Booming music sets the tone for art aficionados and students who gathered Thursday evening in the Art Gallery of the Cesar Chavez Student Center for the opening of Wild Wild East, a show featuring series of visually compelling works that fuse Eastern traditional culture with Western modernity.

The works of two established Beijing artists, Huang Yan and Liu Xiaodong, Korean-American artist Debbie Han and popular tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy are exhibited.

According to Daphne Fang, exhibit curator, these artists represent a growing theme in the art world that is becoming increasingly popular: a new "rethinking process" through Eastern and Western fusion.

"This kind of work hasn't been featured on campus like this before; it's something new and different," said Fang. "These artists were chosen because they represent their adaptations of Eastern life adjusting to Western contemporary society."

Featured artist Debbie Han's "Terms of Beauty" series presents sculptures executed in the ancient ceramic technique of celadon, and depicts busts of Venus with the facial features of diverse races. The sculptures combine different ethnic characteristics, leaving the viewer with different interpretations of beauty.

Huang Yan's work is an experimentation on various techniques, including pigment prints, mixed media prints (lithography on pigment prints), and photo images embedded in resin panels. His pieces in the exhibit are representative of the new Chinese artist movement that has exploded since the end of a strict Communist regime that outlawed artwork done by civilian artists.

"It's almost like a Renaissance. A huge wave of things are being produced," says Freddie Fong, director of the Freddie Fong Gallery, who helped Fang curate this exhibit. "That's why we decided to name the exhibit 'Wild Wild East'. It's bringing an Eastern perspective with a 'no holds barred' attitude, much like the attitude of the Wild Wild West. Mistakes are being made, there's a lot being said and artists can finally express themselves without censorship."

Beijing artist Liu Xiaodong's realist figurative paintings explore the changes of Chinese culture by presenting "slices" of reality in chronicling everyday scenes that often escape people's attention. The work aims to question cultural values in contemporary society.

The work of Don Ed Hardy, famous for his eccentric tattoo-inspired clothing line, represents the impact of Asian culture through his dragon and tiger-clad mixed-media pieces. The classic Asian symbols are mixed in a way with vibrant colors to show Hardy's contemporarily creative spirit.

"I think people should try to incorporate art into their everyday lives," said Hardy. "Exhibits like this really bring different ideas and art forms to people's attention, especially in a student setting like this."

Hardy has been painting and making art since he was very young and his passion for tattooing only enhanced his love of art and creating beautiful things. His artwork is his "real, self-proclaimed passion."

"I don't know how much a student community has exposure to this kind of art work," says Fong. "I know when I went to university I benefited from seeing different kinds of international art work like this."

Wild Wild East runs until April 15 and is located on the upper terrace level of the Cesar Chavez Student Center. Admission is free.