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Fellowship Project

Ms. Zhang Rong spent four months (April – July 2012) at The British Museum in London, U.K. where she conducted research on the British public collections of glassware made in the Qing Dynasty imperial workshop.

Biography

Ms. Zhang Rong graduated from the History Department of Nankai University, majoring in Museum Study. From 1985 to 1998, she worked in the Department of Conservation at The Palace Museum specialising in the management and research of 30,000 cultural relics from 6 categories, including ancient lacquerware, enamelware, glassware, silverware, bronzeware, and tinware. She served as Deputy Director of the Department of Palace Life and Imperial Ritual from 1998 to 2002, Deputy Director of the Department of Antiquities from 2002 to 2004 and Director from 2004 to 2010. In July 2010, she was appointed as Chief Librarian. In 2005, she became a Researcher and was named “Outstanding Specialist” by the Ministry of Culture.

During the past years working at The Palace Museum, especially since she began overseeing various departments, Ms. Zhang has accumulated rich experience and attained mastery in the collection management, display, and research of cultural relics. While serving in the Department of Palace Life and Imperial Ritual, she presided over the relocation of 140,000 cultural relics in the second-phase basemen and curated the “The Imperial Packing Art of the Qing Dynasty”, which was awarded the “1999 Best 10 National Exhibition Selections” by The National Administration of Cultural Heritage. While working at the Department of Antiquities, she assisted in the rotating display of The Treasure Gallery and the establishment of Ancient Ceramics Research Institute. Additionally, she organized more than a dozen in-house exhibitions of the Department of Antiquities as well as overseas exhibitions, such as the “Kangxi Emperor Exhibition” at the Palace of Versailles in France in 2004. Over the past 13 years she has been managing the museum’s warehouse, a role which has enabled her to appreciate the antique collections up close and gained intimate experience and knowledge of ancient crafts such as lacquerware, glassware, and enamelware.