Underpinnings, Issues and Challenges of Art-based Enquiry: a Chinese perspective

Scholars have become keenly aware of the growing importance attached to artbased enquiry in discussions of art and art education over the last two decades, and it has become a crucial topic among the Western academic community. However, it is not of major concern in Hong Kong, China or Taiwan. Only a small number of articles were found in which art-based research methodologies and methods in the Chinese context are discussed in any detail. It is evident that artbased enquiry is a topic unfamiliar to the Chinese academic community and that a re-conceptualisation of enquiry methods is called for. In light of the above, this paper provides a philosophical analysis of the discourse on the fundamental underpinning, enquiry approach and context of art-based research. It examines topics relevant to this issue in the Chinese context. It argues that expanding discussions on art-based research will be beneficial to methodologies and methods used in the fields of both art and art educational research.