In the Name of Art— Zhao Bandi's Panda Couture 
n the evening of January 15, 2008, Zhao Bandi, together with his panda-style fashion dresses, went aboard the yacht named Jinmao Shengrong that was docked at the bank of Huangpu River, making his appearance in Shanghai.
Such a party for galleries, called “ShanghArt Evening: Graceful Arrival of Zhao Bandi and His Panda-style Fashion Dresses,” attracted there a total of 70 domestic and foreign distinguished guests from circles of culture fashion, art collection, financial investment and other fields. The owner of Contrasts Gallery, Lin Mingzhu, artists Xue Song and Zhou Tiehai, modern dance artist Jin Xing, writer Mianmian, actress Zhang Jingchu, Chen Yifei’s son Chen Lin -- almost all familiar faces in Shanghai art communities were seated there at the two western-style long dinning tables in the banquet hall on the third floor of the yacht. The cups went gaily round and the guests were talking enthusiastically.
The lovely “panda” ritual girls in black suits and white wigs with false hairy panda ears were shuttling back and forth at the door of the banquet hall, in the corridor of the staircases and around the overcoat check counter, like a mobile notice of an up-coming fashion show.
The video recording of the panda-style fashion release meeting that had made a sensation in the Beijing International Fashion Week two months ago was replayed on a projection television in the banquet hall. The show featured Zhao Bandi’s panda-style fashions, depicting all types of people: “property sales girls” wore tall hats like pagoda buildings, “corrupt government officials” were dressed in coats with white on the left side and black on the right side, the upper garments of “fans” were like a huge bunch of flowers, “Luxury Brands Lovers ” had all sorts of famous logos printed over their clothes … Zhao Bandi had unique panda-like black and white attires custom-made for outstanding figures of various social classes, including “Web Celebrities,” “lovely office secretaries,” “Mistresses” as well as “real estate developers,” “WTO,” “successful people,” etc. Zhao even invited there the prototype guest models of the dresses, such as ‘Hibiscus Sister,’ Yang Er Che Na Mu, Pan Shiyi, and others, who performed and exhibited on the T-stage.
These series of bold, jocular and sarcastic panda-style fashion dresses suddenly brought the high-sounding and remarkable artist into the focus of the media, and exposed him to both praise and blame from mass media or netizens. The native place of giant panda – Chengdu of Sichuan province was undoubtedly one of the places most concerned with Zhao’s performing art, and the local government of Chengdu even told the media they would soon start a legislation process to establish the “Chengdu Municipal Giant Panda Protection Regulations,” which was directed at similar “mischievous” behaviors towards giant pandas.
However, the ever independent-minded Zhao would never let himself disturbed by other people’s opinions. At the party he recalled an event in 1936 when an American woman sailed from Huangpu River and shipped a panda out of China for the first time, and he believed his appearance on the Huangpu River in Shanghai in 2008 with his panda-style fashion dresses demonstrated the confidence of Chinese people. Hard to say if these emotional expressions came out of artistic innocence or out of his worldly wisdom, but it was obvious this performing artist, who had made “panda” the theme in his creations since 1999 and who always held a panda or had a panda fastened on the top of his head, was making determined efforts to have himself and the national treasure penetrate and even influence the life of the general public.
After the banquet, the panda-style fashion show began and nine sets of human fashion dresses came in turn: “the teachers,” “the middle school girl students,” “the nail households,” “the woman homosexuals,” “the corrupt government officials,” “the law-court judges,” “the fans of stars,” and “the policemen,” etc. Next, the following auction would lift the party mood to another climax.
Zhao designated the conjoint “police” uniform that was made of white genuine-leather and flanked by black pile as the only piece for auction from the panda-style fashion series. At the two sides of the dinning tables some domestic and foreign guests constantly raised hands to bid, and Lorenz Helbling, the owner of ShanghArt Gallery to which Zhao contracted, had bid three times. The starting price of 5,000 RMB yuan crawled all the way up to 50,000 
yuan, 100,000 yuan, and 200,000 yuan respectively; when Lorenz Helbling bid 300,000 yuan at the critical point of 200,000 yuan, the “police” uniform readily left behind the sale prices of luxury brands like Dior, Chanel and other top-grade ready-made dresses. Its price kept soaring to strong art price categories; finally, Dai Zhiqiang, an ancient coins collector in Shanghai, won the bidding at a high price of 600,000 yuan.
Though the closing price was already 120 times the starting price, the buyer still remarked that, “as an art piece, it sells really cheap at 600,000 yuan,” Zhao Bandi also claimed that 600,000 yuan was only a bottom-line price for his panda-style fashion dresses. The half-hour on-the-spot auction had testified to his anticipation of the “luxury index” for his panda-style fashion dresses.
In the name of art, Zhao Bandi looked so much serious; in the name of auction, the gap between 60,000 and 600,000 was only an irrational and effortless “zero.” In a speech at the party he sighed, “For the first time Chinese people have come so closer to money, and now they begin to talk about luxury.” He indicated that he “would honestly love to tell people through fashion shows what is luxury.”
Some may believe he accomplished it.
Zhao Bandi Speaking
Teacher
Middle School Student
Lesbian
Corrupt Official
Fans
Judge
policewoman
Zhao Bandi
Zhao Bandi
Auctioning
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