Exhibiting Chinese Art in Asia : Histories, Politics and Practices

This volume examines the emerging exhibition complex on Chinese art in early twentieth-century China, and from the mid-1950s onwards, the cultural politics involved in Asia with the exhibitions of traditional and modern Chinese art in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. It also scrutinizes the curatorial practices that have influenced the interpretation and display of Chinese art amidst the advance of media technology and heritage engagement in the twenty-first century. Situated within ongoing debates on global art history, the volume is inclusive of multiple geo-cultural perspectives, and the dynamic practices that relate art tradition or heritage to more universal spatiotemporal art experience and engagement. It extends the understanding of exhibitions of Chinese art not only as multiple historical processes culturally and politically negotiated and contested by contending forces and diverse actors in the region, but also as creative interventions to engage people around the globe in the present.

This book elucidates how concepts and practices of exhibitions of Chinese art have been constructed and have evolved in various parts of the region including mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore. It offers an indispensable key to understanding the exhibiting culture of Chinese art as multiple historical processes culturally and politically negotiated and contested by contending forces and diverse actors in Asia. In particular, readers can learn about the social production of exhibitions in early modern China, and how the exhibitions of Chinese art have been produced and received in the region, outside the mainland China from 1950s to 1970s, when its exhibition spaces were dominated by the Communist state. The book emphasizes multiple contextual forces and actors that have influenced the production of exhibitions of Chinese art in Asia. It particularly highlights the networks and associations of social elites, and the roles of different cultural actors (including collectors, artists, art patrons, and curators) in shaping the development and reception of Chinese art and the politics of exhibiting Chinese art. The book also pursues a new research area in the contemporary curating of Chinese art by examining how new actors have used innovative artistic methods and diverse media to make the heritage accessible to both local and global audience. The book takes a lead in exploring the contemporalities of exhibiting Chinese art and how it contributes to a contemporary public experience in the increasingly globalized context of Asia. It foregrounds innovative and inspiring approaches to curating and presenting Chinese art at the intersections of Chinese art history, new media studies, and creative heritage studies. This volume examines the emerging exhibition complex on Chinese art in early twentieth-century China, and from the mid-1950s onwards, the cultural politics involved in Asia with the exhibitions of traditional and modern Chinese art in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. It also scrutinizes the curatorial practices that have influenced the interpretation and display of Chinese art amidst the advance of media technology and heritage engagement in the twenty-first century. Situated within ongoing debates on global art history, the volume is inclusive of multiple geo-cultural perspectives, and the dynamic practices that relate art tradition or heritage to more universal spatiotemporal art experience and engagement. It extends the understanding of exhibitions of Chinese art not only as multiple historical processes culturally and politically negotiated and contested by contending forces and diverse actors in the region, but also as creative interventions to engage people around the globe in the present.