Studio: Steal the Plane 偷飞机去 Series: “Occupation”

Material: Porcelain

Technique: underglaze Qinghua cobalt + overglaze decal (lead-free)

Height: 13.3 cm Diameter: 8.5 cm There is a cup that every Chinese person recognises. Tall, cylindrical, with a lid to keep the tea warm through long meetings. Decorated with a Qinghua dragon, it sat on the desks of government officials, factory directors, and Communist Party cadres throughout the second half of the twentieth century. In Chinese visual culture, this cup is not just a vessel. It is an emblem of institutional authority, of bureaucratic endurance, of a particular era when the state and the teacup were never far apart.

Tian Wei takes this most loaded of everyday objects and puts it through the Occupation process. The Qinghua dragon, symbol of power and cosmic order, receives the Occupation mark: bold, irregular, applied without deference. The result is startling. What was solemn becomes irreverent. What was official becomes personal. The cadre's meeting cup, once a signifier of rank and conformity, is suddenly, unmistakably, punk.

The humour is intentional and precise. This is not mockery. It is an act of reclamation. The cup belongs to everyone now.