Connecting Chains Built by Scientific Archaeology: Connections between China & the West in Western Zhou, Bronze & Ceramics in the Han Dynasty and Chang’an & Luoyang Tang Sancai

The Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago presents Visual and Material Perspectives on East Asia.

Dr. Lei Yong, Palace Museum, Beijing

How, when, and where objects were made are questions that bridge together art, technology, and science. Dr. Yong will briefly introduce three cases about Chinese Faience in the Western and Eastern Zhou Dynasties, Hu pottery in Han Dynasty and Tang Sancai, focusing on archaeological interpretation.

Some Chinese beads might have been produced in the West 3000 years ago. Dr. Yong  would like to look at why ceramics techniques in the Han Dynasty appear to have declined. Former research methodology on large ceramic human and animal figures in the Tang Dynasty might need to be revised due to the discovery of Tang Sancai.

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Visual and Material Perspectives on East Asia

This workshop serves as a critical forum for the presentation of work addressing problems in the visual and material studies of East Asia, a region defined broadly to include China, Central, Asia, Japan, Korea, and Tibet. This workshop explores if and how theories of visuality current in western contexts may be applied to East Asia, and how approaches from both Eastern and Western scholarship may be fruitfully combined in visual and material studies.