Friday, March 21, 2014

CCS MA Student Panel

Presenters:

Gerui Wang: “Evoking public awareness for poverty relief through art and literature”

My thesis project investigated the scholar-officials’ role in initiating and reinforcing poverty relief policies in the Song dynasty (960-1279), and the visual and literary repertoire that scholar-officials and painters developed to shape public opinion towards labor, the plight of the population, and the state’s obligation to attend to the people’s needs. Commentaries preserved as colophons from later dynasties suggest the historical resilience of such a discourse. The Song government adopted local philanthropic practices into national institutions and promoted arts expressing sympathy for the poor at court.

Bio: Gerui Wang graduated from the Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China 2012. A second year Master’s student with the Center for Chinese Studies,  her research focuses on the social agency of art in early modern China as well as comparative visuality.

Jake Dingman: “Visual Diplomacy in the Qing Dynasty”

My project examines the use of visual media by Qing rulers to send political, religious, and cultural messages to border regions of the Chinese empire. Specifically, I focus on portraits of Qianlong in Tibetan Buddhist style as well as reproductions of Tibetan buildings at the imperial summer retreat in Chengde. As a coda, I include photographic portraits commissioned by Empress Dowager Cixi in 1903-04 which also use Buddhist iconography. Additionally, I address the agency held by Tibetans in these exchanges.

Bio: Jake Dingman graduated from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, DC in 2009. A second year master’s student in the Center for Chinese Studies, his research focuses on Chinese and Tibetan history and art history, particularly during the Qing dynasty.

Faculty Discussant: Yi-Li Wu, Asian Languages & Cultures