Bridges or Dynamite? The arts as vehicles of intercultural dialogue

Prof Njabulo Ndebele

Intercultural contact is about being exposed to the unfamiliar and then having to decide to accommodate the new experience or to resist it. There are threats and opportunities both ways.

South Africa: Expression under Repression

Mike van Graan

South African playwright Mike van Graan reflects the interface between the arts and culture, civic society and the media in contemporary South Africa, a country that moved away from an overtly repressive state to a constitutional democracy.

Oil and water in China

Simon Kirby

Ai Weiwei, a leading light in China's avant garde, tells Simon Kirby why artists have to challenge the powerful.

Written on the body in China

Simon Kirby

China's ground-breaking generation of new wave artists has pushed the boundaries, but some subjects still remain off limits, writes Simon Kirby