Christensen Lecture Series: Dr. Wen-shing Chou
“Reborn in Beijing: The Indo-Tibetan Genealogy of a Qing Emperor”
Wednesday, March 19, 2025 | 4:30– 6:00 pm | Free
in the Dumke Auditorium at the UMFA
Join us for a special lecture by Dr. Wen-shing Chou connected to the special exhibition Gateway to Himalayan Art from the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art. This talk entitled “Reborn in Beijing: The Indo-Tibetan Genealogy of a Qing Emperor” is part of the Department of Art & Art History’s Carmen Morton Christensen Endowed Lecture Series.
“Reborn in Beijing: The Indo-Tibetan Genealogy of a Qing Emperor”
This lecture examines the Manchu Qing promotion of the Tibetan Buddhist literary and artistic genre of incarnation lineages (’khrungs rabs or skyes rabs) during the reign of the Qianlong emperor. Through a close study of objects that have recently come to light, and by contextualizing them within a broader culture of genealogical thinking between the Qing and Tibetan courts, this lecture considers the deployment of history, language, and style in creating an inclusive and cosmopolitan religious heritage.
Presenter, Wen-shing Chou specializes in art of China and Inner Asia. Chou holds a BA in Art History from the University of Chicago, and a MA and PhD in History of Art from the University of California, Berkeley. Her 2018 book Mount Wutai: Visions of a Sacred Buddhist Mountain (Princeton University Press) won Honorable Mention for the Joseph Levenson Prize (China Pre-1900) from the Association for Asian Studies. Chou’s research has been supported by the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Scholar Grant, the Mellon fellowship and membership of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Ittleson Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, and the Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art Studies, Kyoto. Her articles have appeared in The Art Bulletin, the Journal of Asian Studies, the Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, and the Archives of Asian Art.
Chou recently co-curated and co-edited C.C. Wang: Lines of Abstraction (Hirmer Verlag, 2023) on the artistic experimentations of twentieth century’s preeminent connoisseur and collector of Chinese art. The exhibition and publication are carried out in collaboration with Daniel M. Greenberg (University of Minnesota) and students at Hunter College and the University of Minnesota. Chou is a member of the advisory council at the Rubin Museum of Art, where she also served as an advisory member of Project Himalayan Art and contributed to the newly published Himalayan Art in 108 Objects. Chou’s current book-in-progress, Shaping Time: Art of Rebirth in China and Inner Asia, explores the visual and material culture of reincarnation within the Gelukpa sphere of influence from the seventeenth to the twentieth century.
Header Image: Avalokitshwar in Female Form, China, Qing Dynasty, 17th Century, gilt bronze Gift of Mrs. Richard A. Hudnut, UMFA1951.022_A
The exhibition Gateway to Himalayan Art is organized and provided by the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art.
