Since the early 1990s, Yue Minjun has devoted himself to building an exaggerated "self-image" on canvas, which has extended in recent years into his sculpture as well as a large series of silk-screen prints. At times "it" is presented alone, whilst at others repeated to effect a crowd. This "self-image" may beam with its eyes closed, or playact, but either way the mood is of enormous confidence. "It" emerges in certain settings which are, in a sense, the space within which and background against which Chinese culture developed and struggled through the 1990s. Particularly in respect of the living status, the history of growth, of cultural relationships between the East and the West, the difference between male and female, and economic and political (violent) events engendered by globalization. All these settings are transformed into or reduced to games as the "self-image" is magnified. "I" seem not to live in the environment but just happen to appear here. In the "self-image", the eyes are always tightly shut, and whatever takes place outside is not important to "me" at all. Centered in the world lies the narcissistic, self-assured and overweening "I", the "self" in contemporary Chinese art. It is not the discovery of or respect for individual personal values, but a cult of personality bearing a touch of absolutism. The personality cult originates from a kind of desire for theatrics as arises when people are materially satisfied under certain market conditions. The "self" turns into a magnified form of the self, a "hero", and something that needs a stage to play on. The "self" does not possess a specific social identity or has not yet formed one; the "self" is the most generalized thing and is the maximized personality cult with striking features of post-absolutism. Yue Minjun himself calls it a "new idol" and explains his work as the creation of "new idols".

With a concrete and magnified image, the idolized "self" has found its attribute of certain class and culture on the world stage, which can be regarded both as the initial and immediate positioning of Chinese artists in the process of globalization, and as the self-definition of Chinese contemporary art. However, the "new idol" is hard to define. It is more like the branding of a trademark so necessary if it is to be distinguished more quickly, easily and directly. In this sense, comparison with the US-based Thai contemporary artist Udomsak Krisanamis might be interesting. Krisanamis styles himself like a bourgeois golf player, well educated and elegant in dress. Different from the vagrant and rebellious images of artists in the times of modernism, he sees himself as a member of extremely commercial times, trying to tell people he is a steadfast supporter of social order of which he takes pleasure in being a member.

Krisanamis positions his identity distinctively, which can be apprehended in contrast to the traditional positioning of modern artists. As to the self-positioning of Chinese artist Yue Minjun, more lies in the identification and personality cult. In the reflection on the position of contemporary artists, Yue Minjun is imbued with the same passion as Krisanamis who has a clear knowledge of the materiality and historicity of the occupation while Yue Minjun has forever been entangled in displaying the status of human beings in certain cultural environments. Though Yue Minjun paints with individual characteristics of the artist's self-image, accumulation of increasing "self-images" has conversely resulted in the need for works to define the personal image of the artist. Thus, the artist becomes super important and turns out to be an idol that needs worshiping. His works are just like commercial promotional materials, not a type of spiritual home but a counterpoint to artists working with realism. For many realist artists have already become idolised, and as idol they have already become a public benchmark.

(Udomsak Krisanamis was born in Bankok, Thailand in 1966. At the age of 25, he immigrated to the United States settling first in Chicago where he attended the Art Institute from 1991 until 1993. Since the mid-1990s he has lived and worked in New York City.)

The exaggerated and distorted poses of many public sculptures in the 1960s and 1970s in China are employed unconsciously in Yue Minjun's works, so the "self-image" becomes a national "self-image" and voice of the masses. The narcissistic description of "self-image" by Chinese contemporary artists that appeared in the 1990s was a new variety of love for authority under new economic conditions rather than the need for personality by society.

Definition of "self-image" has been the theme of China's contemporary art since 1990s. For individual Chinese artists, approval of the worship for "self-image" has become kind of trademark recognized internationally and nationally. The image of Yue Minjun (the new idol) has been widely accepted by the media and the public, and has met the need for creating new heroes today by magazines with his extraordinary self-knowledge of contemporary times. Exhibitions of Yue Minjun's "self-image" are, at the same time, a display of market strategies and development of public communicative skills. The altering of the occasion does not shift people's attention to these events or to the understanding of the events; instead, it concentrates on promoting the image more widely, deeply and persistently. Even in Yue Minjun's sculptures, the special combination of forms is an outstanding technique in publicizing his image.

"Modern terracotta soldiers and horses" begun in 2000 "strives to incorporate certain historic energy into the creation of 'self-image'". Against this, the value in terms of culture and tourism embodied in the "terracotta soldiers and horses" arouses a general expectation from the outside that the maker should be a follower of individual cultural heroism. This differs from the approach of artists such as Damien Hirst or Marc Quinn who have found particular ways of dealing with feelings through their personal, concrete and crazy understanding of today's material world. The outside regards their insight and feelings as symbolic of personal cultural heroism, whereas for Yue Minjun, "tradition" has become an important method of perceiving personal cultural heroism of contemporary Chinese artists.

Artists of Yue Minjun's age are living in a period of global prosperity under which China's market economy system has been implemented and accelerated. The international art market seems to have been well prepared to offer a warm welcome to these artists who develop their own market strategies and public communicative skills in the proper environment. They have almost become the embodiment of trademarks invented by themselves, among whom Yue Minjun is undoubtedly a rather successful one.