Departing from the figure of the Taowu, a Chinese mythological monster of evil inclination used recently by historians and writers to symbolize the violent fate of Chinese utopian modernity, this publication interrogates the role of systemic and structural violence in the making of modernity and its artistic representations, and uses the monster as a vantage point to capture global dimensions of the current crisis of social imaginaries.

Edited by Anselm Franke, curator of the Taipei Biennial, and Brian Kuan Wood. With contributions by David Der-Wei Wang, Nabil Ahmed, Chen Chieh-Jen, Reza Negarestani, Jow Jiun Gong, Joachim Koester, James T. Hong, Jei Li, Bavand Behpoor, Sophie Wahnich, Ian Svenonius, Eric Baudelaire, Masao Matsuda, Mark Fisher, Alberto Toscano, Hu Fang, Chihiro Minato, and Natasha Ginwala.

Designed by Zak Group

Published by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum and Spector Books, 2015

Softcover, 300 pages, 100 b&w illustrations, 7.10 × 10.25 inches

ISBN: 978-3-944669-56-4