The courts and societies of early modern China, circa 16th–19th centuries, were deeply engaged with popular, elite, and global cultures of their periods. People, objects, and ideas from throughout the empire and around the world passed through Beijing, engendering a visual and material culture in mutually productive dialogue with a rich variety of intellectual and artistic sources. Through an exploration of images, objects, and spaces, this course considers how the court conceived, created, and deployed works of art as vehicles for ideological and cultural expression; the transcultural encounters both within and beyond the empire’s borders that contributed to these processes, including those with the pan-Asian Islamic and European worlds; and the circulation and consumption of objects among the court’s diverse audiences. Taking as its primary focus the so-called “High Qing,” or long 18th century, it extends from the late Ming through the end of the Qing dynasty to contextualise the artistic, cultural, and political issues that arise during this period.
The module is organised around weekly classroom-based sessions alongside a series of more flexibly programmed site visits which include a study trip and/or a range of local visits to exhibitions, archives or other sites of interest (when off-site visits are possible – if not, these sessions will be re-scheduled as seminars). Study trips are supported by a travel grant, and are usually for a period of 2-4 days. During tutorials module leaders will meet with students individually to offer comments on work and discuss progress. There is flexibility in the topics for written assignments that individual students are asked to undertake, with the agreement from their module leader.
Course Leader: Dr Stephen Whiteman and Dr Henning von Mirbach
In the event that a course leader is on sabbatical, takes up a fellowship, or otherwise is not able to teach the course, they will be replaced by another experienced course leader either for a semester or, in some cases, the academic year.
Please note: whilst many Special Options will include site visits within the UK and further afield, these are subject to confirmation.
Course Leads
