Yiyan Wang

Until the 20th century there was no word for “art” or “fine art” in the Chinese language. The word, the concept, and the European practice of art arrived in China at the beginning of the 20th century. By the third decade, a total transformation of art concepts and practice had emerged. In 1929 China’s first national art exhibition, sponsored by the Ministry of Education, was held in Shanghai with overwhelming success. Leading contemporary intellectuals considered the art revolution an essential part of China’s trajectory towards modernity and actively participated in debate about art; but art historical events are still absent from the historiography of modern Chinese intellectual development. This project will produce the first book to document that intellectual debate over art, modernity and nation at the crucial historical junction between the last years of imperial China and the beginning decades of the Republican era (1900-1930). The resulting analysis will provide a new understanding of China’s unfolding intellectual modernity and, in particular, its correlation with colonialism and cultural nationalism.