In Mai Dang Lao (McDonald’s), a hamburger box, french fries container, a fork, and a knife, are cast in bronze and adorned with traditional Chinese motifs, like the taotie mask, which is typically featured on ancient ritual bronze vases used in Chinese ancestor worship.  Here it is combined with the iconic logo of the fast-food giant, transforming the “Happy Meal” into a Shang Dynasty artifact.  The creative juxtaposition of ancient China with contemporary America, and ritual art with consumer culture, is a whimsical critique of the systems of power.  The artist, Zhang Hongtu, a leader of the Political Pop movement in contemporary Chinese art, lives in Queens, New York, after emigrating from China in the 1980s.