About
Assistant Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Washington University in St. Louis
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As a Chinese art historian, I specialize in painting and China’s responses to Western art and science, especially during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). My specific research interests include:
- the development of Chinese painting from its origins through today
- court art and architecture from China’s “Long Eighteenth Century” of the High Qing (1661-1799)
- linear perspective, illusionism, and other imported pictorial techniques in China and Japan
- court art and visual culture under Empress Dowager Cixi (1861-1908)
- Chinese art at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis
- the evolving modern and contemporary use of former imperial sites, spaces, and works of art
Manuscript in progress:
Imperial Illusions: Crossing Pictorial Boundaries in Eighteenth-Century China
The first full-length study on monumental illusionistic paintings created collaboratively by European and Chinese painters for the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736-1799), such as those in his Retirement Studio.
Forthcoming articles:
- “One or Two, Repictured: Quadruplicating Nonduality in Image and Text,” forthcoming in Archives of Asian Art 2012.
Recently published:
- “Heads of State: Looting, Nationalism and Repatriation of the Zodiac Bronzes,” in Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals ed. Susan Delson (New York: Prestel, 2011), 162-183.
- “Intended to Deceive: Sino-European Painting at the Eighteenth-Century Chinese Court,” in Beyond Boundaries: East & West Cross-Cultural Encounters ed. Michelle Ying-ling Huang (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), 122-135.
- “Contemplating Eternity: An Illusionistic Portrait of the Qianlong Emperor’s Heir,” Orientations 42:4 (May 2011), 73-79.
