I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke, 2018, Pepsi and acrylic on Sumi scroll, 15’’x55’’, Content: Chinese translation of “I’d like to teach the world to sing” for Coca-Cola’s hilltop TV commercial.

 

I’d like to buy the world a coke unfolds a dialogue between the local and global. The hanging scroll written in Pepsi ink criticizes the mechanism of glocalization and China’s effort to bolster the economy through urbanization. The scroll produces profound discordance by conflating the traditional composition of calligraphy and the unconventional medium of soda, mimicking the many perplexing effects of urban development on China. In doing so, I’d like to buy the world a coke fabricates a Chinese identity without a soul, leaving only the cosmopolitan hunger to consume on a global stage while simultaneously being consumed and manipulated. Furthermore, through using Pepsi ink to write the lyrics from a Coke commercial, the work unveils the homogeneity of a globally consumed product disguised in diverse packagings.