Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (September 23 - December 13):
Focusing on the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), Jinyi Liu’s dissertation examines the court production of marble quarried from Fangshan, a county at the southwest corner of Beijing. Stones extracted from this region have been mainly known as hanbaiyu (Chinese white jade) and qingbaishi (blue-white stone). Rather than focusing on static, finished artifacts, Liu explores the ever-evolving life of the material, tracing the transformations of the stone from a block of freshly extracted raw material to an intricately carved sculpture. This project offers new insights into the studies of Qing and East Asian art through experimenting with a conceptual framework that places the material, the environment, and human labor as agents in a network of shared authorship.