Geez, what does Michael Atkinson have against Zhang Yimou (or the middle-class, for that matter?

Zhang Yimou has known middle-class acclaim like a show dog knows shampoo.

Why do intellos love to hate the middle class so much, anyway? It's like the contempt for kitsch:

kitsch (from bartleby.com)
NOUN: 1. Sentimentality or vulgar, often pretentious bad taste, especially in the arts

xrefer.com
kitsch
(German, 'trash') Art that is considered vulgar, tawdry, or pretentious, especially work designed to have a popular, sentimental appeal. It has been most often applied to mass-produced items, such as cheap tourist souvenirs, but it can also refer to intentionally vulgar images used by artists, for example Andy Warhol's silk-screen prints of Campbell's soup cans.

kitsch (German: rubbish)
Any artefact that aspires to have artistic integrity but is judged to be pretentious, sentimental, or out of step with current notions of good taste. While this clearly includes cheap mass-produced souvenirs created to satisfy a market that is unable to distinguish between what is kitsch and what is not, it is also true that many objects now regarded as kitsch have been coveted as original creations in other periods. Some 20th-century artists and sculptors, particularly those associated with postmodernism, have purposely produced items that they themselves regard as kitsch.
The Macmillan Encyclopedia 2001

kitsch
A German term for 'vulgar trash' which became fashionable in the early 20th cent. Its application ranged from commercial atrocities such as touristic souvenirs to any pretended art which is considered lacking in honesty or vigour. A museum of such products was organized at Stuttgart. Although the battle against kitsch was healthy in its origin, in Germany it frequently led to an unbalanced fear of all obvious beauty or sentiment.
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So what's the difference between kitsch and camp?

from bartleby.com
camp2
NOUN: 1. An affectation or appreciation of manners and tastes commonly thought to be artificial, vulgar, or banal. 2. Banality, vulgarity, or artificiality when deliberately affected or when appreciated for its humor.

m-w.com
camp 3: something so outrageously artificial, affected, inappropriate, or out-of-date as to be considered amusing

bartleby: camp2
NOUN: 1. An affectation or appreciation of manners and tastes commonly thought to be artificial, vulgar, or banal. 2. Banality, vulgarity, or artificiality when deliberately affected or when appreciated for its humor

Also from from bartleby: funky
4. Slang b. Outlandishly vulgar or eccentric in a humorous or tongue-in-cheek manner; campy.

from xrefer.com
kitsch (German: rubbish)
Any artefact that aspires to have artistic integrity but is judged to be pretentious, sentimental, or out of step with current notions of good taste. While this clearly includes cheap mass-produced souvenirs created to satisfy a market that is unable to distinguish between what is kitsch and what is not, it is also true that many objects now regarded as kitsch have been coveted as original creations in other periods. Some 20th-century artists and sculptors, particularly those associated with postmodernism, have purposely produced items that they themselves regard as kitsch.
The Macmillan Encyclopedia 2001

Who knows why gay men like campiness so much. Apparently camping it up is OK, because you're being ironic about bad taste.

Regarding Stanley Kwan's Lan Yu, Atkinson says it has been brought to us courtesy of its "homo hook", and "much of Kwan's other work has merely the dubious distinction of being sublime." Before ripping Zhang Yimou's Happy Times, he suggests Kwan "may have been something of an American art-house anti-fashion".