The “Eight Brokens” (bapo)

Bapo appeared in various formats, from scroll and fan paintings to decorations on plates, bowls, and snuff bottles. Bapo was a commercial genre fashionable among those familiar with but not necessarily members of the literati class. In this way, bapo painters paid tribute to the cultural memory of the past, while also highlighting their own technical mastery. In addition to fragments of paintings, book pages, rubbings from bronze sculptures, and burnt calligraphy, the artist even includes the smallest details, such as postage stamps, seals, and the tears and folds of paper.