Here’s AFP’s take on the growth of graffiti in China’s cities:

[U]nlike their counterparts in the West, who have sometimes used the art form to convey political messages, Chinese artists offer a message that has little to do with revolt or protest.

“Graffiti art in China has got rid of the strong rebelliousness and confrontational attitude in Western graffiti,” said Luo Zhongli, head of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute.

“It is related to the aesthetics of people’s lives, and leans more towards fashion.”

Chen and Liu say that most Chinese artists took up graffiti as a trendy fad, having discovered it through the Internet, films, magazines and from friends who had travelled abroad.

Most of the pair’s designs revolve around cartoons, abstract images and colourful words such as their graffiti names — not politics. (AFP)

Coincidentally, I was walking by a wall two days ago that was plastered with graffiti. The style was very familiar and would have fit right in anywhere in the West.

What was the message on that wall? The artists were trying to direct passers-by to their social networking web site. The graffiti had the name of the site and a web address.

Does this detract from the artists’ street cred, or should we give these guys some credit for trying to make some money off of this particular vandalism?