Artistic Exchanges between China and the Western Regions: From Mughal Jades to Zen Painting

The lecture by Dr. Xiaodong Xu will explore the development of this craft in relation to its impact on the Chinese empire.

Intricate jade carvings from Mughal India were so favored and fervently collected by the Qing Emperors to the extent that the Chinese jade carver learned to adapt the foreign forms in their indigenous designs. How were jades perceived and manufactured in the Eurasian Continent? The lecture by Dr. Xiaodong Xu will explore the development of this craft in relation to its impact on the Chinese empire. This lecture will be followed by a talk by Dr. Josh Yiu on modern Chinese painting by a mid twentieth-century artist who pioneered the ink movement that came to be known as ‘Contemporary Ink’ today. Both talks suggest a cross-cultural, artistic pollination that went beyond superficial imitations of ‘western’ forms.