In the 1980s, "public art" had been noticed and discussed by western scholars, which eventually spread to Japan and China too. In this context, Harriet F. Senie and Sally Webster published their co-edited Critical Issues in Public Art : Content, Context and Controversy in 1992, which was translated into Chinese and published in Taiwan, China, in 1999. By analyzing its publishing backgrounds in China and America, this paper compares the development and academic context of "public art" between east and west, and then clarifies the international trend of "public art" and its drawback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]