Abstract:  The reputation of Chinese artists, as epitome of Chinese cultural dissemination, reflects not only how China and the West perceives Chinese arts, but also the influence of Chinese culture in the world. There are significant cognitive differences between China and the West in viewing Chinese artists. China pays more attention to modern artists, while the West obviously “values the past far more than the present”, so there are sharp differences in the mechanism of reputation building and channels of fame obtaining between China and the West. The major channel for Chinese artists to gain reputation domestically is to be included into the narrative tradition in the history of Chinese arts while having multiple other identities such as literati and officials. The historical evolution of Chinese artists’ international reputation have been consistent throughout the times, yet featured with timesharing aggregation, which is inseparable from the nation’s fate on the whole. Both internal factors such as the source of artists’ inheritance and external factors such as religion, economy and trade, cultural exchanges have played an important role in influencing Chinese artists’ international popularity. A study of artists’ reputation based on big data will present a new research paradigm to the global dissemination of Chinese culture.

Key words: artist, reputation, big data, rankings, dissemination of arts