Research

Completing my dissertation and revising it for publication are currently my top research priorities. However, I am also revising two articles for future publication, one on Chinese imperial photography and another on stories in late imperial literature of paintings mysteriously coming to life.

In the near future, my major research projects with manuscript potential will include:

*The public portraits of Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908)

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the Empress Dowager Cixi literally governed the Chinese empire from behind a curtain, hiding her face because that she was not the official ruler nor were women allowed to engage in politics. However, between 1903 and 1905 the Empress Dowager broke with imperial policy and posed for a number of photographs and paintings that were displayed both in China and in the West. As the first major dedicated art historical examination of these portraits, this project examines the global impact of these works, their audiences, and their exhibition during the final years of imperial China.

*Late imperial Chinese visual culture produced in response to European art and science

European missionaries and traders brought a wealth of scientific and pictorial technology to China from the sixteenth through early twentieth centuries, and the complete breadth of Chinese visual culture responded. This project challenges the notion of “influence” to examine China’s visual responses to these ideas and objects in different media – painting, print culture, ceramics, architecture, and the troublesome catchall “export art” – in different cities at different times and at different levels of society. These works have not yet been addressed in a scholarly way that treats them as a cohesive visual culture, nor has Chinese art history incorporated the full impact of these new stimuli although this is the foundation for twentieth-century and contemporary Chinese art.

Other projects I hope to undertake farther in the future include:

*The iconic role of the Forbidden City in twentieth-century Chinese visual culture

As the backdrop for the nation’s pivotal political events, the Forbidden City has featured prominently in Chinese art produced  since 1900. Its presence at the heart of Beijing has left an indelible impact on twentieth-century Chinese visual culture, particularly contemporary art and design, that has yet to be examined.

*Emperor Yongzheng (r. 1723-1735) and his art patronage

The brief Yongzheng period is often overlooked in Chinese art history. Typically considered a lesser patron than his long-reigning father Emperor Kangxi (r. 1661-1723) and son Emperor Qianlong (r. 1736-1795), Emperor Yongzheng nevertheless actively commissioned works of art throughout the dozen years of his reign. Engaging the Emperor Yongzheng through case studies of the most significant works produced at his command will not only illuminate these vastly understudied objects, but also demonstrate the crucial transitional role played by this enigmatic ruler during China’s golden age of imperial art patronage.