Abstract

A photo collage of past and present street visuals in Asia, Aestheticizing Public Space explores the domestic, regional, and global nexus of East Asian cities through theirgraffiti, street art and other visual forms in public space. Attempting to unfold the complex positions of these images in the urban spatial politics of their respectiveregions, Lu Pan explores how graffiti in East Asia reflects the relationship between aesthetics and politics. The book situates itself in a contested dynamic relationshipamong human bodies, visual modernity, social or moral norms, styles, and historical experiences and narratives. On a broader level, this book aims to shed light on howaesthetics and politics are mobilized in different contested spaces and media forms, in which the producer and the spectator change and exchange their identities.