If you want to know what emerging Chinese artists are up to, take a look at the "Refresh" exhibit at the Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art. The works are relatively pure and experimental but a little too lite, writes Yao Minji.Young Chinese artists are crowding into the booming art scene. Many recent art graduates and even university students can't wait to jump in. But what's their work like? Do they have something in common? Do they have remarkable personal styles? Are they making new art?You might come up with some answers at the "Refresh" exhibition at the Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art, featuring 37 works from 36 emerging Chinese artists. Most art forms are represented - installations, videos, photos, paintings, among others - but no performance art.Two-thirds of the artists were born after 1980, the oldest one is just 33 years old, while the youngest just entered university."The idea is to give those emerging artists, who are out of the commercial circle and focus on experimenting with art, an opportunity to present their works," the exhibition curator Su Wenxiang tells Shanghai Daily."Age is not the selection standard. We selected artists and works according to presence. We wanted such artists who haven't been influenced or swayed by the commercial world and whose works are relatively pure and experimental."The works are quite experimental, although not revolutionary. For example, Sichuan artist Li Xiaosong's installation includes a model of the human brain in the middle with four huge video screens on the sides. When the viewer touches any point on the brain, photos or clips of old films - what Li calls memories of himself - appear on the screen.Many visitors were drawn to it, touched the brain and found many images are common memories of this generation, like well-known films from the 1990s.Shanghai artist Fan Mingzhu's serial pictures titled "Not Me" feature hundreds of tiny colorful toys piled into the shapes of different human gestures. Sean Burlitale, an art student from Britain, says he has seen similar works in both Europe and China."Of course, it is not exactly the same, but you can see the influence," says Burlitale, who spends almost all his leisure time visiting exhibitions. "I'm not saying imitation is bad. But you get tired once you see too many similar forms."Curator Su also agrees that there are inevitable influences in many of the works, but he doesn't agree with the word "imitation.""They are expressing different content and ideas. Who can say you have never been influenced?" asks Su.The curator also says the overall sense of the works from artists born after 1980 is "a little too light" and they need more depth. Perhaps that is why Wang Kangming and his wife, a middle-aged couple who are both middle school teachers, browsed the exhibition rather quickly."I don't think we are looking at pioneering stuff. Exhibitions get increasingly stranger in the forms displayed, but there is not much insight to see," says Wang. He is glad "this exhibition showcases a kind of status so we know what the young artists are doing and how they are doing."For curator Su, that is exactly the purpose of the exhibition, and he concludes that "it should not be an one-off event, but should happen many times."