Abstract: The paper takes a philosophical instead of a historical perspective to look at contemporary Chinese art, concerned with the relationship between contemporary Chinese art and "Western" theory. In the attempt to articulate the relationship between contemporary Chinese art and "Western" theory, the paper proposes "the question of hospitality" as its approach to the issue, asking who exactly the host and the guest are and what kind of dynamics is suggests by a relationship of hospitality. It begins by proposing a brief sketch of a philosophical theme or dilemma that is supposed to be crucial for the development of "theory" in the 1980 and reflects on its relationship to developments in contemporary Chinese art. The paper maintains that the "contemporary" implies a new position, a new orientation in relation to the circumstances and events of the present.

Key words: hospitality, the contemporary, contemporary Chinese art, Western theory, subjectivity, the Other