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M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong. By donation, © Zhou Tao
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Mediatheque
Zhou Tao 周滔
Wish You Make a Pile 恭喜發財
2003–2004
In Wish You Make a Pile, Zhou Tao parodies business etiquette in China. He plays the role of a street vendor selling ‘business sleeves’, which are fabric sheaths designed to cover the two wearers’ hands and forearms during a bargaining session. The sleeves feature a range of decorative motifs, including the American flag, Osama bin Laden’s face, and the Yin and Yang tai chi symbol. Zhou’s street performance is followed by a series of images and film footage featuring models wearing jackets with one regular sleeve, and one ‘business sleeve’. The final part of the video shows two businessmen concluding a negotiation, their handshake and agreed price concealed by a business sleeve. In its focus on the rituals and accoutrements of professionalism, the work satirises the feverish, self-serious pursuit of commercial success in early twenty-first-century China.
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