- Jason Lee/Reuters
- A painter works on a portrait of former Shenzhen Mayor Xu Zongheng for Chinese artist and film-maker Zhang Bingjian’s “Hall of Fame” project showing corrupt officials.
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Chinese corruption convicts have a new place to hang their heads: A Hall of Fame.
Artist and filmmaker Zhang Bingjian opened an installation that, so far, features 1,200 portraits of corrupt Chinese officials, according to a report in the Toronto Star.
Zhang said the inspiration for the project came when he discovered the depth of the corruption in China. “I remember being shocked, a little angry and then confused,” he said.
“The idea,” Zhang told the Star, “is to make people think, why is this happening in China? Why do so many people do it? How do we stop it?”
China ranks 78th out of 178 on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, a global survey-of-surveys that checks the temperature of risk in a given country. It has vowed to get tougher on corruption recently, and last month executed two former vice-mayors after they were convicted of bribery.
Chinese officials met over the course of the year with the U.S. on the topic, and there’s a mini-boom in anti-bribery consultants there.
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