The works of contemporary artists Xu Bing, Ed Pien and Gu Xiong are involved in bringing to light some of the factors inherent in social, cultural and linguistic translation. In doing so, each artist is also engaged in the nuanced activity of moving between historical and contemporary aesthetic strategies in order to interrogate the way meaning is produced through materials-based iterations, against a backdrop of public culture. This essay situates the works of Xu Bing, Ed Pien and Gu Xiong in relation to each artist's own respective practice which has spanned more than twenty years. Concentrating specifically on projects where the artists mobilize western-influenced art methodologies and refer to traditional Chinese/Asian art styles, the essay makes canny revelations about the nature of communication, and on linguistic and material translation, in contemporary culture in the globalizing world. (Contains 9 figures and 8 endnotes.)