Collecting China
Objects, Materiality, and Multicultural Collectors

September 29-30, 2006

University of Delaware and Winterthur Museum and Country Estate

Could there ever be a universal paradigm governing “Chinesessness” encoded
in material objects, or does the cultural code “Chinese” vary from object
to object, interpreted differently according to those who collect the
objects and their various collecting practices?

The Department of Art History at the University of Delaware and Winterthur
Museum and Country Estate will co-host an interdisciplinary conference,
“Collecting ‘China’: Objects, Materiality, and Multicultural Collectors”
from September 29 to 30, 2006. The conference also offers the pre- and
post- conference workshops on September 28 and October 1. This conference
marks the first major event on Chinese art and Chinese studies ever held
by both institutes.

The study of “Chinese objects” and their collections have been at the
fulcrum of the study of Chinese art, architecture, and archaeology in the
past recent decades, but basic questions about the objects’ cultural code
in relation to their materiality remain underexplored. The goal of the
conference is to examine the interconnection between cultural
implementation and the materiality of objects.

This conference focuses on interdisciplinary discussion, as it seeks to
bring the dialogue about materiality and categories of Chinese objects
beyond art objects commonly collected by institutional and private
collectors. Objects to be explored are as varied as archaeological
objects such as Shang-Dynasty oracle bones, Neolithic jades, and
prehistoric potteries; exported ceramics, paintings, and wallpapers; and
books and centuries-old architectural models.

Schedule:

Friday September 29, 2006

Trabant Theater, University of Delaware

Afternoon Session
12:00-12:15 pm
Welcome and Opening Remarks

President and Provost of the University of Delaware
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
Chair of the Department of Art History
Chair of the East Asian Studies Program

12:15-1:30 pm
Cultural Codes and Objects' Materiality: Theories, Methodology, and
Collecting Practices
A round-table discussion with H. Perry Chapman, Bernard Herman, Kasey
Grier, and Lawrence Nees
Moderator: David Stone

1:30-1:45 pm Break

1:45-4:00 pm
Session I - China and the Discourse of Things

"What is Chinese about Ancient Artifacts?: Collecting Oracle Bones"
Shana Brown, History, University of Hawai'i at Manoa

"Monumental Miniature: An Oxymoron?: A Han-dynasty Bronze Mat Weight and
Its Cosmos"
Eugene Wang, Art History , Harvard University

"Bug Collecting: Imagining the Exotic in Late Ming China"
Yuming He, East Asian Studies, University of Chicago

"From Tian Yi Ge to Zhongshan Gongyuan: Subjects, Objects, and Things in
Republican China"
Vimalin Rujivacharakul, Art History, University of Delaware

4:00-4:15 pm Break

4:15-5:00 pm
Keynote Lecture - Things, Collecting, and Questions of "Chineseness"
A Lecture by Wen-Hsin Yeh, Morrison Professor of 20th Century Chinese
History, University of California Berkeley.
Lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of Art History, the College of
Arts and Sciences, the East Asian Studies Program, and the Office of Woman
Scholar's Affairs

5:00-5:30 pm
That "Thing" We See: Cultural Representation or Cultural Implementation?
Conversations with conference speakers and the audience.
Moderator: Vimalin Rujivacharakul

5:30 pm
Opening Reception
Paul R. Jones Gallery, University of Delaware
Hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences

Saturday, September 30, 2006
Copeland Lecture Hall, Winterthur Museum

9:15-9:30 am

Welcome,
J. Thomas Savage, Director of Museum Affairs, Winterthur, and Ritchie
Garrison, Director Winterthur-U. Delaware Studies Program

9:30-12:00 am
Session II - The World and Its Collections of "China"
Pluralist Aesthetics: Cross-Cultural Collecting in Late Imperial China,
Patricia Berger, History of Art, University of California at Berkeley

"China in Japan: Notions of Artistic Classicism in the Writing of Okakura
Kakuzo (1862-1913)"
Elizabeth Lillehoj, Art History, DePaul University

"Goncourt's China Cabinet"
Ting Chang, Art History, Carnegine Mellon University

"Emperors and Scholars: Antiquarian and Collecting Practices in the Qing
period"
Paola DeMatte, Art and Archaeology, Rhode Island School of Design

"Collecting China in Britain: Sir Percival David and the
Institutionalisation of Chinese Art"
Stacey Pierson, Head and Curator, Percival David Foundation of Chinese
Art, London, England

12:00-1:30 pm Lunch Break (on your own)

1:30-3:30 pm
Session III - On Different Grounds: Collecting Practices and Private
Collectors

"Early Rockefeller Collecting and China"
Stanley Abe, Duke University

"Exporting China: The Collecting Taste of William and Henry Walters"
C. Griffith Mann, Curator and Co-Director of Curatorial Affairs, The
Walters Art Museum.

"Selective Visions: Collecting Sino-Western Works on Paper at the Getty
Research Institute"
Marcia Reed, Head of Collection Development, Getty Research Institute

"A Passion for Porcelain: Henry Francis du Pont's Collection of Porcelains"
Ronald W. Fuchs II, Associate Curator of Ceramics for the Leo and Doris
Hodroff Collection, Winterthur Museum

3:30-4:15 pm Roundtable Discussion

4:00-4:30 pm Break

Museum Workshops and Tours on Export Chinese Objects

In conjunction with the conference, Collecting “China”: Objects
Materiality and Multicultural Collectors (U.of Delaware-Winterthur, Sep
29-30, 2006), Winterthur Museum and Country Estate will be holding museum
workshops and tours on export Chinese objects. Advance reservation is
required.

With the support from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the conference
registration is FREE and open to the public. Additional museum workshops
and tours will require a minimum fee between $25 and $50 to ensure the
safety of museum objects. For details, please visit
http://www.udel.edu/ArtHistory/workshops.html or call Winterthur at
1.800.448.3883

4:30-5:30 pm Workshop/Tour Session

Books on China in the Winterthur Library, Catherine Cooney, Senior
Librarian, Winterthur

Overview of Chinese and Indian Textiles in the Winterthur Collection,
Linda Eaton, Curator of Textiles, Winterthur

Chinese Export Porcelain for the American & European Markets, Ronald W.
Fuchs II, Associate Curator of Ceramics

Chinese Influences on Western Ceramics, Leslie Grigsby, Curator of
Ceramics and Glass, Winterthur

Tour - Chinese Export Porcelain in the Winterthur Period Rooms, Winterthur
guide specialist

Tour - Journeys to Cathay: Asian Influences in the American Decorative
Arts, Winterthur guide specialist

Sunday, October 1, 2006
Winterthur Museum & Country Estate

Roundtable-Discussion Brunch
(By invitation only)

11:30-12:30 pm Optional Tour Session

Tour - Chinese Export Porcelain in the Winterthur Period Rooms, Winterthur
guide specialist

Tour - Journeys to Cathay: Asian Influences in the American Decorative
Arts, Winterthur guide specialist

Details of the conference Collecting “China” (symposium, discussion
roundtables, and museum workshops) are available from
http://www.udel.edu/ArtHistory/symposium.html.

Jody Cross
Assistant Curator of Education
Educational Programs
Winterthur Museum & Country Estate