Full Description
The Social Lives of Chinese Objects is the first anthology of texts to apply Arjun Appadurai's well-known argument on the social life of things to the discussion of artefacts made in China. The essays in this book look at objects as "things-in-motion," a status that brings attention to the history of transmissions ensuing after the time and conditions of their production. How does the identity of an object change as a consequence of geographical relocation and/ or temporal transference? How do the intentions of the individuals responsible for such transfers affect the later status and meaning of these objects? The materiality of the things analyzed in this book, and visualized by a rich array of illustrations, varies from bronze to lacquered wood, from clay to porcelain, and includes painting, imperial clothing, and war spoils. Metamorphoses of value, status, and function as well as the connections with the individuals who managed them, such as collectors, museum curators, worshipers, and soldiers are also considered as central to the discussion of their life. Presenting a broader and more contextual reading than that traditionally adopted by art-historical scholarship, the essays in this book take on a multidisciplinary approach that helps to expose crucial elements in the life of these Chinese things and brings to light the cumulative motives making them relevant and meaningful to our present time.
Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Figures, Chart and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Alice Bianchi and Lyce Jankowski
Part 1: Reconsidering Object Categories
1 The Afterlife of Mingqi: Relational Meaning in Underground Tombs
Bonnie Cheng
2 From Ritual to Colonial Fantasies. Chinese Ritual Objects as Part of Western Collections of Asian Art in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
Michaela Pejcochova
3 Contemporary Art and Colonial Collecting: Huang Yong Ping's Reinstallation of J.J.M. de Groot's Panthéon Chinois from the Lyon Musée des Confluences
Francesca Dal Lago
Part 2: Questioning the Narratives of Objects Biographies
4 Materiality as Objecthood in a Buddhist Clay Tablet: From Calligraphic Style to an Imaginary Encounter with Dunhuang
Foong Ping
5 Chinese Zodiac: The Social Life of the Yuanming Yuan's Circle of Animals Fountain Heads
Ines Eben von Racknitz
Part 3: Opening New Perspectives
6 Reevaluating Chinese Landscape Iconography: Painting and Poetry of Meditation during the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
Cédric Laurent
7 A World Dotted with Kingfisher Blue: Feather Tributes and the Qing Court
Wang Lianming
8 Portraits on China: Porcelain Portraits and Photoceramics from China in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Lee Wing Ki
Bibliography
Index
