Chinatown 4（2015）,Oil on canvas ，220 × 300 cm，The Parkview Museum Collection

Chinese contemporary artist Liu Xiaodong is known for his documentary works depicting the contemporary social reality. He believes in the importance of direct observation to analyze reality, and so he captures the images of everyday life he encounters and lays them onto the canvas. Liu Xiaodong particularly focuses on the phenomena of migration and people leaving their homes. He says, “People sometimes leave home to escape the chaos of war, or to seek a better future. I would like to create artworks on this subject to reflect certain changes and stalemates in the world today.”

From the fall of 2015 to the spring of 2016, Liu Xiaodong did a residency in Tuscany, Italy, during which time he visited Prato, the city with the highest concentration of Chinese in Europe, and created the Chinatown series. Prato is on the outskirts of Florence. Most of the Chinese people here work in the local clothing and leather factories. They work over ten hours a day in these factories, and have virtually no interaction with the Italian communities around them, never idly enjoying a cup of coffee at the cafes like the locals. At most, they buy lottery tickets or play mahjong on the streets as depicted in the Chinatown series.

The background of Chinatown 4 is filled with cloth and thread spools of all shapes and colors. These clues make it easy to guess that the artist is capturing a scene of the workers playing mahjong during a break. If it weren't for the title of “Chinatown,” however, we would have no idea of the special identity of the people in the image, that of “migrant laborers.” The Chinese people of Prato have not assimilated into Italy, but have instead created their own universe that runs parallel to the local society and culture. In the Chinatown series, the artist's focus is on this fascinating social phenomenon.