are stillinterdependent.

American reader-response theoristStanley Fish departed from thephenomenological model of reader theoryto a social model that has its belief in thesocial construction of knowledge. In hismodel "the reader was freed from thetyranny of the text and given the centralrole in the production of meaning" (Fish,1980, p. 7). He alsc created the conceptof "interpretive communities" .in whichthe members share the assumed goals andpurposes within the same community.Members in the same community wouldagree based on their common interests.By using his concept, an investigation canbe conducted on how meanings areconstructed while interacting with theBook by viewers of different age, gender,ethnicity, and profession. In other words,it answers such a question as "How doesthis community (group) of viewers reactto the Book instead of "How does anindividual viewer react to the Book ? ". Inorder to investigate the relationshipsbetween and among artist, viewer, andBook in the present study, Fish'sAmerican adaptation of reader-responsetheory has more power than the ones

discussed earlier to carry out such ananalysis. It allows an investigation ofmeaning making by viewers fromdifferent communities. All these theories,however, lack explanation of theindividual reader's subjectivity, whichinfluences the interpretations of the text.

One's subjectivity is created basedon hie,/her social interactions or relationsthrough society and language. Subjecti-vity is constructed on different socialdimensions based on one's gender, agegroup, family, class, nationality, andethnicity (Fiske, 1987). Thus, Fiske saysthat "subjectivity is the product of socialrelations, whereas individuality is seen asthe product of nature, or biology" (Fiske,1987, p. 49). Art works may or may notshow subject positions directly, but thecultural codes embedded in the works arestill envisioned by the viewers accordingto their different social and ideologicalidentities such as gender, age, ethnicity,and profession. In short, "meanings aredetermined socially: that is, they areconstructed out of the conjuncture of thetext with the socially situated reader"(Fiske, 1987, p. 80).

Analysis

Since the objective of the study isto apply reception theory to compare andcontrast and between and among themeanings constructed by viewers ofgroups differing in age, gender, ethnicity,and profession, the analysis begins withreader response analysis of the Book,which focuses on how readers interpretthe Book according to the embeddedcodes and their subjectivity such as age,gender, profession, and ethnicity. AsJohn Fiske pointed out that one'ssubjectivity is socially constructed. Seventypes of subjectivity are identified: self,

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gender, age-group, family, class, nation,and ethnicity (Fiske, 1987, p. 50). Forthe purpose of this study, subjectivity ofage, gender, and ethnicity are selected,which are believed to have influence onviewers' interpretations of the Book. Inaddition, these three types of subjectivityare manageable in carrying out thisresearch in terms of identifying them withthe proposed research methodology.Because one's subjectivity is constructedbased on his/her social relations, for thisstudy, profession is also selected as onetype of subjectivity. Profession,therefore, is defined as the identity of aviewer when he/she is being interviewed,for example, a student, a teacher, or aretired engineer. Viewers' socialpositions as reflected in their professionsare believed to show their relationshipwith viewers' responses.

Codes described earlier provideaccess to the analysis of readers'responses. The interview questions aredesigned to obtain the viewers' reaction tothe codes and their feelings about the artwork. They are:

1. What feeling do you get when youlook at this?2. Do you like it?3. What do you like about it? or What doyou dislike about it?4. What do you think this is?

(the whole piece, the roll, thebanner, and the language)5. What does this (or those) remind youof?6. What is your profession?

Observation, appreciation,impression, and interaction with an artwork is often a matter of feelings.Feelings are an inseparable part ofinterpretation. Interpreting an art work is

different from doing a scientificexperiment in which feelings areseparated from observations (Feldman,1991, p. 412). When interpreting an artwork, one is not looking for the causalrelationship between the observations andthe feelings, one is "looking for an ideathat will connect his feelings to eachother, and also connect them with theobservations he has been making aboutthe object" (Feldman, 1991, p. 412).Therefore, viewers' feelings, impressions,sensitivity, intuition, intelligence, andresponses are important elements ofinterpretations.

Viewers expressed their emotionalresponses to the Book during theinterviews and mail questionnaires. Theyused many different adjectives to describetheir feelings. All the viewers indicatedthat they liked the Book. Five types ofemotional reactions to this Book and itsinstallation were predominant: viewerswere awed and impressed by the effortsand massive amount of work the artisthad done; they admired the beauty of thevisual effect of the work; they agreedwith the artist's concept of the futility ofhuman efforts; they had feelings of beingin a religious place; and weird feelingsabout what the artist accomplished.Because of the limited space for thispaper, the details of the analysis ofviewers' emotional responses will not becovered here. For further reading, readA Reader-Response Analysis of "A Bookfrom the Sky--A Postmodern EducationalEnterprise (Ma, 1993).

Conclusions

Conclusions are drawn from theanalysis and highlight reception theory(which is the theoretical foundation for

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the study); viewers' subjectivity and theirresponses; and intertexuality. It alsodiscusses how this study contributes to theareas of reception theory, education,postmodern art, and Chinese art.

Historical ReadingFrom a historical perspective,

according to reception theorist HansJauss, each reading at different momentsof time produces different meaning. Hebelieved that "the historical life of aliterary work is unthinkable without theactive participation of the addressees" (p.19). The analysis showed two readingsof the Book by Chinese critics at differenthistorical periods resulting in differentinterpretations. The first readinghappened before 4 June 1989 when theatmosphere for creativity in art andliterature was open and liberal and whenthe influence of Western cultures wasstrong. Artists interested in postmodernconcepts created their works in stylessimilar to those seen in the Westerncountries. When the Book was exhibitedin late 1988 and early 1989 in China,positive reviews and critiques appeared inmagazines and newspapers. The Bookwas once considered as "one of the mostrepresentative works since the New Waveof Fine Arts in 1985" (Lin, 1990). Afterthe Tiananmen Square incident on 4 June1989 when the student movement wascrushed, the Chinese government'scontrol of arts was restored to preservesocialist principles for fine arts. Articlesof negative criticism appeared in differentjournals and newspapers. The criticismtargets on the purpose of the art work thatfailed to serve the Chinese reality butfollowed the Western philosophy andartistic outlook.

Reader's Construction of MeaningAmerican reception theorist

Stanley Fish believed in the socialconstruction of knowledge. In his versionof eception theory, "the reader was freedfrom the tyranny of the text and given thecentral role in the production of meaning"(Fish, 1980, p. 7). When talking aboutFish, Jane Tompkins (1980) pointed outthat "meaning is not something oneextracts from a poem, like a nut from ashell, but an experience one has in thecourse of reading" (p. xvi). Reading isthen defined in this study as the processof creating meaning when viewing ABook from the Sky. The Book is acommunication that has been encoded bysocially constructed signs and symbolsthat remain dormant until they arereceived by the viewer. It is the viewerwho creates the meaning (DeVaney,1990, p. 5). Stanley Fish also created theconcepts of interpretive strategies, whichare shaped by the readings of interpretivecommunities. Members' interpretationsoften agree because of their membershipin the same community. But a reader's"subjectivity is the product of socialrelations" (Fiske, 1987, p. 49).

Meanings constructed by different agegroups

The analysis showed that viewersof very young or old ages did notcomment much on the codes. Viewersbetween the ages of thirty-one and forty-five not only made up the largest agegroup in number of interviewees, but alsotheir interpretations were the mostdiverse. They related the Book toChinese culture, Chinese language, andancient culture. They also compared thedraped piece on display to banners andnewspapers; the piece pasted on the wallsto the Vietnam War Memorial, microchipdata, information; the books on the floorto waves, ripples, water; the exhibitionenvironment to libraries, theater, and

universe; the type of art to Dada,Duchamp, conceptual art, history,communication, interpretation, and Zenspirit.

Age does seem to affect theconstruction of meaning. One extreme isthat a viewer of very young or old age isunable to relate much of his/her socialposition to the text. It is also clear thatmeanings made by viewers aged betweenthirty-one to forty-five are more diverse.Their interpretations represent a spectrumof meanings at different intellectual,social, cultural, and other levels. Oneconclusion is that the closer one's age iswith that of the members in an age group,the more likely one's interpretation of theBook is to agree with meanings made bythe members in same age group. Exceptthis conclusion, the other conclusionsabout age cannot be generalized but it issafe to say that age is an importantelement in construction of meaning.

Meanings constructed by different gendergroups

Just as the conclusions about agecannot be generalized, neither can theconclusions about gender, but it isinteresting to note the role of genderplayed in the reading of the Book. Theanalysis shows that more female viewersexpressed their feelings of visual beautyof the Book and they showed moreadmiration for the wholeness of the pieceand the efforts the artist put into it thandid male viewers. More male viewerswere interested in the concept of "futilityof human endeavor." It is extremelyimportant not to generalize thesestatements about gender. Essentializingpositions are counterproductive. Sufficeit to say that the male and femaleresponses here are unique to this study.

In interpretations of the codes ofChinese scrolls in relation to the drapedpiece in the museum, more male viewersexpressed their thoughts. They comparedthe draped piece Lo banners, newspapers,ocean waves, window-dressing,something coming to the earth and fromthe sky. Fewer female viewerscommented on the comparison. Whenboth gender groups interpreted the codesof Chinese paintings, which are the sheetspasted on the walls, interpretations ofmale viewers differed greatly from thoseof female viewers. Male viewersinterpreted the sheets pasted on the wallas reminders of the Vietnam WarMemorial, ROM code for a computer,and libraries. Female viewers interpretedthe sheets pasted on the walls as wallpapers, patterns, statements on bathroomwalls, and catalogs and information.These findings show that these viewersconstructed meaning based on things theydeal with daily, their observations, andexperiences in their lives.

Meanings constructed by viewers ofdifferent professions

The analysis shows profession,one of the social relations in one's life,influences one's construction of meaningwhen viewir:, the Book. Artists relatedtheir interpretations to their world oflearning, knowledge, history, philosophy,and practice. The Book was consideredas conceptual art, Dada movement art,Zen philosophy, theater, movies, and soon. A teacher related his interpretation ofthe exhibition to libraries, which hethought was important in a learningenvironment. A scientist associated theprocess of making this Book to hisscience training process. A technicianconnected her interpretations to catalogsand information. And a house wifeinterpreted the sheets of faked characters

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on the walls as wall paper. Theseinterpretations demonstrate the influenceof viewers' social relations on theirmeaning making processes. Their socialrelations play a role in their constructionof meanings. They do not rely on thetext to extract meaning out of itself, butcreate meaning related to their profession.Viewers of the same profession often tendto agree on their interpretations.

TextIn this study, text has two

meanings. The first is the physical massof the fake characters and the Book itself.Though the characters do not bear anyrr -ng or sound, the Book is acommunication carrying socially andculturally encoded messages, which maybe understood and interpreted by viewersin various ways. The findings of thestudy show that viewers interpreted thetext based on their subjective positions.The other meaning of the "text" is theconstructed meanings by viewers of thesame subjective positions. Viewers aredrawing upon the discourses in whichthey are positioned to interpret thephysical text. Discourses themselves,may be called texts "writ large."

IntertexualityIntertexuality "suggests that certain

meanings of one text are created only bythe existence of related texts" (DeVaney,1987, p. 6). It "calls attention to priortexts in the sense that it acknowledgesthat no text can have meaning withoutthose prior texts, it is space where'meanings' intersect" (Marshall, 1992, p.128). The Book intertexualizes Chineseclassic books, Chinese characters,Chinese language, traditional Chinesebook-binding, Chinese prints, and otheraspects of Chinese culture. How theviewers read the text depends on their

knowledge of these other texts. Theviewers exist "within the textuality"(Marshall, 1992, p. 136). The readerbecomes a co-producer, a co-collaboratorof a text or interpretation. The readertakes on shared responsibility for thetext's "meaning" (Marshall, 1992, p.135).

Drawing from different discourses,the readings of Chinese critics and UnitedStates viewers show great variation intheir construction of meaning.

Meanings constructed by Chinese criticsWhen the Chinese critics read the

Book, they located their meanings inChinese culture, Chinese art, Chineselanguage, characters, Chinese prints,scrolls, calligraphy, the origin andrelationship of Chinese painting andcharacters, arrangement of terra-cottasoldiers, Chinese language reform,typography, invention of printing, book-binding, Chinese society, and otheraspects of Chinese culture and society.For example, critic Yin Ji-nan (1988)dated the printing process of the Bookback to "the tune when Bi Sheng inventedtypography around 1045, but thetechnique is now developed into a kind ofunreadable modern print." Critic WangLin (1989) said, "these fake charactersare arranged like terra-cotta soldiers ofthe Chin Dynasty." Critic Fang Zhou(1990) related the Book to the Chinesepainting and traditional books. "From thepoint of view of a 'book,' it has thebeauty of traditional thread binding andstructure of characters; from the point ofview of 'painting,' it also has the beautyof visual combination of abstract dots andlines." The critics agreed on theinterpretations of the Book as Chinesebook, characters, Chinese traditionalbinding, and other features of Chinese

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characters and language.

Meanings constructed by United Statesviewers

The United States viewers read theBook to locate meanings in their cultureas well. The codes in it invited them toread that with which they are familiar.They related the draped pieces in theexhibition hall as banners hanging ornewspapers. They interpreted the sheetswith fake characters pasted on the wallsas reminders of the Vietnam WarMemorial, wall paper, and statementsmade in public areas. They consideredthe Book as ancient culture.

The analysis shows that the Bookintertexualizes many things both inChinese culture and other cultures. It isthe reader who takes the responsibility tolocate prior texts to create meaning andwrite the text when interacting with it.

ArtistThe analysis of the study shows

that the shared cultural, social, political,and other positions of the artist and theviewers are the important factors thatcontribute to the interpretation of theintentions of the artist. Chinese criticsnot only agreed that the Book is intendedto warn people that it is culture thatrestricts them, which is the intention ofthe artist, but also they understood theintended purpose of the special method ofinstallation, which is to make theexhibition hall look like a dark prison ofwords or a sorrowful place. These wellarranged, designed, and inventedcharacters do attract Chinese-speakingviewers to believe that they are authenticcharacters. Because of the process ofdeconstruction and reconstrwtion of thecharacters, Chinese critics studied the

origin and relationship between Chinesepaintings and characters and the impact ofthese authentic-looking but non-realcharacters on the practice of Chinesecalligraphy.

The intentions of the artist werenot well shared by United States viewers.It is impossible for them to have the realfirst-hand feel of the social, cultural, andpolitical conditions in China when theBook was made. Because of the lack ofthe knowledge of these conditions, theyinterpreted the installation as a learningenvironment, a peaceful place, church,and universe, which are available in theirculture, but not the intention of the artist.Though their interpretations did not matchthe intentions of the artist as theyinterpreted the codes in the Book, theycreated meanings of these codes out ofthe context in their own culture. Forexample, they compared the Chinesescroll as banners and newspapers andChinese paintings hanging on the walls toVietnam War Memorial and wall paper.These differences resulted from thedifferences in culture and society andother aspects.

Implications of the Study

This study provides us with a method toapply poststructural reader-responsetheory in the analysis of postmodern artas visual texts. Since postmodern artwork is a visual text carrying embeddedcultural codes which invite readers(viewers) to read them, the readingactivity of the viewer is a process ofproducing the meaning of the visual text.The viewer is to finish the work meaningthat a text is not complete until interactedwith the viewer who "writes the text,"(i.e., produces meaning of the text).Interpreting a visual text is not to be an

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individual critic's own interpretation,rather, it is important to recognize theinterpretation by a community of viewerswho share the same subject positions.The study also contributes to the theoryof art criticism in recognizing that it isimpossible to understand postmodern artsimply by looking at formal qualities asmodern art critics did, becausepostmodern art is a mirror of currentsocial, political, and cultural awareness;it is in many genres; it is a hybrid ofmulticultures; there are no cohntryboundaries. This study is particularlyvaluable during "a period of particularcrisis in art criticism" (Wallis, 1984, p.xi).

In addition, this study gives us abetter understanding of contempor"ry artin China. From the years of 5 to1989, Chinese art began to reflect social,political, cultural, and other values. It isdifferent from art in those stages ofChinese history when content determinedform and form served content. Thepurpose of art then was for the socialistcause.

Through a poststructural textualanalysis of the Book and the subjectpositioning of the viewers, the study notonly contributes to the understanding ofthe nature of language, meaningconstruction, and its relationship betweensocially positioned reader, but also to theunderstanding of subjectivity, which issocially produced. The study providesteachers and students with an opportunityto be in an open classroom to criticallyview this visual text from political, social,and cultural nuances. A Book from theSky, therefore, possesses educationalvalue. It not only educates the viewersabout the social, political, and aestheticqualities of the work itself and but also

about the background and conditions ofChina.

Postmodern theory of art stressesthat art is a cultural expression. "Art isa collective communication about theexperience of life in a particular culture"(Grieder, 1985, p. 8). The embeddedcultural codes in the Book indicate strongcultural expressions. A postmodern arteducation approach not only recognizesthe learning of self-expression techniquesbut also regulating power of social forces(Parks, 1989, p. 13). Thus, education inpostmodern era is not classroom-bound ina traditional sense. A Book from the Skyprovides viewers with an opportunity .oconfront with cultural images, issues, andambiguities. The Book can also beregarded as a medium that facilitatedliberatory education from a point of viewof critical pedagogy (Ellsworth, 1987, p.33). Viewing and interacting with theBook to create meanings is an educationalexperience in a museum, which might becalled an open classroom. This openclassroom provided viewers or studentswith the opportunity to reflect on theirsubject positions and critically view thisvisual text with political, cultural, andartistic nuances. The experience ofviewing the Book provided students withan opportunity to confront visual imagesfrom a different culture and to engageissues related to that culture, which wereembedded in the images. In addition, thisstudy offers an awareness of how globaladvances in communications andtechnology have changed Chinese art andcreated art without boundaries. In thisrespect, the Book serves as a postmoderneducational vehicle to mix art withtechnology.

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