The China Project Workshop

May 10, 2024
Yeorae Yoon (Postdoctoral Fellow, The Metropolitan Museum of Art) presented on the project “Defining the Ethnic Identity of Manchu Bannermen: Visual and Material Expressions of Martiality.” The discussion was moderated by Professor Susan Naquin (Princeton University).
In-person

April 19, 2024
Amy McNair (University of Kansas), "A Revolutionary, A Calligrapher, and 19th-century Commercial Taste"
The discussion was moderated by Michele Matteini (NYU)
Webinar

March 1, 2024
John Yiu (Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole, University of Hong Kong): “Illustrated Classics, Imperial Calligraphy, and Imperial Education at the Southern Song Court”
The discussion was moderated by Alfreda Murck (Independent Scholar)
Webinar

February 2, 2024
Bryce Heatherly (Ph.D. Candidate, University of Pennsylvania): “Buddhist Personhood and Northern-Song (960-1127) Book Arts”
The discussion was moderated by Hsueh-Man Shen (The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU)
In-person

December 1, 2023
BuYun Chen (Swarthmore College): “Ecology of Lacquerware Production in the Ryukyu Kingdom”
The discussion was  moderated by Monika Bincsik (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
In-person

November 3, 2023
Maggie Wan (The Chinese University of Hong Kong): “The Appropriation of “Dragons” in Ming Society”
The discussion was moderated by Jonathan Hay (Institute of Fine Arts, NYU)
Webinar

October 6, 2023
Dorothy Wong (University of Virginia): “Prints and Narrative Paintings of the First Image of the Buddha in East Asia, 15th – 17th century”
The discussion was moderated by Hsueh-Man Shen (Institute of Fine Arts, NYU)
In-person

September 8, 2023
Lu Pengliang (Metropolitan Museum of Art): “Recasting the Past: The Power of Bronze in China, 1100-1900”
The discussion was moderated by Jonathan Hay (Institute of Fine Arts, NYU)
In-person

May 5, 2023
Ziliang Liu (Dartmouth College) explored the potential symbolic meanings of drainage systems in certain Western Han rock-cut tombs.
The discussion was moderated by Alain Thote, École pratique des Hautes Études and Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Paris.

April 7, 2023
Hu Jun (University of California, Berkeley): "A Brief History of Small (and Inadequate) Pictures," postponed from the Fall.
The discussion was moderated by Jonathan Hay (Institute of Fine Arts, NYU)

March 10, 2023
Yukina Zhang (Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, NYU) discussed the gendered visual and material expressions in an 8th-century joint spousal burial, with a special focus on scissors and tweezers.
The discussion was moderated by Hsueh-man Shen (Institute of Fine Arts, NYU)

February 3, 2023
Jonathan Hay and Michele Matteini (both the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU):
"The Place of Chinese Painting Studies Today: A Conversation across Generations"

December 16, 2022
Du Xiaohan, Columbia University, presented on the topic “From Kamakura to Kyoto: Making Sense of A Chinese Monk's Calligraphy in the Cultural Matrix of Fourteenth Century Japan”
The discussion was moderated by Amy McNair (University of Kansas)

October 21, 2022
Yukio Lippit, Harvard University, presented on the topic “The Shōsōin Imperial Treasury and East Asian Mortuary Practice”
The discussion was moderated by Hsueh-Man Shen (The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU)

September 23, 2022
Michele Matteini, New York University, Yan Weitian, Syracuse University, and Michael J. Hatch, Miami University, discussed structure and scope of a planned edited volume by the tentative title “Antiquarian Artifacts in China and Beyond, 1700s-1900s”.
The discussion was moderated by Michele Matteini (New York University)

May 6, 2022
Stacey Lambrow, Curator of the Loewentheil Photography of China Collection, spoke on 19th-century photography of China by Chinese photographers.
The discussion was moderated by Jonathan Hay (The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU).

April 1, 2022
James Robson, Harvard University, presented on his project "Conceptualizing and Contextualizing Chinese Cultic Images and Their Contents."
The discussion was moderated by Hsueh-Man Shen (The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU).

March 11, 2022
Michelle H. Wang, Reed College, presented on the topic "The Making of the Houma Covenants in Early China."
The discussion was moderated by Michele Matteini (Department of Art History and The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU).

February 4, 2022
Julie Bellemare, Ph.D. Bard Graduate Center; Jane and Morgan Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, presented on her project “Neither Jade nor Stone”: Agate Carvings for the Qing Court."
The discussion was moderated by Michele Matteini (Department of Art History and The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU).

December 10, 2021
Wang Yudong, School of Arts and Humanities, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, analyzed the mountain cliff carvings created from the Ming through the 1930s in Chongqing region, revolving around and responding to Baodingshan.
The discussion was moderated by Phillip Bloom (Huntington Library).

November 12, 2021
Hui-wen Lu, Graduate Institute of Art History, National Taiwan University, presented her current research “Reliving History and Shaping Memory: Tang Remains and Song Scholars in the Old Capital Chang’an”
The discussion was moderated by Jonathan Hay (The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU).

October 08, 2021
A discussion on the present and future of digital publishing in Chinese art and visual culture with Stephen H. Whiteman (The Courtauld Institute of Art), Ann Waltner (University of Minnesota), and Vivi Xie (The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU)
The discussion was moderated by Michele Matteini (Department of Art History and The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU).

September 24, 2021
Yan Weitian, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Art History, University of Kansas, presented on his project “Yi Bingshou and the Ye Family: A Case of Artistic Patronage in Qing Guangzhou.”
The discussion was moderated by Michael J. Hatch (Miami University).

May 7, 2021
Yeewan Koon, Department of Fine Arts, The University of Hong Kong.
The discussion was moderated by Jonathan Hay (The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU).

April 16, 2021
Phillip Bloom, Huntington Library, presented on the topic “The Pleasures of Gardens in Song (960–1279) China.”
The discussion was moderated by Julia Orell (University of British Columbia).

March 26, 2021
Xu Wenpeng, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois Chicago, presented on his research project "Export-oriented Porcelain Economy in Song-Yuan China: Production Strategies, Networks, and Interaction at Dehua."
The discussion was moderated by Hsueh-Man Shen (The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU).

March 12, 2021
Marcus Bingenheimer, Department of Religion, Temple University, presented on the topic "The Historical Social Network of Chinese Buddhism as a Visualization Tool."
The discussion was moderated by Sebastian Heath (Institute for The Study of the Ancient World, NYU).

December 11, 2020
Michelle C. Wang (Georgetown University) and Soyoung Lee (Harvard Art Museums) addressed the topic "The Future of Asian Art History: Projections from Women in the Field."
The discussion was moderated by Patricia Berger (University of California, Berkeley).

November 13, 2020
Hsueh-man Shen, The Institute of Fine Arts, addressed issues surrounding the languages of Chinese art history. She was joined by Mimi G. Gates (Dunhuang Foundation and Blakemore Foundation) and Qianshen Bai (Zhejiang University) for a conversation about the topic.
The discussion was be moderated by Jonathan Hay (The Institute of Fine Arts).

October 16, 2020
Four scholars, Aurelia Campbell (Boston College), Chuck Wooldridge (Lehman College, CUNY), Rachel Silberstein (University of Puget Sound), and Yuhang Li (University of Wisconsin-Madison), discussed histories of reusing, remaking, or recycling things in late Imperial China.
The discussion was moderated by Michele Matteini (Department of Art History and the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU)

September 25, 2020
Jonathan Hay, The Institute of Fine Arts, presented "Painting Formats in the Xuanhe huapu: A Reverse Engineering Project."
The discussion was moderated by Michele Matteini (Department of Art History and the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU)

February 21, 2020
Jessica Harrison-Hall, Department of Asia, The British Museum, presented on an upcoming British Museum exhibition on nineteenth-century China.
The discussion was moderated by Jonathan Hay (The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University).

December 13, 2019October 16, 2020
Jason Protass, Department of Religious Studies, Brown University, spoke on digital humanities and his GIS-inflected project “Buddhist Rituals across Social Topography of China, 1065-1130."
The discussion was moderated by Wen-shing Chou (Hunter College).

November 15, 2019
Thomas Kelly, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, presented on Huizhou merchants and practices of inscribing objects in late Ming China.
The discussion was moderated by Michele Matteini (Department of Art History, and the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University).

October 11, 2019
Ying-chen Peng, Department of Art, American University, presented her latest research project, “Ryuku Kingdom and the Fifteenth-Century Maritime Trade in East Asia.” 
The discussion was moderated by Buyun Chen (Swarthmore College).

September 20, 2019
Annette Juliano and Judith Lerner, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, presented on an upcoming exhibition on Inner Mongolia.
The discussion was moderated by Adriana Proser (Asia Society Museum).

May 3, 2019
Peter Sturman, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara, spoke on recent discoveries in Tang calligraphy and related texts.
The discussion was moderated by Joe Scheier-Dolberg, Department of Asian Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art

April 12, 2019
Dagmar Schäfer, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
"Leather and Silk in Chinese Historical Arts and Sciences: On historical research and ownership, or how and what can be known and should/should not be owned"
The discussion was moderated by Jonathan Hay, the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

March 29, 2019
Kee Il Choi Jr., Ph.D. Candidate, Leiden University, spoke on the topic “Ornament from China: Henri-Léonard Bertin's drawings of the Qianlong emperor's vases Chinois”.
The discussion was moderated by Michele Matteini, Department of Art History, New York University

February 1, 2019
Michelle Wang, Department of Art and Art History, Georgetown University, spoke on architecture, sculpture, and materiality on the Silk Road.
The discussion was moderated by Lan-ying Tseng, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, NYU

December 7, 2018
Tina Lu, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, Yale University; Siyen Fei, Department of History; University of Pennsylvania; Shang Wei, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University; and Jonathan Hay, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University discussed the Xu Wei Project, a collaborative study of the sixteenth-century polymath, Xu Wei (1521-1593).
The discussion was moderated by Michele Matteini, Department of Art History, New York University

November 30, 2018
Anne Feng, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, spoke on the topic “Water, Ice, Lapis Lazuli: Metamorphosis of the Pure Land Tableau in the Tang Dynasty”.
The discussion was moderated by Wen-shing Chou, Hunter College

October 26, 2018
Yijun Wang, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University.
Title: Suzhou Style, Guangzhou Artisans?
Locating Suzhou Style at the Interface of Texts, Materials, and Craft Cultures
The discussion was moderated by François Louis, Bard Graduate Center

September 28, 2019
Cheng-hua Wang, Department of Art and Archeology, Princeton University, discussed the Qingming shanghe as a painting theme.
The discussion was moderated by Robert Harrist, Columbia University

April 13, 2018
Mei Mei Rado, Freer/Sackler Gallery, will present on the representation of textile in late Imperial Chinese Art Postdoctoral fellow at the Freer/Sackler Gallery

March 30, 2018
Daniel Greenberg, Department of Art History, Columbia University, will discuss two models of envisioning Qing empire within time in eighteenth-century Chinese court painting.  
The discussion will be moderated by Michael Hatch, Miami University and Metropolitan Museum of Art

February 16, 2018
Susan Naquin, Department of History, Princeton University will talk about methods for using temple objects to study regional material culture in the Ming and Qing periods.
The discussion will be moderated by Jonathan Hay, Institute of Fine Arts

December 8, 2017
Zhang Fan, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, will speak on the topic "Reinventing Ear-cups: the Impact of Sino-Iranian Interaction on Northern Wei Drinking Culture." 
The discussion will be moderated by Annette Juliano, Rutgers University

November 10, 2017
Chen Kaijun, East Asian Studies, Brown University will speak on the topic "What kind of art did bannermen make and why?" 
The discussion will be moderated by Michele Matteini, New York University/Institute of Fine Arts

October 6, 2017
Nancy Steinhardt, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania will present a project titled, “The Borders of Chinese Architecture and Decoration”
The discussion will be moderated by Wenshing Chou, Department of Art and Art History, Hunter College, City University of New York

May 5, 2017
Yu-chih Lai, Academia Sinica
will speak on the encounter between Chinese baimiao "plain-line" painting and European drawing.
The discussion will be moderated by Michele Matteini, Department of Art History and Institute of Fine Arts, NYU

April 28, 2017
Lü Pengliang, Bard Graduate Center and The Metropolitan Museum of Art
will speak on Yuan dynasty bronzes
The discussion will be moderated by Jonathan Hay, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU

March 31, 2017
Sophie Volpp, Department of East Asian Languages and Literature; Department of Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley,
will discuss the problems of cross-disciplinary engagement, using as a case study the interest of art historians and scholars of literature in considering  Dream of the Red Chamber (Honglou meng) in tandem with the panoramic paintings (tongjing hua) of the Forbidden City.
The discussion will be moderated by Michele Matteini, Department of Art History and Institute of Fine Arts, NYU

March 3, 2017
Guo Jue, Barnard College
will speak on Baoshan Tomb 2 and Chu culture in the fourth century BCE
The discussion will be moderated by Lillian Tseng, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, NYU

February 15, 2017
Ellen Huang, University of California, Berkeley
will speak on Jingdezhen porcelain makers' discoveries about surface, with examples from early Kangxi transitional wares and Qianlong double-layered vases
The discussion will be moderated by Lee Ambrozy, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU

December 9, 2016
Zoe Kwok, The Art Museum, Princeton University
will speak on a planned exhibition on the theme of banqueting
The discussion will be moderated by Freda Murck, independent scholar

November 11, 2016
George Fan, independent scholar
will speak on his project to reconstruct the Qianlong collection of archaic bronzes

October 7, 2016
Micki McCoy, History of Art Department, University of California, Berkeley
will speak on the topic "Thinking with the Kharakhoto Astral Mandala"
The discussion will be moderated by Elena Pakhoutova, Rubin Museum of Art

May 6, 2016
Olga Panova, Russian University of the Humanities, Moscow
“Early Northern Song Painting as a Social Practice through the Lens of Liu Daochun’s Evaluations of Song Painters of Renown“

April 23, 2016
Pop Up Graduate Student Symposium
NEW RESEARCH ON EARLY CHINESE PAINTINGS AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM 
Full schedule and a list of speakers 

April 8, 2016
Katherine Tsiang, Associate Director, Center for the Art of East Asia, University of Chicago
will present on the use of virtual reality techniques in an exhibition of early Buddhist sculpture

March 25, 2016
Jeffrey Moser, Assistant Professor, Dept. of History of Art and Architecture, Brown University
will assess the potential of skeumorphy as a conceptual device for integrating histories of Chinese bronze and ceramic manufacturing

January 29, 2016
Julia Orell, Postdoctoral Fellow, Academia Sinica
will present on the German-language historiography of Chinese art

February 6, 2015
Freda Murck, Independent Scholar
Is Cui Bo's Magpie and Hare of 1061 an Allegory?

March 13, 2015
Clarissa von Spee, Curator, China, British Museum
Multiples in Chinese Painting

April 24, 2015
François Louis, Associate Professor, The Bard Graduate Center
Picturing Antiquity in China's Middle Period: Nie Chongyi's Illustrations to the Rites Classics

May 8, 2015
Yunru Chen, Curator of Chinese Paintings, National Palace Museum, Taipei
The Legacy of Song Huizong in East Asian Art

February 21, 2014
Qianshen Bai, Associate Professor, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Boston University
Wu Dacheng (1835-1902) and the Modern Fate of Chinese Literati Culture

March 7, 2014
Hiromi Konishita, Associate Curator of Chinese Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Reinterpreting the Chinese Architectural Galleries at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

March 26, 2014
Co-sponsored by the Colloquium for Spanish and Latin American Art
Shane McCausland, Reader in the History of Art of China in the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology at SOAS, University of London
“About 1638: Artists and Networks in the Early Modern World”

April 4, 2014
Roderick Campbell, Assistant Professor of East Asian Archaeology and History, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, NYU
The Wild and the Numinous: Animals in Shang Art

May 9, 2014
Eileen Hsiang-ling Hsü, Independent Scholar.
Thus Have I Heard: Writing and Picturing the Dharma

September 12 , 2014
Susan Whitfield, IDP, The British Library
“The Silk Road Contextualised: Stupas, Silk and Slaves”

October 10, 2014
Dr. Susan L. Beningson, Assistant Curator of Asian Art, Brooklyn Museum
“Bridging Past and Future: The New Chinese Art Galleries at the Brooklyn Museum”

October 24, 2014
“Painting under the Five Dynasties, Liao, and Northern Song Dynasties”
7 papers by IFA students, and one by Jonathan Hay
Hsueh-man Shen and François Louis will act as discussants.

December 5, 2014
Tao Wang, Senior Vice President, Department Head, Chinese Works of Art, Sotheby’s
“Collecting Antiques, Collecting Friends: The Collectors of the Owl-Headed Hu”

February 22, 2013
Nicholas Grindley, Nicholas Grindley Works of Art Limited
“A possible chronology for the dating of Chinese yokeback armchairs”
Moderated by Jonathan Hay (Institute of Fine Arts)

March 1, 2013
Alain Thote (Ecole pratique des hautes études, Paris)
Early Chinese Manuscripts in Archaeological Context
Moderated by Lilian Tseng (Institute for the Study of the Ancient World)

April 5, 2013
Denise Leidy (Curator, Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Extreme Practices: Shakyamuni and other Ascetics in Buddhist Art
Moderated by Hsueh-man Shen (Institute of Fine Arts)

May 3, 2013
Joe Scheier-Dohlberg (Assistant Curator, Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Non-portrait Paintings by the Portrait Painter Yu Zhiding (1646-1716)
Moderated by Lulu Brotherton (SUNY, New Paltz)

October 18, 2013
Michael Hatch, PhD candidate, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University
“Clarity and Quietude: Literati Aesthetics between Tea and Painting in the Work of Qian Du (1764-1844)”

November 15, 2013
Zheng Yan, Professor of Chinese Art, Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing
The E-Pang Palace: Memories and Imaginations

December 13, 2013
Lothar von Falkenhausen, Professor of Art History, UCLA
Culture and Personality in Early China

February 10, 2012
Hsueh-man Shen, Assistant Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU
“Between One and Many: Interpreting Large Numbers in the Buddhist Art of China”

March 1, 2012
Alain Thote (Directeur d’Etudes, Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris),
Early Chinese Manuscripts in Archaeological Context

April 13, 2012
James Lally (J.J. Lally and Co.)
Ancient Chinese Silver and Gold: Dating and Attribution

May 4, 2012
Lihong Liu, PhD student, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU
The Path in Mid-Ming Landscape Painting

September 14, 2012
Dorothy Ko, Professor of History, Barnard College
Body, Text, and Stone: The Crafting and Connoisseurship of Inkstones in Eighteenth-Century China
Moderated by Jonathan Hay (Institute of Fine Arts)

October 5, 2012
Judith Zeitlin, Professor of Chinese Literature, University of Chicago, and Yuhang Li, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Grinnell College
Performing Images: Opera in Chinese Visual Culture
Moderated by Susan Naquin (Princeton University)

November 9, 2012
Linda Lin, object conservator, Fellow, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Study and Conservation of the Asian Amber Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Moderated by François Louis (Bard Graduate Center)

December 7, 2012
Wen-shing Chou, Hunter College
History and Memory in the Visionary Landscape of Qing-Dynasty Wutai Shan
Moderated by Denise Leidy (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

September 9, 2011
Jonathan Hay, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU
Early Ming Beijing: What Did It Look Like?

October 14, 2011
Jeehee Hong, Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Music Histories, Syracuse University
Shifting Margins of the Sacred Realm: Commonalities Between Tombs and Buddhist Architecture in the 1oth – 14th Centuries

November 11, 2011
Bruce Rusk, Assistant Professor, Department of Asian Studies, Cornell University
Reignmakers: Ming Imperial Production and Its Imitators

December 9, 2011
Colin Mackenzie, Senior Curator of Early Chinese Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Rethinking the Display of Chinese Art in a Museum Setting: The Nelson-Atkins Museum as an (ongoing) Case Study