if you are not familiar with the contemporary chinese art scene for the last 20 years, this book gives you a good overview of the various chinese artists that have made a name. mr. sigg, who was a swiss ambassador in china and far east, have accumulated an impressive collection in the manner of saatchi. however, the point of view is always from a western persepctive of what is interesting in china, and additionally, the criticism/essays are weak. many of the pop, expressionistic, photo reality-illusion, baconesque, and conceptual artworks created by the majority of the chinese artists are nothing more than copies of western artists from the 1930's to current except that the image is chinese. just because, mao appears in coca cola sign or mao is painted like richter or bacon doesn't make many of the artworks into anything significant other than it is documenting the art situation. there are very few chinese artists (such as xu bing, cai quo qiang) that are really interesting in both ideas and conception, but there are many nice copies of western ideas. as usual, even though the chinese contemporary artworld is still a baby, it is already catagorized such as "myths and legends, contemporary life, city vs. countryside, and etc."
however, this is the current situation of the chinese art world, and for those who need to see who/what is popular amongst western/chinese collectors of chinese works, this is an informative book.