“As an event, the Shanghai Biennial would seem a success. Major figures from Europe, America and Asia attended, although many, including a delegation from New York’s MoMA, were making a side trip from a curating conference organised by the Asia Society in Hong Kong. But the longer-term picture is cloudier, as the haphazardly installed, barely coherent Biennial—resembling, at times, an art fair—cemented a growing scepticism overseas about both Chinese art and the possibilities of mounting serious art exhibitions in China.”