In China, performance art feels the chill from official disapproval

Chinese performance artist Han Bing applies paint to his face before a shoot with German photographer Katharina Hesse at the outskirts of Beijing, China, October 2, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

BEIJING (Reuters) - One woman, a performance artist from Taiwan, tied herself up with bras, but left her nipples exposed. Another artist, a Romanian woman in a bathing suit, had someone write the Chinese characters for "control" and "art" across her buttocks.

But, for the most part, the annual OPEN international performance art festival, held in a secret venue in Beijing out of sight of China's increasingly active censors, was a relatively tame and quiet affair this year.