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27 February, 12 & 14 March, 12 April 2025
The lecture series is part of the Visiting Scholars Scheme organised by the Department of Fine Arts and Institute of Chinese Studies, CUHK, supported by Bei Shan Tang Foundation.
All four lectures are open for on-site attendance and Zoom Webinar live streaming, with simultaneous interpretation in Mandarin available during the live broadcast.
Jointly organised by Department of Fine Arts and Institute of Chinese Studies, CUHK
Date: February 27, 2025 (Thursday)
Time: 4:00pm – 6:00pm (Tea Reception at 4pm)
Venue: Activities Room, 2/F, East Wing, Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Language: English (with simultaneous interpretation in Mandarin via Webinar)
This lecture investigates the display of Chinese ceramics in global architectural contexts and considers whether such displays can be regarded as a form of collecting. Focusing on three key examples: reception room displays in Japan, porcelain rooms in Europe and religious architecture in the Middle East, we will explore how and why Chinese ceramics were gathered for display in these locations, how the displays were presented, and what the function of such displays was in each context. Through these examples it will be argued that a display can be viewed as both a context for the formation of a new collection and an active collecting space that redefines the objects within it.
Jointly organised by Department of Fine Arts and New Asia College, CUHK
Date: March 12, 2025 (Wednesday)
Time: 6:30pm – 8:00pm
Venue: Sir Run Run Shaw Hall, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Language: English (with simultaneous interpretation in Mandarin via Webinar)
Since the 1980s, trade ceramics from Asia have been discovered in a number of shipwrecks found in and around Southeast Asia. Most of the ceramics are from China but examples from Vietnam and Thailand are represented in the remains of the cargos. Along with developments in maritime archaeology, the study of such ceramics has informed our understanding of global trade history, practices and economics. Because of their durability and popularity as trade material, ceramics are the most abundant artifacts surviving in underwater contexts and this lecture will survey the Asian ceramics found in twenty key shipwrecks dating from the 9th to the 18th centuries. Through this we will consider what we can learn about the ceramics themselves, as well as the cultures that produced and consumed them.
Jointly organised by Department of Fine Arts and New Asia College, CUHK
Date: March 14, 2025 (Friday)
Time: 3:00pm－4:30pm
Venue: Hui Kwok Hau Hall, Mei Yun Tang, New Asia College, CUHK
Language: English (with simultaneous interpretation in Mandarin via Webinar)
In the 1990s, the discovery of Tang blue and white ceramics in the Belitung shipwreck caused a lot of excitement in the field of Chinese ceramics. They were the first whole pieces of Tang blue and white to be found and are considered revolutionary for their early use of cobalt to create the distinctive blue decoration. In the context of pre-Tang and Tang ceramics and aesthetics, they may not be that unusual however. Blue is used frequently in ceramic decoration and in woven textiles. It also appears in Buddhist cave temple painting and imported glass. In this talk we will explore Tang blue and white from a design perspective, situating the ceramics within the wider context of the use of blue in artistic production in China, which in turn will help illuminate the significance (or otherwise) of early blue and white ceramics.
Jointly organised by Department of Fine Arts, CUHK and the Hong Kong Palace Museum
Date: April 12, 2025 (Saturday)
Time: 3:00pm – 4:45pm
Venue: The Hong Kong Jockey Club Auditorium, Hong Kong Palace Museum
Language: English (with simultaneous interpretation in Mandarin on-site and via Webinar)
West Asian metalwork, especially from the Sogdian and Sassanian worlds, has had a significant impact on ceramic design in China. Most notable during the Tang dynasty, design inspiration taken from imported metalwork can be seen as early as the Han dynasty in Chinese ceramics. From shapes, to decorative techniques and complex patterns, encounters with foreign metalwork have had a transformative effect on ceramics and can be seen as part of a wider history of foreign design appropriation in Chinese art. This lecture will explore the relationship between foreign metalwork and ceramics through comparative examples in collections around the world, highlighting pieces on view in the current exhibition.
Stacey PIERSON is the 2025 Visiting Scholar at the Department of Fine Arts and the Institute of Chinese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, sponsored by Bei Shan Tang Foundation. She is Professor of the History of Chinese Ceramics at SOAS, University of London. In addition to teaching and supervising research students in the School of Arts, she is also the former President of the Oriental Ceramic Society (London) and is series editor for the Routledge title Histories of Material Culture and Collecting, 1550-1950. Previously, from 1995 to 2007, she was Curator of the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, also at the University of London, which housed the world-renowned David collection of Chinese ceramics. She has published widely on aspects of Chinese ceramics, Percival David and the history of collecting and exhibitions, including Collectors, Collections and Museums: the Field of Chinese Ceramics in Britain: 1560-1960 (2007), Chinese Ceramics: a Design History (2009), From Object to Concept: Global Consumption and the Transformation of Ming Porcelain (2013), Private Collecting, Exhibitions and the Shaping of Art History in London: the Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1866-1950 (2017) and the edited volume Visual, Material and Textual Cultures of Food and Drink in China, 200 BCE – 1900 CE, Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia, no. 25 (2022). Her most recent research project focused on Dr. Johnson’s Chinese teapot, which is on display in the British Museum.
