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| Altered States: Zhang Huan |
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| Asia Society
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"Asia Society Museum presents the first-ever museum retrospective of Zhang Huan, one of the most important and widely recognized Chinese artists working in the United States and China. Altered States: Zhang Huan includes 55 of the artist's major works produced over the past 15 years in Beijing, New York, and Shanghai, including photographs and sculpture." Uses Flash.
Go to Museum Resource: http://sites.asiasociety.org/arts/zhanghuan/ | |
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| Ancient China: From the Neolithic Period to the Han Dynasty [PDF] |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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"An historical overview of ancient China—from the Neolithic period (approx. 6,000–2000 BCE) to the end of the Han dynasty (220 CE)" This packet explores the rise of ancient Chinese civilization and how belief systems and cultural values are reflected in surviving examples of its material culture. The packet features important archaeological excavations such as the Tomb of Fu Hao, created in the Shang dynasty (approx. 1600–1050 BCE); the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, created in the Warring States period (approx. 480–221 BCE); and the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huangdi, the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE), created approx. 210 BCE. Other highlights include Chinese jades, bronzes, and ceramics in the Asian Art Museum’s collection galleries. The packet includes interactive activities for the classroom and student handouts. See also content and multiple downloads on An Introduction to the Qin Empire (221–206 BCE), An Introduction to the Han Dynasty, and An Introduction to the Shang Dynasty.
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2019/09/Ancient-China... | |
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| Ancient Chinese Bronzes |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Students will learn that objects found in tombs can provide information about Chinese civilization, including beliefs about the afterlife, aspects of daily life, social hierarchies, and artistic processes. Students will be able to explain how Chinese bronze vessels were produced, and they will create a sketch of their own bronze design inspired by an ancient Chinese example. See also the Ancient Chinese Bronzes - Lesson Plan.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/for-educators/teaching-china-with-the-smithsonian/les... | |
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| Ancient Chinese Bronzes - Lesson Plan |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Chinese civilization made great advances as it emerged from the Neolithic period and entered the Bronze Age. One factor in this change was the ability to locate and extract natural deposits of copper and tin for making bronze. Foundries capable of heating the ores to high enough temperatures for mixing and casting metal were established in northern areas of China around 1700 BCE. One of the largest and most impressive early foundries was at Anyang, the capital of the late Shang dynasty from about 1300 to 1050 BCE. For more on the bronzes at the Smithsonian and how they were cast, see also Ancient Chinese Bronzes.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/ancient-chinese-bronzes/ | |
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| Ancient Chinese Jades |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Poetically described two thousand years ago in China as the "fairest of stones," jade actually refers to two different minerals, nephrite and jadeite. All of the true jades found at ancient Chinese sites are made of fine-grained nephrite. In its purest state nephrite lacks color; impurities create the variations of yellow, green, brown, and black. See also Jades for Life and Death.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/ancient-chinese-jades/ | |
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| Ancient Chinese Ritual Bronzes |
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| Harvard Art Museums
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Excellent short presentation of 8 slides, with commentary, including a diagram of piece-mold casting and an enlarged image of a taotie or mask-like face from a bronze urn. Part of the museum’s “Hotspots” digital images.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/tour/hotspots/stop/241 | |
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| Ancient Tombs |
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| University of Washington, Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization
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"This unit contains summaries of five archaeological sites, ranging in date from about 2300 BC to 100 BC. The tombs selected for examination were all advanced for their time. Their occupants were members of the ruling class of the period, able to afford the highest standard of material comfort, technical excellence, and artistic embellishment then available." A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization was prepared by University of Washington history professor Patricia Buckley Ebrey. With questions for discussion, timelines, maps, and suggested readings. Select HOME to find link to teachers' guides for all topics featured on the website.
Go to Museum Resource: http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2tommain.htm | |
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| Archaeological Footprint: Can we really know about the past from things left behind? [PDF] |
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| The Field Museum
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In this lesson plan students will analyze the objects in the Cyrus Tang Hall of China, either onsite at The Field Museum or online and think about how history is learned through objects. They will also theorize about what gaps can exist when stories are told through objects
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/sites/default/files/archaeological_footprint.pdf | |
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| Architectural Models (Eastern Han Dynasty) |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"Tall pottery towers and other architectural models were popular during the Eastern Han dynasty (A.D. 25-220). These, along with ceramic replicas of houses, human and animal figures, cooking implements, and bronze ceremonial vessels, were created to be placed inside the tomb to accompany the deceased into the afterlife." A short introduction to the models, with five related objects, all with descriptions, and an in-depth interview with an MIA curator.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/explore/explore-collection-architectural... | |
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| The Art and Archeology of Ancient China: A Teacher's Guide [PDF] |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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An illustrated 106-page teacher's guide that can be downloaded in .pdf format, in three parts. Go to middle of HTML page and select Part I, Part II, and Part III to download the guide. Includes historical background from China's Late Neolithic Period (BCE ca. 5000-2000) to the Han Dynasty (BCE 206-220 CE), plus a timeline, vocabulary list, pronunciation guide, four lesson plans, plus featured object studies on 1) Clothing and Personal Adornment (Silk and Jade); 2) Food Preparation and Utensils; 3) Transportation; 4) Ceremonies (Music); 5) Writing (Chinese Characters); 6) Industry (Bronze Casting); 7) Building. Also a special chapter on Ancestor Worship, then and today.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Art-and-Archaeology-of-Ancient-C... | |
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| Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World |
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| Guggenheim Museum
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”Art and China after 1989 presents work by 71 key artists and groups active across China and worldwide whose critical provocations aim to forge reality free from ideology, to establish the individual apart from the collective, and to define contemporary Chinese experience in universal terms. Bracketed by the end of the Cold War in 1989 and the Beijing Olympics in 2008, it surveys the culture of artistic experimentation during a time characterized by the onset of globalization and the rise of a newly powerful China on the world stage. The exhibition’s subtitle, Theater of the World, comes from an installation by the Xiamen-born, Paris-based artist Huang Yong Ping: a cage-like structure housing live reptiles and insects that coexist in a natural cycle of life, an apt spectacle of globalization’s symbiosis and raw contest.” See also: Teaching Materials.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/art-and-china-after-1989-theater-of-the-w... | |
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| Art and China's Revolution |
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| Asia Society
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"Art and China’s Revolution reflects upon one of the most tumultuous and catastrophic periods in recent Chinese history⎯the three decades following the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. During this time, the government led by Mao Zedong sought to modernize China across all aspects of society, a process that included suppressing or destroying much of traditional culture. The government also sought to create a new visual culture to communicate its goals and ideology to the Chinese people. Artists were encouraged to create art that reflected the revolutionary spirit of the time, in Mao’s words, to create art for the people. The impact of this directive on artists and art making was enormous. ... Until now, little effort has been made to take account of this period, during which art and politics were so closely intertwined. ... This exhibition marks a first attempt, which we hope will be the start of many, to examine these artistic developments within an historical framework that prompts a discussion of their impact on Chinese culture today." With extensive text and images of several works from the exhibition, as well as an interactive timeline of Chinese art from 1949 to 1979. Uses Flash.
Go to Museum Resource: http://sites.asiasociety.org/chinarevo/ | |
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| The Art of Calligraphy in Asia |
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| Princeton University Art Museum
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“Calligraphy, the art of beautiful writing, was long considered the supreme art form in China, Japan, and Korea. This elevated status reflects the importance of the written word in East Asian cultures. In ancient China, early emperors asserted their power by engraving edicts or pronouncements on stone in their own calligraphic script. The elite members of society were scholar ¬officials, whose status was attained by their command of the written word. In addition to the central role played by writing in Chinese culture, the visual form of the language also contributed to the distinctiveness of the calligraphic tradition. The vast number and complexity of the characters that make up the Chinese script presented artists with a unique platform on which to explore the creative possibilities of design. The writing of Chinese characters-which was then widely adopted in Korea around the fourth century and in Japan in the mid-sixth century-was thought to be the purest visual manifestation of the writer's inner character and level of cultivation. It was the medium through which a person's thoughts, feelings, and artistry were best conveyed. In looking at a piece of calligraphy, we may admire the way a calligrapher manipulated the brush to create an object of beauty in which rhythmic energy is conveyed through strokes and dots done with ink. Changes in ink gradation, the relationship between characters, and the elegance of a single line can entice viewers regardless of the legibility of the text.
Go to Museum Resource: https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/object-package/art-calligraphy-asia/104193 | |
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| Art of East Asia: Curriculum Guide |
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| San Diego Museum of Art
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The Museum’s Education Department has created a series of lesson plans to help introduce art into the classroom. The following lesson plans have been designed to help educators create elaborate classroom activities that will enhance their students’ understanding of works of art at The San Diego Museum of Art. See also: Exploring the Art of East Asia [PDF}.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.sdmart.org/curriculum/ | |
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| The Artful Fabric of Collecting |
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| Jordan Schnitzner Museum of Art, University of Oregon
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Chinese textiles from the collection of Gertrude Bass Warner (1863-1951), who… was particularly drawn to silk textiles and the people who produced them, primarily the women in private households and commercial workshops. Techniques and patterns of weaving silk for Chinese robes are demonstrated on the site. It was only in the 17th century when the production of court orders began to overwhelm the imperial workshops that commercial workshops took over some of the production. In these commercial workshops, most of them located in the Jiangnan area, the center of China’s silk production, male weavers relegated women to the groundworks of silk production: the rearing of the silkworms and reeling the silk of the cocoons. Embroidery remained the domain of women. They were the master embroiderers who developed the art to its height in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Their legacy can be admired in the textiles from the Warner collection.
Go to Museum Resource: https://glam.uoregon.edu/s/fabric-of-collecting/page/welcome | |
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| The Artist as Collector: Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from the C. C. Wang Family Collection |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Online presentation of a 1999-2000 exhibition that "illuminates the entire tradition of scholar painting from its birth and early development in the Song and Yuan dynasties (10th to 14th century) to its later transformation and elaboration during the Ming and Qing dynasties (14th to 20th century)." With images of 14 related artworks dating from the 10th century to 1711.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/1999/chinese-painting | |
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| Asian Art Outlook |
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| Asia Society
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A resource for educators featuring highlights from the Asia Society's permanent collection. The site aims to serve as "an accessible and tangible starting point for discussion about the history, geography and cultures of Asia." Features 21 artworks (7 from the Indian subcontinent, 7 from China, and 7 from Japan), each with background text and a detailed guide on how to look at the work. Also includes 8 additional lesson plans related to Asian art, history, and culture.
Go to Museum Resource: http://sites.asiasociety.org/education/AsianArt/index.htm | |
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| Asian Influences on European Art |
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| Getty Museum
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Explore with your class Asian influences on European art in the 18th century in this lesson plan. Discover ways to engage your students in the investigation of chinoiserie, the cultural and artistic trend that produced objects and paintings reflecting Chinese subjects and motifs. In its broadest sense, chinoiserie was meant to evoke the spirit and decorative forms of faraway lands as diverse as China, Japan, India, and the Middle East.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/classroom_resources/curricula/asian_inf... | |
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| The Astor Chinese Garden Court |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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A replica of a Ming dynasty home garden from Suzhou, China, recreated by artisans from China. The design of the museum's Chinese garden is "based on a small courtyard within a scholar's garden in the city of Suzhou, China, called Wang Shi Yuan, the Garden of the Master of the Fishing Nets.The first permanent cultural exchange between the U.S. and the People's Republic of China, the installation was completed in 1981. Conceived by museum trustee Brooke Astor, the courtyard was created and assembled by expert craftsmen from China using traditional methods, materials and hand tools." See photo gallery as well as lesson plan.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/78870 | |
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| Attitudes Towards Nature in Daoist Art |
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| Asia Society
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Lesson plan that helps students understand the difference between how many Westerners view nature versus how many Chinese (particularly Daoists and the literati) felt about the natural world around them. Uses Chinese poems and landscape paintings as primary sources.
Go to Museum Resource: http://asiasociety.org/education-learning/resources-schools/elementary-lesson-p... | |
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| Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China |
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| Asia Society
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Online presentation of a 2004 exhibition that takes "a comprehensive look at the innovative photo and video art produced since the mid-1990s in China." Featured topics: History and Memory; Reimagining the Body; People and Places; and Performing the Self.
Go to Museum Resource: http://sites.asiasociety.org/arts/past_future/index.html | |
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| Bridging East and West: The Chinese Diaspora and Lin Yutang |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Online presentation of a 2008 exhibition featuring "43 paintings and calligraphies by 19 leading Chinese artists of the mid-20th century." With images of 12 artworks.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2007/lin-yutang | |
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| Bronze Age Casting |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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The ability to make bronze tools, weapons, and ritual vessels was such a significant advancement in world civilization that it lends its name to an entire era: the Bronze Age. The skill and resources needed to fabricate bronze were in place in ancient China by 1700 BCE, over a thousand years later than in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India. The earliest Chinese bronze artifacts have been traced to the Erlitou culture in Henan province. Their discovery confirms foundries for smelting and casting metal were active in northern China between 1300 and 900 BCE, a highpoint of early Chinese casting.
Making bronze requires two things: copper and tin ores, sometimes mixed with lead; and intense heat for refining and casting. Chinese founders made their metal objects using clay for both models and removable section molds. (This differs from the Mediterranean and European practice of casting objects using wax-covered models.)
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/ancient-chinese-bronzes/bronze-age-casting/ | |
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| Brushstrokes: Styles and Techniques of Chinese Painting [PDF] |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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"Brushpainting, which includes calligraphy, landscapes, scrolls and fans, has been a major art form throughout Chinese history. This packet explores the history, development and significance of brushpainting in Chinese art. Includes discussion of painting and calligraphy techniques, and a comparison of painting styles."
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2019/09/Brushstrokes.... | |
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| Buddhism |
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| University of Washington, Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization
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"This unit offers evidence of how Buddhism changed China's visual culture, showing the evolution of images of deities, plus views of temples and people practicing Buddhism." A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization was prepared by University of Washington history professor Patricia Buckley Ebrey. With questions for discussion, timelines, maps, and suggested readings. Select HOME to find link to teachers' guides for all topics featured on the website.
Go to Museum Resource: http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/bud/5budhism.htm | |
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| Buddhist Art from China and Japan |
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| The Cleveland Museum of Art
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This lesson explores new objectives for art and examines how Chinese painting reflects Buddhist principles. Students learn to consider the meaning and significance of Buddhist mudras through the examination of images from the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.clevelandart.org/lesson-plan-packet/buddhist-art-china-and-japan | |
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| Buddhist Cave Temple Sculpture |
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| Victoria and Albert Museum
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The Central Asian tradition of building such complexes was been practiced for centuries, primarily with Imperial sponsorship in the Northern regions, where Buddhism first took hold. The very act of creating these vast monuments, hollowed out from rock faces and decorated so lavishly within, was considered an act of 'piety' resulting in the accrual of merit, which in Buddhism is accumulated as a result of good deeds, acts or thoughts. This merit is then carried over to later in life or to a person's next birth. The sculptures and paintings also functioned as an important focus for worship and as symbolic links between the worldly and heavenly realms. People would have travelled great distances to see them and to worship and make offerings before them.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/c/chinese-buddhist-cave-temple-sculpture/ | |
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| The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan |
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| New York University, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
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Carved into the side of a mountain, the Buddhist cave temples at Xiangtangshan (“Shahng-tahng-shahn”) are the crowning cultural achievement of the short-lived Northern Qi (“Chee”) dynasty, which ruled over most of northeastern China from 550 to 577 ce. The name Xiangtangshan translates as “Mountain of Echoing Halls,” and refers to two groups of rock-cut shrines in Hebei province close to ancient Ye, the Northern Qi capital. The emperors and courtiers who commissioned the temples were non-Chinese, of mixed ethnicities from north of the Great Wall, and practiced Buddhism, a religion favored by this elite. In their entirety, these cave temples housed an awe-inspiring world below ground and reflect a long tradition, begun in India, of situating holy places within the earth itself. Includes 12 over life-size sculptures from this Buddhist cave temple complex with a full-scale, digital, 3-D reconstruction of the interior of one of the site’s impressive caves.
Go to Museum Resource: http://isaw.nyu.edu/exhibitions/echoes | |
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| Buddhist Sculpture from China |
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| China Institute
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“The period covered by Buddhist Sculpture from China fits within Era 4 of the National History Standards, “Expanding Zones of Exchange and Encounter, 300-1000 CE”: Buddhist, Christian, and Hindu Traditions: Not only Islam but other major religions also spread widely during this 700-year era. Wherever these faiths were introduced, they carried with them a variety of cultural traditions, aesthetic ideas, and ways of organizing human endeavor. Each of them also embraced peoples of all classes and diverse languages in common worship and moral commitment….The entry of Buddhism into China and East Asia at the beginning of the Common Era is central to any perception of cultural exchange as playing “a crucial role in human history, being perhaps the most important external stimuli to change, leaving aside military conquest” (Curtin 1984: 1).”
Go to Museum Resource: https://china360online.org/?property=buddhist-sculpture-from-china | |
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| Cai Guo-Qiang on the Roof: Transparent Monument |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Online presentation of a 2006 installation at the Metropolitan Museum by the contemporary Chinese-born artist Cai Guo-Qiang, who is "known for his elaborate sculpture installations and gunpowder projects." With 7 images from the rooftop installation.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2006/cai-guo-qiang | |
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| Cai Guo-Qiang: "Traveler" |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Website documenting two site-specific installations at the Sackler Gallery and the Hirshhorn Museum created by the contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1957), an artist who "integrates aspects of Eastern history into contemporary contexts." With photographs and descriptions of installations and the transcript from a 2004 interview with the artist. Uses Flash.
Go to Museum Resource: https://archive.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/online/cai/traveler.htm | |
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| Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe |
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| Guggenheim Museum
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"Cai Guo-Qiang has literally exploded the accepted parameters of art making in our time. Drawing freely from ancient mythology, military history, Taoist cosmology, extraterrestrial observations, Maoist revolutionary tactics, Buddhist philosophy, gunpowder-related technology, Chinese medicine, and methods of terrorist violence, Cai’s art is a form of social energy, constantly mutable, linking what he refers to as 'the seen and unseen worlds.' This retrospective presents the full spectrum of the artist’s protean, multimedia art in all its conceptual complexity." With video documentation and an online exhibition of selected works. See also: Teaching Materials.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/cai-guo-qiang-i-want-to-believe-2 | |
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| Calligraphy |
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| University of Washington, Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization
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"This unit will cover calligraphy in China up through the Tang dynasty, with an emphasis on the Six Dynasties and Tang. It was during this period that calligraphy first began to flourish as an art form." A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization was prepared by University of Washington history professor Patricia Buckley Ebrey. With questions for discussion, timelines, maps, and suggested readings. Select HOME to find link to teachers' guides for all topics featured on the website.
Go to Museum Resource: http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/callig/callmain.htm | |
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| Calligraphy in East Asia: Art, Communication, and Symbology |
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| Education About Asia
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An ideal introductory overview of brush calligraphy’s powerful influence on East Asia. As an artistic genre, brush calligraphy holds a central place in the cultural history in East Asia. The form of the characters used in the Chinese writing system—as well as the other writing systems that were derived from it— have long held a place of special regard in the aesthetic traditions of the region. Brush calligraphy has historically been ubiquitous in the visual culture of China, Japan, and Korea, either as a complement to another kind of image (perhaps a landscape painting or part of an illustrated book) or as a work of art in its own right; consequently, it is central to the study of East Asian art history… East Asian brush calligraphy closely integrates aspects of art, communication, and symbology, thus offering educators a particularly rich set of resources from which to draw upon. With PDF download.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/calligraphy-in-east-asia... | |
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| Cave as Canvas: Hidden Images of Worship Along the Ancient Silk Routes |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Buddhist Cave Temples in Chinese Central Asia. Buddhism reached Chinese Central Asia (modern Xinjiang) from India around the first century A.D., brought by missionaries via the ancient Silk Routes. By the third century A.D., this new religion was flourishing in all the oasis kingdoms in the Tarim Basin (the Taklamakan Desert), also known as eastern Turkestan. As the Buddhist religion took hold and piety increased, the Indian tradition of excavating caves to serve as Buddhist sanctuaries proliferated in this region. In many of the Central Asian states, monasteries and temples were hewn out of the cliffs in secluded river valleys. With the patronage of local rulers, the elite, and wealthy merchants, these institutions gradually became major Buddhist centers. They continued to grow and prosper until the advent of Islam. Today, such Buddhist rock-cut cave complexes are some of the finest, if little known, monuments preserved in Chinese Central Asia.
Go to Museum Resource: https://archive.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/online/cave/default.htm | |
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| Ch'in (Qin), 221-206 B.C. |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"During this very brief dynasty, a dynamic leader named Shih-huang unified the "warring states" of the preceding era and declared himself China's first emperor." A brief, one-paragraph overview, along with a map, a video clip featuring an MIA curator, and one object representative of the period.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-chin.cfm | |
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| Ch'ing (Qing), 1644-1912 |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"The last Chinese dynasty began on a positive note -- of energetic collecting, cataloging, and exporting -- but ended disastrously." A brief, one-paragraph overview, along with a map, a video clip featuring an MIA curator, and 445 objects from the period.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-ching.cfm | |
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| The Chairman Smiles |
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| International Institute of Social History
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"The former Soviet Union, Cuba, and China: three countries where posters played an important political role and received a large amount of artistic attention. This is a selection of 145 political posters, famous masterpieces as well as equally beautiful but unknown examples drawn from the collection of the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. ... The Chinese posters include not only a number from the period of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), with the glorification of Mao Zedong, idyllic scenes in agricultural communes and sharp attacks on political opponents, but also extremely rare posters from circa 1949 to the early 1960s, with the establishment of the People's Republic and the campaign for the Great Leap Forward. There are also posters from the 1980s and early 1990s, the period of Deng Xiaoping and the economic modernization."
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/chairman/index.php | |
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| China on Paper: European and Chinese Works from the Late Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth Century |
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| Getty Museum
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Online presentation of a 2007-08 exhibition presenting "works on paper from the special collections of the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute that document the fascinating story of cultural exchanges between Chinese and Europeans in the early-modern era." With text discussing the key role that Jesuit missionaries in China played in the story of this exchange, illustrated with six works from the exhibition.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/china_paper/ | |
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| China's Calligraphic Arts |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Six major scripts have developed over the course of more than three thousand years for writing Chinese characters, and all are still used in "artistic writing" (calligraphy) today. Each of these styles of writing—oracle bone, seal, clerical, cursive, running, and standard—has distinct differences in appearance.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/chinas-calligraphic-arts/ | |
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| China: 5000 Years |
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| Guggenheim Museum
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Online presentation of a 1998 exhibition that "explores the themes of innovation and transformation during the great eras of Chinese art." Two sections -- TRADITIONAL and MODERN -- but only the TRADITIONAL section is functional and is organized into seven major categories: Jade, Bronze, Grave Goods, Ceramics, Sculpture, Calligraphy, and Painting. There is extensive text under each category but only a few small images, none of which enlarge.
Go to Museum Resource: http://pastexhibitions.guggenheim.org/china/index.html | |
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| China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200–750 AD |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Publication of the exhibit that explores exceptional works of art from forty-six institutions in the People's Republic of China. Includes references to works of art in the Metropolitan's permanent collection, relevant literary references, maps, and details about how certain objects were crafted. See also exhibition publication.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2004/china-dawn-of-a-golden-age | |
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| China: History Timeline |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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An interactive timeline of Chinese history, from the Late Neolithic period to the present. Short text overview of each time period, along with a work of art from that time period.
Go to Museum Resource: https://archive.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/online/chinaTimeline/launch.htm | |
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| China’s Long Nineteenth Century – Foreign Influence and the End of Dynastic China |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Students will be able to explain the various reasons why the Qing dynasty was weakened during the nineteenth century, especially with regard to the outside influence of foreign powers.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/for-educators/teaching-china-with-the-smithsonian/les... | |
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| China’s ‘China’: Porcelain’s Contribution to World History and Culture |
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| China Institute
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A simple and clear-cut way of demonstrating the significant impact that Chinese porcelain has had on global material culture over many centuries is to consider the very word ‘China’ in the English language: the word refers not only to the country but is also synonymous with the porcelain pottery ware that began to circulate in Europe almost as soon as European ships rounded the Cape of Good Hope and increasingly established direct trade relations with China and other Asian countries. Ceramic pottery is, of course, as old as human civilization and found around the globe; but the unique quality and properties of porcelain—its considerable strength, translucency, and high resistance to thermal shock—make it one of the great contributions Chinese civilization has made to world cultures.
Go to Museum Resource: https://china360online.org/?property=appreciation-capitals | |
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| Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion [PDF] |
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| Chinese Historical Society of America
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Curriculum materials to accompany the New York Historical Society 2015 exhibition, “Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion” that explores the complex history of Chinese Americans. The exhibition’s title encapsulates the challenges of immigration, citizenship, and belonging that shaped both the Chinese American experience and the development of the United States as a nation.
Go to Museum Resource: https://chsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Chinese-American-Classroom-Material... | |
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| Chinese Arts of the Brush |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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"Long before the Chinese invented paper in the first century B.C.E., they devised the round brush, which is used for both writing and painting." The unique versatility of the Chinese brush lies in its tapered tip, which is composed of a careful grouping of chosen animal hairs. Through this resilient tip flow the ever-changing linear qualities of the twin arts of the brush: calligraphy and painting. An historical overview of the "twin arts" of calligraphy and painting in Chinese art.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/exhibition/gallery-guide-chinese-arts-of-the-brush/ | |
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| Chinese Bronzes (Shang and Chou) |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"Few works of art are as remote or alien to western eyes as ancient Chinese bronzes. Nevertheless these beautiful ritual vessels constituted the mainstream of Chinese art for nearly 1500 years. Spanning both the Shang (1523-1028 B.C.) and Chou dynasties (1027-256 B.C.), these ceremonial utensils, often of unsurpassed technical refinement and varied decor, define the very essence of early Chinese art." A short introduction to ancient Chinese bronzes, with 33 related objects, all with descriptions.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/explore/explore-collection-chinese-bronz... | |
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| Chinese Calligraphy |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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An overview of the development of calligraphy in China: "Calligraphy, or the art of writing, was the visual art form prized above all others in traditional China. The genres of painting and calligraphy emerged simultaneously, sharing identical tools—namely, brush and ink. Yet calligraphy was revered as a fine art long before painting; indeed, it was not until the Song dynasty, when painting became closely allied with calligraphy in aim, form, and technique, that painting shed its status as mere craft and joined the higher ranks of the fine arts. With images of 16 paintings from the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties and two related objects.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/chcl/hd_chcl.htm | |
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| Chinese Calligraphy and Ink Painting |
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| The Kennedy Center, ArtsEdge
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In this lesson plan "students will experience the art and culture of Chinese calligraphy and Chinese ink painting through watercolor painting and Chinese instrumental folk music ... [and] learn basic calligraphy strokes for the creation of Chinese writing as an art form." Suitable for grades 3-4.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-reso... | |
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| Chinese Calligraphy: An Introduction |
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| Smart History
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Calligraphy is the world’s oldest abstract art—the art of the line. This basic visual element can also hold a symbolic charge. Nowhere has the symbolic power of the line manifested itself more fully than in Chinese calligraphy, a tradition that spans over 3,000 years. The aesthetics of calligraphy are important to the history of art in East Asia, where during much of its premodern era classical Chinese was the lingua franca (or common language). An introduction to the major types of Chinese calligraphic scripts with visuals.
Go to Museum Resource: https://smarthistory.org/chinese-calligraphy-intro/ | |
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| Chinese Ceramics |
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| Pacific Asia Museum of USC
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An excellent overview of Chinese ceramics, great for students. Organized into three topics: 1) Tomb Treasures; 2) Reaching Distant Lands; 3) Fit for the Emperor. Illustrated throughout with representative objects, plus a timeline of Chinese history that appears next to the text in every section. The FOR TEACHERS section has a set of Questions & Activities for each topic, plus four fact sheets: 1) Ceramic Secrets; 2) Kinds of Ceramics; 3) Chinese Symbols; 4) Chinese Dynasties.
Go to Museum Resource: https://pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu/exhibitions/past/online-exhibition-chinese-ce... | |
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| Chinese Cloisonné |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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A brief introduction to the development of cloisonné in China during the early 14th to 15th century, as well as to the cloisonné technique. With 2 related artworks.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/clos/hd_clos.htm | |
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| Chinese Furniture |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"Classical Chinese furniture is closely related both aesthetically and technically to traditional Chinese architecture. The basic mortise and tenon system of joinery found in hardwood furniture is deeply rooted in the more ancient tradition of architectural timber framing." A short introduction to Chinese furniture, with 27 related objects, all with descriptions.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/explore/explore-collection-chinese-furni... | |
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| Chinese Gardens and Collectors' Rocks |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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A brief discussion of the significance of the garden in Chinese culture. With 10 related artworks and a video clip of the Chinese Garden Court at the Metropolitan Museum.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cgrk/hd_cgrk.htm | |
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| Chinese Handscrolls |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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An overview of the Chinese handscroll format: "A significant difference between Eastern and Western painting lies in the format. Unlike Western paintings, which are hung on walls and continuously visible to the eye, most Chinese paintings are not meant to be on constant view but are brought out to be seen only from time to time. This occasional viewing has everything to do with format." With images of 18 paintings from the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/chhs/hd_chhs.htm | |
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| Chinese Instruments |
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| The Kennedy Center, ArtsEdge
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An audio series that "explore[s] unique aspects of Chinese music through sounds, performance and interviews." Featuring three episodes on "the endangered music of the Yunnan peoples; the tradtional sounds of the pipa, bamboo flute, qin and other Chinese instruments; and the creative space between them, where sounds ancient and avant-garde intersect."
Go to Museum Resource: https://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/lessons/grade-3-4/Chinese_Instrum... | |
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| Chinese Jades of the Qing Dynasty [PDF] |
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| Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida
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Collector fashions during the 18th century called for jade boulders to be left in their natural shapes and carved with landscape and figural designs. Similar to paintings, these boulders represented miniature worlds that could stimulate the scholar's imagination or provide a kind of mental retreat. Lesson plan.
Go to Museum Resource: http://harn.ufl.edu/linkedfiles/k-12resource-chinesejades.pdf | |
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| Chinese Landscape Painting During the Song Dynasty |
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| Princeton University Art Museum
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“Landscape painting dominated Chinese painting beginning in the tenth century. The word for landscape painting in Chinese, shan shui hua, literally means “mountain (shan) water (shui) painting (hua).” Mountains are hard and unyielding; water is soft and fluid. These opposites are an example of the concept of yin and yang—the idea that everything in nature is composed of complementary but opposing forces that interact and change. Complementary opposites is one of several core cultural concepts of the Song dynasty that are encapsulated in many of the period’s landscape paintings.”
Go to Museum Resource: https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/asian-art/china/resources/landscape-painting/ | |
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| The Chinese Lion Dance (Elementary) |
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| The Kennedy Center, ArtsEdge
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The Chinese Lion Dance is an important part of the celebration of the Chinese New Year, and it is believed to bring good luck and happiness. In this lesson, students will learn about the history of this dance, the costumes that are worn, and the music that accompanies the dance performance. They will create lion head puppets and will dance in a parade carrying their Chinese Lion Dance puppets.
Go to Museum Resource: https://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/lessons/grade-k-2/Chinese_Lion_Da... | |
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| Chinese Painted Scroll – Video Exploration in 3-D |
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| The British Museum
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Explore a beautiful Chinese scroll through this immersive video! The painting depicts the forest near Mount Baiyue (now Mount Qiyun) in Anhui province in the east of China. The composition unfolds layer upon layer through multiple perspectives, and was made in 1623 by Chinese artist Xiang Shengmo.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWsqLc3-0cs | |
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| Chinese Painting |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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An introduction to Chinese painting: "This is the aim of the traditional Chinese painter: to capture not only the outer appearance of a subject but its inner essence as well—its energy, life force, spirit." With images of 19 paintings from the Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/chin/hd_chin.htm | |
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| Chinese Rubbings Collection of the Field Museum |
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| Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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For more than 1,500 years rubbings have been a vital medium for preserving China's art, culture, and history. These beautiful works are made by pressing thin sheets of wet paper into carvings or inscriptions cut in stone or other hard materials and carefully inking the surface to create a copy of the original. The resulting rubbing has white impressions where the paper was pressed into the carving surrounded by a typically black ink field. Because they are easily transported, rubbings quickly became the primary means to faithfully reproduce and share historical data, poetry, scholastic texts, calligraphy, and art throughout China.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/node/4986 | |
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| Chinese Textiles from the Collection of The Field Museum |
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| The Field Museum
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A selection of images from the Museum's collection of Chinese folk textiles, which constitutes the largest collection of early-20th-century Chinese folk textiles in the world. Items includes clothing, household items, theatrical costumes, religious items, and other accessories. See also:
The Carl Schuster Collection of Chinese Textiles.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/node/4951 | |
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| Chinese Woodblock Prints: A Selection from the Collection of A. E. Maia do Amaral |
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| Universidade de Coimbra
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A collection of 20th-century Chinese woodblock prints of various types, including traditional ritual prints for doors, walls, and windows, etc., as well as modern decorative prints. Each print has brief information about its ritual purpose and/or iconography.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www1.ci.uc.pt/pessoal/maiaa/index.htm | |
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| Chou (Zhou), 1027-256 B.C. |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"Chinese culture changed radically during this 770-year period, as power extended across family lines to create aristocratic cities and principalities; eventually, these separate states battled for dominance." A brief, one-paragraph overview, along with a map, a video clip featuring an MIA curator, and 34 objects representative of the period.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-chou.cfm | |
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| Cinnabar: The Chinese Art of Carved Lacquer |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Online presentation of a 2009-2010 exhibition showcasing "approximately fifty examples dating from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. ... [including] several recently acquired works as well as small boxes for holding incense or cosmetics and larger containers used for papers, scrolls, or presenting gifts." With images of 15 artworks, mostly dating from the 13th to the 18th century.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2009/cinnabar | |
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| Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art |
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| The Huntington Archive of Buddhist and Asian Art
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Online presentation of a 2004 exhibition, with images of art, artifacts, ritual objects and practices, and related diagrams organized into 13 topics covering a range of issues related to enlightenment, meditation, and other Buddhist practice. In-depth explanatory text for all topics and images. Most of the artworks are from Tibet, Nepal, India, and China.
Go to Museum Resource: https://huntingtonarchive.org/Exhibitions/circleOfBliss.php | |
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| Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism: How do different belief systems fit together in one country? [PDF] |
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| The Field Museum
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In this lesson plan students will explore three major belief systems in China–Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism - through art and artifacts. Through discussion and object-study, students will wrestle with how these different belief systems co-existed in China, and how they influenced and Informed each other. Spanish PDF also available.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/sites/default/files/lifeways.pdf | |
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| Confucius, Shotoku, and the Golden Rule |
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| The Cleveland Museum of Art
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Confucian thought, Prince Shotoku’s Constitution, and the Golden Rule provide an opportunity for teachers and students to develop a shared vision for learning and classroom relationships. By looking at these ancient sayings, modern-day students can formulate their own rules of conduct.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.clevelandart.org/lesson-plan-packet/confucius-shotoku-and-golden-rule | |
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| Cultivated Landscapes: Reflections of Nature in Chinese Painting |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Online presentation of a 2002-2003 exhibition that encompasses "landscapes and garden scenes dating from the Five Dynasties period (907–960) to the late twentieth century" and explores the "manifold uses of natural imagery in Chinese painting as a reflection of human beliefs and emotions." With images of 8 related artworks. See also the exhibition publication.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2002/cultivated-landscapes | |
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| Cultural Exchange in the Tang Dynasty – The Journey of a Tomb Figure |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Students will be able to identify and analyze the Tomb Figure of a Groom and relate this work to the historical context of cultural exchange during the Tang dynasty.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/for-educators/teaching-china-with-the-smithsonian/les... | |
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| Cyrus Tang Hall of China |
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| The Field Museum
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Wealth of information on China – geography, history, beliefs, artifacts, theater, with lesson plans, some listed on this site.
Go to Museum Resource: http://chinahall.fieldmuseum.org/explore | |
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| Daoist Immortals |
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| The Cleveland Museum of Art
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This lesson plan uses art to introduce Daoism. This complex faith system, which can be regarded as polytheistic religion, has numerous religious figures, called Immortals. While this lesson focuses on the immortals, it also explores the complexity of the Daoist faith.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.clevelandart.org/lesson-plan-packet/daoist-immortals | |
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| Defining Nature through Art |
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| China Institute
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This lesson will teach students how to connect the various organisms within nature through an artistic lens. Students will develop their own definition of nature, and conceptualize this definition through Chinese landscape paintings or poetry. They will leave this class with the ability to interpret natural elements within Chinese landscape paintings and Chinese literature.
Go to Museum Resource: https://china360online.org/?property=4-new-york-plaza | |
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| Designing with Numbers |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Students will look closely at a Qing dynasty court robe known as a chaofu. They will learn about the beliefs in Chinese numerology and its relationship to language. After counting the symbols, they will learn why specific numbers of special images appear on the robe. Several related math problems are included.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/for-educators/teaching-china-with-the-smithsonian/les... | |
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| The Development of Landscape Painting in China: The Song through the Ming Dynasties |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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Invasions in the north by the Jin Tartars in the 12th century forced the Song dynasty to retreat to the south where a new court was established at Hangzhou in 1127. Under the Emperor Hui Zong the Imperial Painting Academy already was moving in the direction of closer views of nature, both in landscapes and in images of birds, flowers, and insects. The intent was to capture the vital life spirit of these subjects as well as an understanding of their true form, texture, and movement in space. See also Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) Education and Tradition.
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/resources/the-development-of-landscape-painting-... | |
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| Digging Deeper into Buddhism: Mapping the Buddhist Cosmos |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Students already familiar with Siddhartha Gautama, or Shakyamuni, the Historical Buddha, will deepen their understanding of Buddhist beliefs and artwork. They will analyze and interpret works of art that reveal how people live around the world and what they value. They will identify how works of art reflect times, places, cultures, and beliefs. See also Reading the Cosmic Buddha interactive on Google Arts & Culture.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/for-educators/teaching-china-with-the-smithsonian/les... | |
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| Discovering the East of China: Chinese Music in Elementary School |
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| Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
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Chinese music consists of many regional traditions that differ in form, style, quality and repertory (Lau, 2008). This curricular unit introduces some difang yinyue (regional music of China) and encourages children to discover characteristics of Chinese music by “travelling” around the eastern region of this country.
Go to Museum Resource: https://folkways.si.edu/discovering-east-china-elementary-school/lullaby-vocal-... | |
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| Diving Deeper into Buddhism – Guanyin |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Students who are already familiar with Siddhartha Gautama, or Shakyamuni, the Historical Buddha, will deepen their understanding of Buddhist beliefs and artwork. They will analyze and interpret works of art that reveal how people live around the world and what they value. They will identify how works of art reflect times, places, cultures, and beliefs.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/for-educators/teaching-china-with-the-smithsonian/les... | |
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| Diving Deeper into Buddhism – Western Paradise |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Students already familiar with Siddhartha Gautama, the Historical Buddha, will deepen their understanding of Buddhist beliefs and artwork. They will analyze and interpret works of art that reveal how people around the world live and what they value. They will identify how works of art reflect times, places, cultures, and beliefs.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/for-educators/teaching-china-with-the-smithsonian/les... | |
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| The Douglas Dillon Legacy: Chinese Painting for the Metropolitan Museum |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Online presentation of a 2004 exhibition. "Spanning more than 1,000 years of Chinese painting, from the 8th to the 18th century, the exhibition constitutes a compelling survey of all the major schools and trends of the last four dynasties." With images of 8 related artworks dating from the 8th century to 1770.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2004/chinese-painting | |
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| Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden |
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| Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden
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Take an online tour of this Vancouver garden. Also read more about the garden's history, design, construction, and symbolism under "About" at top.
Go to Museum Resource: https://vancouverchinesegarden.com/ | |
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| East and West: Chinese Export Porcelain |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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An introduction to Chinese export porcelain -- objects produced in China specifically for export to the West, beginning in the early 16th century. With 12 related artworks.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ewpor/hd_ewpor.htm | |
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| Educator Resource Packet: Camel and Rider |
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| The Art Institute of Chicago
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"This ceramic sculpture of a camel and rider is an example of a type of mingqi (pronounced ming-chee), or tomb figure. During the Tang Dynasty whenever a rich or powerful person died they were buried with clay objects depicting people, animals, and fantastic creatures." With discussion questions, classroom applications, and glossary.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.artic.edu/collection/resources/educator-resources/16-educator-resou... | |
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| Educator Resource Packet: Shukongojin |
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| The Art Institute of Chicago
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"The Art Institute’s figure of Shukongojin, with his demon-like body, flaring eyes, and mouth stretched in a scream, might have originally terrified an oncoming visitor to the temple he guarded, but might have also instilled a sense of protection and reassurance for the visitor who hoped nothing would disturb his meditations once inside. For the viewer today, Shukongojin looks down from his rock-like pedestal, imposing both a sense of awe and curiosity about the target of his aggressive presence. This teaching packet includes an essay, discussion questions, activity ideas, a glossary, and an image of the artwork."
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.artic.edu/collection/resources/educator-resources/34-educator-resou... | |
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| The Embodied Image: Chinese Calligraphy from the John B. Elliott Collection |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Online presentation of a 2000-2001 exhibition "of more than fifty-five hanging scrolls, handscrolls, and album leaves from the Elliott collection, accompanied by a nearly equal number of selections from the Metropolitan's renowned John M. Crawford Collection Jr. and private collections, constitutes the most important display of calligraphy ever assembled in the West." With images of 9 related artworks dating from the 4th to the 17th century.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2000/john-b-elliott-collection | |
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| Emperor QinShihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum |
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| Museum of the Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang
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Museum of the Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang. This is the website of the official Qin Shihuangdi tomb site museum and an excellent resource for information about the more than 8,000 clay warrior figures and 10,000 bronze weapons that have been found in the tomb. This is the English version of the website; the Chinese version has even more information.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.bmy.com.cn/2015new/bmyweb/ | |
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| Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice across Asia |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Buddhism—and the art it inspired—helped shape the cultures of Asia. Today, its extraordinary art is a source of beauty and contemplation for audiences across the world.Encountering the Buddha brings together more than two hundred artworks, spanning two millennia, to explore Asia’s rich Buddhist heritage. They represent diverse schools that arose from the Buddha’s teachings.Throughout the exhibition and the website, we explore how Buddhist artworks are endowed with sacred power. We ask, why were they created? How did Buddhists engage with them? And how do Buddhist understandings of such objects differ from those of art museums?
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.freersackler.si.edu/exhibition/encountering-the-buddha-art-and-prac... | |
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| An Environmental Ethic in Chinese Landscape Painting |
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| Education About Asia
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A practical but meaningful multidisciplinary educational resource. Landscape painting in Western art did not develop into an important category of painting until the seventeenth century. In contrast, landscape painting in China was already a prized art form by the ninth century… In fact, when Chinese art was systematically introduced to the West during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the prominence afforded nature—as opposed to humans— in Chinese art startled Western audiences. …Western artists celebrated the human story above all else, while Chinese artists gave trees, plants, birds, rocks, and streams utmost scrutiny. Historically, what beliefs about nature motivated Chinese painters to make landscape such a prestigious art form? … Introducing Chinese landscape painting into a world history or a world art course can serve as a platform for discussing environmental ethics. For example, how does a Song dynasty Chinese landscape painting envision humanity’s relationship with the cosmos? The tiny scale of humans relative to the mountains in a typical Chinese landscape painting suggests that we humans coexist with many other living things. Humans are integrated into a larger whole rather than celebrated as a towering presence. With PDF download.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/cultivating-enlightenmen... | |
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| Evolving Language: How has language changed the world? [PDF] |
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| The Field Museum
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In this lesson plan students will explore the history of writing in China and draw conclusions about the impact of the written word on human civilizations, and how language has changed over time.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/sites/default/files/language.pdf | |
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| An Exploratory Short Course in Tuvan Throat Singing |
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| Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
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An introductory course exploring “throat singing” (or overtone singing) as practiced and performed by the people of Tuva. We will explore this truly unique style of vocal production through attentive listening, watching video and practicing techniques and types of throat singing.
Go to Museum Resource: https://folkways.si.edu/exploratory-short-course-tuvan-throat-singing/folk/musi... | |
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| Exploring Art Made for the Afterlife |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Students will learn that objects found in tombs provide information about Chinese civilization, including beliefs about the afterlife, aspects of daily life, social hierarchies, and the importance of horses for trade. Students will be able to explain how tombs show how people lived, traveled, and ate, and what they wore in the past. Finally, they will create their own tomb figure inspired by their favorite mode of transportation.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/for-educators/teaching-china-with-the-smithsonian/les... | |
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| Exploring Chinese Painting: A Test Module for Undergraduate Teaching |
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| Columbia University, Media Center for Art History
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A workspace allowing students to view and compare a group of important Chinese hand scrolls and hanging scrolls from the 10th to the 17th centuries. Uses Flash.
Go to Museum Resource: http://projects.mcah.columbia.edu/nehasian/zoomify/scrolls/swf/start.html | |
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| Exploring Objects: How many stories can one object tell? [PDF] |
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| The Field Museum
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In this lesson plan students will analyze objects using a variety of disciplinary lenses, including anthropology, history, economics, geography, and art history. Students will then collaborate to explore the role of different social scientists in uncovering the stories objects hold.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/sites/default/files/objects.pdf | |
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| Exploring the Qingming Scroll: What does an idealized image of society tell us? [PDF] |
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| The Field Museum
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In this lesson plan students will learn about the contradictions contained within the Qingming Scroll and compare it to present-day representations of idealized societies.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/sites/default/files/qingming.pdf | |
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| Fire Over Earth: Ceramics from the Collection of the Asia Society |
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| Asia Society
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Explores the interrelationships between the ceramic traditions of China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia in terms of techniques, styles and the roles played by ceramics in different contexts. Features seven objects with accompanying text and a glossary.
Go to Museum Resource: http://sites.asiasociety.org/arts/ceramics/ | |
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| Five Dynasties, 907-960 |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"Brief and unremarkable in terms of military activity and economic progress, this period is nonetheless noteworthy in terms of two artistic advances." A brief, one-paragraph overview, along with a map, a video clip featuring an MIA curator, and 4 objects representative of the period.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-five.cfm | |
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| The Forbidden City (Imperial Palace of China) |
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| The Palace Museum, Beijing
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Provides an annotated map of the Palace with live links to images and background on each of the locations. The Imperial Palace was “the center of imperial governance and family life, the Forbidden City consists of various structures that were designed for specific functions. Each structure was built in accordance with the traditional Chinese architectural hierarchy and designed to reflect imperial power and authority.”
Go to Museum Resource: https://en.dpm.org.cn/collections/architecture/ | |
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| Gardens |
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| University of Washington, Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization
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"This unit explores the private Chinese garden, the elegant paradises created by the well-to-do, especially in the Southeast. The unit includes a walk-through tour of one of the older surviving gardens of Suzhou, the Garden of the Master of Nets." A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization was prepared by University of Washington history professor Patricia Buckley Ebrey. With questions for discussion, timelines, maps, and suggested readings. Select HOME to find link to teachers' guides for all topics featured on the website.
Go to Museum Resource: http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/home/3garintr.htm | |
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| Gilded Splendor: Treasures of China's Liao Empire (907-1125) |
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| Asia Society
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This excellent interactive website explores the complex cultural and religious legacy of the Khitan and their reign over China during the Liao Dynasty (907-1125). Features an extensive image gallery of objects (organized into the following topics: 1) Nomadic Heritage; 2) Chinese Tomb Tradition; 3) Luxuries and Necessities; 4) Religious Life); an interactive tour of two Liao tombs; plus an interactive map of recently excavated Liao sites in Inner Mongolia (with images); two additional historic maps; and a timeline.
Go to Museum Resource: http://sites.asiasociety.org/arts/liao/ | |
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| Graphic Arts (of 20th-Century China) |
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| University of Washington, Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization
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"China's visual culture changed dramatically in the twentieth century with the great growth in advertising, posters, and other mass-produced means of using images to attract the attention of the populace." A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization was prepared by University of Washington history professor Patricia Buckley Ebrey. With questions for discussion, timelines, maps, and suggested readings. Select HOME to find link to teachers' guides for all topics featured on the website.
Go to Museum Resource: http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/graph/9gramain.htm | |
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| The Great Bronze Age of China: An Exhibition from The People's Republic of China |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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"Nearly 4,000 years ago, the ancient Chinese made a discovery that would determine the course of their history and culture for two millennia—the alloy of tin and copper known as bronze. Bronze was used for tools and weapons and even musical instruments, but the Great Bronze Age of China has come down to us mainly in the ritual vessels that symbolized power and prestige for China's first three dynasties: the Xia, the Shang, and the Zhou." This page contains the publication that accompanied the "Great Bronze Age Exhibition." See also AFE's Teacher's Guide to the Exhibition.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/The_Great_Bronze_Age_of_China_An_... | |
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| Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Online presentation of a 2003 exhibition that "explores how Chinese pictorial themes—Buddhist iconography, landscape imagery, flower and bird subjects, and figural narratives—were selectively adopted and reinterpreted by native artists in Korea and Japan." With images of 16 related artworks dating from the 10th to the 18th century.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2003/great-waves | |
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| Guide to Chinese Ceramics |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"The Chinese contribution to ceramic art is one of uncontested brilliance. Explore the amazingly rich period of Chinese ceramic production from the Neolithic era through the Sung Dynasty." With a short introduction to each period or type and a selection of related objects from the MIA's collection.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/ceramics/ | |
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| Hall of Jades |
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| The Field Museum
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Online presentation of a 2004 exhibition. With background information about jade -- jade as a stone, the colors of jade, jade-working methods, and where jade can be found -- plus images of jade objects produced throughout China's history, from Neolithic China to the present.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.fieldmuseum.org/exhibitions/elizabeth-hubert-malott-hall-jades | |
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| Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.) |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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A brief discussion of political and cultural developments during the Han dynasty. With a map and 4 related artworks.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hand/hd_hand.htm | |
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| Han, 206 B.C.-200 A.D. |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"Military expansion, political centralization, and cultural achievements made this the first of China's four greatest dynasties." A brief, one-paragraph overview, along with two maps (one of the Silk Road), a video clip featuring an MIA curator, and 52 objects representative of the period.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-han.cfm | |
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| History of Chinese in America: An Interactive Timeline |
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| Museum of Chinese in America
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A timeline of key figures and events in the political and cultural history of Chinese Americans from 1933 to 2009.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.mocanyc.org/learn/timeline | |
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| Homes (of China's Late Imperial Period): House Architecture and Interiors |
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| University of Washington, Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization
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"This unit looks at the homes people built as a way to learn more about the material circumstances of their lives and how geography affected daily life. After looking at how houses were built, it considers what was inside them." A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization was prepared by University of Washington history professor Patricia Buckley Ebrey. With questions for discussion, timelines, maps, and suggested readings. Select HOME to find link to teachers' guides for all topics featured on the website.
Go to Museum Resource: http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/home/3homintr.htm | |
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| Horses |
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| The Cleveland Museum of Art
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The horse was an important cultural icon in ancient China and there are many depictions of them in Chinese art. The horse was a symbol of wealth and power to emperors, noblemen, and warriors. In addition to warfare, horses were used for hunting.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.clevelandart.org/lesson-plan-packet/horses | |
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| How to Identify a Buddha |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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"The earliest surviving representations of the Buddha date from hundreds of years after his death, so they are not portraits in the usual sense. Buddha images vary greatly from place to place and period to period, but they almost always show these conventional features..." Downloads includes student handouts and a teacher packet on Hindu Buddhist Art. See also An Introduction to Buddhism.
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/resources/how-to-identify-a-buddha/ | |
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| How to Paint a Lotus |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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The lotus flower is a Buddhist symbol of purity. Students will learn how to paint a lotus flower using Chinese brushpainting techniques in this hands on activity. Downloads include a lesson plan, teacher packets, visual instructions for the activity, and other resources.
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/resources/how-to-paint-a-lotus/ | |
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| How to “Read” a Chinese Scroll: More than Just "Right to Left" [PDF] |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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For hundreds of years Chinese painting took three major formats: hand scrolls, hanging scrolls, and album leaves. Important hand scrolls are stored in special boxes and are carefully unrolled and rerolled for viewing a portion at a time by only a few people. Looking at the poetry, painting, and calligraphy on a scroll is like reading a chapter in a book. A Chinese hand scroll is “read” from right to left, the same way classical Chinese writing is read.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.freersackler.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/chinese-scroll-lesso... | |
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| Illusion, Allegories, and Artwork – Monkeys Grasp for the Moon |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Students will describe the visual qualities and content of works of art as well as the meanings communicated and feelings evoked by works of art. They will compare and contrast different forms, techniques, and meanings in artwork. Additionally, they will analyze the concept of allegory in storytelling and art as they recount stories from diverse cultures and determine the central message, lesson, or moral using key details in the text.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/for-educators/teaching-china-with-the-smithsonian/les... | |
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| Imperial China: The Art of the Horse in Chinese History |
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| The International Museum of the Horse at Kentucky Horse Park
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"Imperial China was the first exhibition ever to explore the role of the horse in more than 3,000 years of Chinese history and culture." Three teaching guides (.pdf format) related to this exhibition can be downloaded from this page: 1) The Horse in Chinese History; 2) China: Historical & Cultural Background; 3) Curriculum (on interpreting artifacts); plus two appendices with additional content about horses in Chinese culture. Also see ONLINE EXHIBITIONS at the top of the HTML page for more about this exhibition.
Go to Museum Resource: http://imh.org/education/education-resources/ | |
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| Imperial Elegance: Chinese Ceramics from the Asia Society's Rockefeller Collection |
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| Asia Society
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"This exhibition reveals the broad range of aesthetics that appealed to Chinese imperial patrons of Chinese ceramics during a period that spans more than six hundred years, from the Song (960–1279) through the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Selected works have been grouped to show how color and form in imperial ceramics can provide clues to their function. A final section explores some of the meanings represented by the decorative motifs found on imperial ceramics."
Go to Museum Resource: http://sites.asiasociety.org/arts/imperialelegance/index.html | |
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| Imperial Silks (of the Manchu Court) |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"When the nomadic Manchu warriors overthrew the Ming dynasty in 1644 and founded Ch'ing [Qing], they took over the world's largest population, greatest bureaucracy, and one of the most luxurious courts in existence. They remained, however, a clear minority... To ease an orderly political transition while guarding against total cultural assimilation, the Manchus adjusted to a Chinese style bureaucracy and adopted the Buddhist religion while simultaneously enforcing certain ethnic and cultural differences. One of the clearest distinctions made was that of court attire." An overview, plus 14 related examples of court attire from the Manchu period, all with descriptions.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/explore/explore-collection-imperial-silk... | |
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| The Influence of East Asian Lacquer on European Furniture |
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| Victoria and Albert Museum
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When lacquered objects made in East Asia first reached Europe in about the early 16th century, they were highly prized for their flawless finish and light-reflecting qualities. Lacquer became available to European elites, along with other luxury items including silk and porcelain, once Portuguese explorers discovered a sea route to the East around the southern tip of Africa and across the Indian Ocean. The flow of goods increased in the early 17th century when the Dutch and English East India Companies began to bring goods to markets in Amsterdam and London. By 1700 many European country houses and palaces contained examples of East Asian export lacquer. Asian lacquer was admired as a precious and mysterious material.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/east-asian-lacquer-influence | |
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| Inside Out: New Chinese Art |
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| Asia Society
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Online presentation of a 1998-99 exhibition of new art produced by artists in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and by selected artists who emigrated to the West in the late 1980s. Focuses on works of art that explore the complex relationship between culturally specific issues and larger developments of a modern/postmodern age. Site includes images of more than 20 works (but without descriptions), plus profiles of two commissioned works and one "work in progress" by the artist Xu Bing.
Go to Museum Resource: http://sites.asiasociety.org/arts/insideout/index.html | |
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| Internationalism in the Tang Dynasty (618–906) |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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"Boldly syncretic, the arts of China's Tang dynasty (618–906) exhibit myriad international influences that were absorbed through diplomacy, conquest, trade, and pilgrimage. At the center of it all was Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), the most populous city in the world at the time, the seat of power for the Tang imperial court, and a pulsing hub of art, fashion, and culture." With 8 related artworks.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/inte/hd_inte.htm | |
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| An Introduction to Chinese Brushpainting Techniques |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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“Experience for yourself the art of brush-and-ink painting. Begin by learning how to hold the brush. Once you feel comfortable, experiment by applying varying degrees of pressure, speed, and moisture. Finally, create your own brushpainting masterpiece.” Downloads include visual instructions and a teachers packet.
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/resources/an-introduction-to-chinese-brushpainti... | |
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| An Introduction to Chinese Character and Brushstrokes |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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All Chinese characters are made up of a number of strokes. These strokes are painted in a prescribed order, depending on the script. Generally, strokes move from top to bottom and from left to right. Downloads include a guide "Getting Started with Chinese Calligraphy" and a Teachers Packet.
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/resources/an-introduction-to-chinese-character-a... | |
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| An Introduction to the Music of Mongolia |
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| Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
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Students will be introduced to the music of Mongolia through several activities looking into different aspects of Mongolian music. Students will be introduced to the sound of the Morin Khuur (horse-head fiddle), the techniques of Khöömei (throat singing), and given an opportunity to play a traditional Mongolian song with western instruments.
Go to Museum Resource: https://folkways.si.edu/introduction-mongolia/throat-singing/music/tools-for-te... | |
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| An Introductory Course to Chinese Painting |
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| LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
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This free, online introduction to Chinese painting is divided into short video segments of 2-5 minutes, covering formats, styles, meanings, and more. Viewers are able to choose topics of interest to them.
Go to Museum Resource: https://lacma.teachable.com/p/chinese-painting | |
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| The Invention of Woodblock Printing in the Tang (618–906) and Song (960–1279) Dynasties |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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Among the most globally significant innovations of the Tang and Song dynasties were the inventions of woodblock printing and moveable type, enabling widespread publishing of a variety of texts, and the dissemination of knowledge and literacy.
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/resources/the-invention-of-woodblock-printing-in... | |
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| Iraq and China: Ceramics, Trade, and Innovation |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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"Influenced by sea trade with China, Iraqi pottery was transformed in the 9th century. These innovations, in turn, inspired ceramic arts across the region." With two topics related to technique ("Blue & White" and "Luster") and one related to trade ("Spread of Innovation"); the latter discusses the dissemination of techniques to Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Italy, and England. Uses Flash.
Go to Museum Resource: https://archive.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/online/iraqChina/default.htm | |
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| Jiahu (ca. 7000–5700 B.C.) |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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A brief discussion of the archaeological site of Jiahu, in Henan province, where fragments of 30 flutes were discovered. Six of these flutes represent the earliest examples of playable musical instruments ever found.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/jiah/hd_jiah.htm | |
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| John Thomson's China: Illustrations of China and Its People (1873-1874) |
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| Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Visualizing Cultures
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"John Thomson, born in Edinburgh, was the first Western photographer to travel widely through the length and breadth of China. This unit is a full reproduction of his celebrated Illustrations of China and Its People: A Series of Two Hundred Photographs, with Letterpress Descriptive of the Places and People Represented, published in four volumes from 1873 to 1874." With an in-depth essay by Allen Hockley, professor of art history at Dartmouth College.
Go to Museum Resource: http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/john_thomson_china_01/index.html | |
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| Journey to the West (Monkey King): A Modern Performance of a Classic Story (15 min video) |
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| The Field Museum
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For more than 400 years people in China and beyond have enjoyed the epic tale Journey to the West. The story follows a Chinese monk who travels to India to bring Buddhist teachings back to China. On his journey, he’s protected by Pigsy, half man and half pig; Sandy, a former river monster; and their leader, the mischievous Monkey King. In this episode, Monkey King must get a magic fan to extinguish the Mountain of Fire that blocks their path.
Go to Museum Resource: http://chinahall.fieldmuseum.org/interactive/puppet-theater | |
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| A Journey to Xiangtangshan |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Carved into the mountains of northern China, the Buddhist cave temples of Xiangtangshan ("Shahng-tahng-shahn") were the crowning cultural achievement of the Northern Qi ("Chee") dynasty (550-77). The name Xiangtangshan translates to "Mountain of Echoing Halls." It refers to two groups of caves: northern Xiangtangshan and southern Xiangtangshan, located about nine miles apart in Hebei province. Commissioned by devout Buddhist emperors and courtiers, the manmade caves represent the power and prestige of the throne and an eternal appeal for divine protection. They also reflect a long tradition, begun in India, of situating holy places within the earth's mantle.
Go to Museum Resource: https://archive.asia.si.edu/explore/china/xiangtangshan/ | |
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| A Journey: Han Dynasty Tomb |
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| Cornell University, Johnson Museum of Art
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Animated and narrated site describing the purpose of the tomb and identifying objects of significance placed in the tomb. Uses flash.
Go to Museum Resource: http://museum.cornell.edu/journey/tomb/virtual_tomb.html | |
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| Lacquerware of East Asia |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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An introduction to East Asian lacquerware. Discusses production methods, as well as artistic techniques as they developed in China, Japan, and Korea, respectively. Includes a short glossary of decoration techniques. With 14 related artworks.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/elac/hd_elac.htm | |
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| Landscape of Memory: The Art of Mu Xin |
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| Asia Society
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Online presentation of a 2003 exhibition of art by Chinese contemporary artist Mu Xin. With an essay discussing the connections between Mu Xin's work and the tradition of Chinese landscape painting and Chinese history; his appreciation of Western humanist philosophy; his imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution; and an analysis of his technique.
Go to Museum Resource: http://sites.asiasociety.org/arts/muxin/index.html | |
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| Landscape Painting in Chinese Art |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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A brief overview of landscape painting in Chinese art from the Tang dynasty to the present. With 10 related artworks.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/clpg/hd_clpg.htm | |
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| Laufer China Expedition (1901-1904) |
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| American Museum of Natural History
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Featuring more than 6,500 objects from China and Tibet, acquired between 1901 and 1904 during the Jacob H. Schiff expedition to China led by sinologist Berthold Laufer… exploring the history and culture of a sophisticated people that had not yet experienced the industrial transformation… The collection includes "objects used in daily life, agriculture, folk religion, medicine, and in the practice of such crafts as printing, bookbinding, carpentry, enamelware, ceramics, and laquerware. [Laufer] also collected antique bronzes and Han Dynasty ceramics[, and his] interest in the theater led him to make the most extensive collection of Chinese puppets in North America including shadow puppets, rod puppets, and glove puppets in several regional styles, and to record performances on wax cylinders. The collection also includes costumes, musical instruments, and stilts for the Yang Ko folk drama."
Go to Museum Resource: https://anthro.amnh.org/laufer_collection | |
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| Learning from Asian Art: China |
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| Philadelphia Museum of Art
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"This online resource introduces students to Chinese art and culture as they explore works in the Museum’s collection. Each art image is accompanied by background information, a set of looking questions, and related classroom activity suggestions that students can use individually, in small groups, or as a whole class." With 10 images, plus a map, timeline, and list of recommended print resources and websites.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.philamuseum.org/booklets/3_15_32_1.html | |
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| The Legacy of Genghis Khan |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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An introduction to the legacy of Genghis Khan (ca. 1162–1227) and the Mongol Empire, which was "the largest empire ever to exist, spanning the entire Asian continent from the Pacific Ocean to modern-day Hungary in Europe." Related essays on the Mongol empire include: A New Visual Language Transmitted Across Asia; The Mongolian Tent; Takht-i Sulayman and Tile Work; Courtly Art; The Religious Arts; The Art of the Book; Folios from the Jami' al-tavarikh; and Folios from the Great Mongol Shahnama.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/khan1/hd_khan1.htm | |
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| Lesson Plan: Concepts of Nature [PDF] |
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| The Art Institute of Chicago
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Lesson plan related to module on Taoism: Taoist cosmology was shaped by the way in which the Chinese traditionally understood the world. Taoists believe that when the world began, there was only the Tao, a featureless, empty void able to be filled with the potential of all things. At this point, the Tao generated swirling patterns of cloudlike energy, called qi (pronounced "chee"). This energy developed two complementary aspects: yin, which is dark, heavy, and feminine, and yang, which is light, airy, and masculine. Yin energy sank to form the earth, yang energy rose to form the heavens, and both energies harmonized to form human beings. Consequently, the human body holds within it the energies of both the earth and the heavens. Grades 10–12 English Language Arts, Social Science.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.artic.edu/assets/773fe693-17c7-62b2-9e50-20718bec233c | |
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| Lesson Plan: Signs of the Zodiac [PDF] |
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| The Art Institute of Chicago
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Chinese art often incorporates animals that symbolize traits or characteristics. One of the most prominent ways that animals have been used symbolically in Chinese culture is in the Chinese zodiac. Grades 4–8 English Language Arts, Fine Arts, Social Science.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.artic.edu/assets/d594a444-64ce-5c68-823a-cb441314f3cd | |
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| The Life of a Chinese Scholar |
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| The Cleveland Museum of Art
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Students will learn about Confucianism and Chinese scholar poets through exploring art and literature. Students will read the works of Confucius and see the effect that Confucian teachings had on Chinese government and culture.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.clevelandart.org/lesson-plan-packet/life-a-chinese-scholar | |
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| Ling Long Woman's Magazine (Shanghai, 1931 to 1937) |
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| Columbia University, Libraries
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A digital archive of Ling Long Women's Magazine, "originally published in Shanghai from 1931 to 1937 and of significant scholarly research value in several disciplines." With extensive background information about the magazine and the social and cultural context in which it was produced.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/linglong/index.html | |
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| A Look at Chinese Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Examines seven Chinese paintings and calligraphies from the Asian art collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and discusses answers to seven questions that viewers often have about Chinese paintings in general: 1) What materials did the artist use to create this painting; 2) Why is there only writing in this image; 3) Why didn't the artist use any color in this painting; 4) What is this image about; 5) Why did the artist choose this shape for this painting; 6) Why are red stamps placed all over this painting; 7) How is nature depicted in Chinese landscape paintings?
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/chin/hd_chin.htm | |
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| Mapping the Silk Road (interactive) |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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Students analyze objects from South Asia, West Asia, and China to connect to the travel experiences of ancient merchants and traders, develop an understanding of the breadth of the land and sea trade, and explore how art and ideas travel and change over time and place.
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/resources/mapping-the-silk-road/ | |
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| The Margaret Grigg Nanjing Friendship Garden |
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| Missouri Botanical Garden
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An excellent online tour of the Missouri Botanical Garden's Chinese garden. Scroll to the bottom of this Introduction page to see links to four more pages about Chinese gardens in general (An Ancient Tradition; A Frame and Focus; Mountains and Water; Plants as Symbols) plus four pages about specific aspects of this Chinese garden (The Moon Gate; Tai Hu Stones; The Pavilion; The Lotus Gate). With photographs throughout.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.mobot.org/hort/tours/cgtourintro.shtml | |
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| Material Objects and Everyday Life: How does design relate to function? [PDF] |
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| The Field Museum
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In this lesson plan students will analyze early Chinese artifacts to understand how the design, or structure, of an object is related to its function. Students will also explore how materials can be best suited for the function of the object. Finally, students will infer what materials were used to create objects in a geographic region of China, based on its natural resources.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/sites/default/files/materials.pdf | |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Asian Art |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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The Metropolitan Museum's content-rich website offers many options for exploring its online collection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan art. Browse artworks by country/culture, time period, or subject area; or search for artworks and featured content for a specific country/culture or topic by using the Timeline website's search tool.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ | |
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| Ming, 1368-1644 |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"The last of the outstanding dynasties, the Ming was vibrant during its first half but racked with internal discord during its second." A brief, one-paragraph overview, along with a map, a video clip featuring an MIA curator, and 129 objects from the period.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-ming.cfm | |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts: The Art of Asia |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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The Explore the Collection section of this content-rich site features nearly 3,500 objects from the MIA's collection of Asian art. All images have a Zoom View; most images have descriptions. A Featured Objects section highlights 20 objects from the collection in great detail (through curator interviews), and six Featured Collections showcase objects in the following categories: 1) Ancient Chinese Bronzes; 2) Architectural Models; 3) Chinese Furniture; 4) Imperial Silks; 5) Taoist Art; and 6) Ukiyo-e. Users can also browse objects by country/region or by one of 15 subject categories (architecture, paintings, ceramics, drawings, etc.) or use the keyword search. An Add to My Collection feature allows users to create an online gallery to save and to share.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/explore/index.html | |
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| Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures from Northwest China, Gansu and Ningxia, 4th-7th Century |
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| Asia Society
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Features more than 35 objects organized into the following topics: 1) Heavenly Horses; 2) Nomadic Rulers; 3) Buddhism and China; 4) Buddhist Cave Temples; 5) Bodhisattvas; 6) Monks; 7) Merchants and Currencies; 8) The Tang Dynasty. Each topic has overview text, and each object is accompanied by short descriptive text. An additional topic on the Silk Road itself gives extensive background information on the geographical, historical, religious, and cultural context of the Silk Road.
Go to Museum Resource: http://sites.asiasociety.org/arts/monksandmerchants/index.html | |
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| Museum Dictionary: A Young Person's Guide to the Collections of the Kyoto National Museum |
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| Kyoto National Museum
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"Museum Dictionary: A Young Person's Guide to the Collections of the Kyoto National Museum": excellent teaching resource for students of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean art. Images enlarge, text in story format.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.kyohaku.go.jp/eng/dictio/index.html | |
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| Music and Art of China |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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"China provides some of the earliest traces of music making. These are mainly in the form of well-preserved musical instruments, the tangible evidence of music. Over several millennia, musical instruments from regional indigenous traditions as well as from India and Central and West Asia were assimilated into the mainstream of Chinese music. Some of the most ancient instruments have been retained, transformed, or revived throughout the ages and many are in common use even today, testifying to a living legacy of a durable art." With 19 related artworks.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/much/hd_much.htm | |
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| Musical Hooves on the Steppes: Morin Huur of Mongolia |
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| Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
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Explore rural nomadic life in Mongolia and the highly impressionistic music and arts of the Central Asian steppes. Students learn to imitate sounds of the natural environment through improvised dance, instrumental performance, and throat-singing.
Go to Museum Resource: https://folkways.si.edu/hooves-on-steppes-morin-huur-mongolia/throat-singing/mu... | |
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| National Bonsai and Penjing Museum |
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| The United States National Arboretum
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"The miniature masterpieces that we call bonsai and penjing are the pinnacle of gardening skill, and the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum has one of the largest collections of these timeless trees in North America. The Japanese art of bonsai, and its precursor, the Chinese art of penjing, are rooted in the traditions of Asian culture. The placement of branches, styling, and the pot all convey deep symbolism and reverence for nature." One-page historical background about the museum. Select BONSAI VIRTUAL TOUR for a 38-slide presentation that guides the visitor through the museum.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.usna.usda.gov/discover/gardens-collections/national-bonsai-penjing-... | |
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| Nature Within Walls: The Chinese Garden Court at The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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An illustrated 28-page teacher's guide that can be downloaded in .pdf format. The guide "provides background material about gardens and nature in Chinese culture ... Also included are suggestions for topics of discussion and relevant activities for use in the classroom. This material is meant to draw students’ attention to some of the key features of the garden and to help them understand how these details can embody fundamental cultural concepts. A glossary and a list of bibliographic and other resources provide handy references."
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/learn/educators/curriculum-resources/nature-within-wa... | |
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| Neolithic Era, 3000-1500 B.C. |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"The earliest known Chinese Stone Age culture was the relatively sophisticated Yang-shao, whose people lived in rudimentary settlements and hunted for game with carved stone spears." A brief, one-paragraph overview, along with a map, a video clip featuring an MIA curator, and 15 objects representative of the period.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-neolithic.cfm | |
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| Neolithic Period in China |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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A brief discussion of the material culture of China's neolithic period (ca. BCE 10,000-2000), specifically painted pottery and jade carvings. WIth 3 related artworks.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cneo/hd_cneo.htm | |
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| One Hand Clapping |
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| Guggenheim Museum
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The artists in this exhibition explore the ways in which globalization affects our understanding of the future. Their commissioned works represent a range of traditional and new mediums, from oil on canvas to virtual-reality software. The show’s title, One Hand Clapping, is derived from a koan—a riddle used in Zen Buddhist practice to transcend the limitations of logical reasoning—that asks, “We know the sound of two hands clapping. But what is the sound of one hand clapping?” Emerging from a tradition that originates in China’s Tang period (618–907), the phrase “one hand clapping” encompasses a history of cross-cultural translation and appropriation that continues into the present. Popularized by its use as the epigraph to American author J. D. Salinger’s 1953 book of fiction, Nine Stories, this koan has also served as the name of a British band, the title of an Australian film, and the title and lyrics of a Cantonese pop song. In this exhibition, “one hand clapping” serves as a metaphor for the ways in which meaning is destabilized in a globalized world. Evoking the idea of solitude, the image of “one hand clapping” also speaks to the ability of artists to put forth a singular vision that can contest entrenched beliefs, stereotypes, and power structures.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/one-hand-clapping | |
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| The Outsiders Inside: What does it mean to belong to a community? [PDF] |
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| The Field Museum
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In this lesson plan students will analyze the concept of “outsiders,” or ethnic minorities, in Chinese history through artifacts in the museum. They will connect the concept to present experiences.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/sites/default/files/outsiders.pdf | |
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| Painting (during the Song and Yuan dynasties) |
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| University of Washington, Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization
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"This unit covers not only developments in painting as a fine art, such as the development of landscape painting, but also looks at paintings for evidence of social life, both the commercial life of cities and private life at home." A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization was prepared by University of Washington history professor Patricia Buckley Ebrey. With questions for discussion, timelines, maps, and suggested readings. Select HOME to find link to teachers' guides for all topics featured on the website.
Go to Museum Resource: http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/painting/4ptgintr.htm | |
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| Peking Opera Mask |
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| Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College
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"In this lesson students will be introduced to the Chinese Peking Opera and symbolism as it is used in such performances. Students will also explore stereotypes and relate such ideas to personal experiences. As a studio project, students will create their own masks in the style of Peking opera masks." For grades 3 & 4.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.oberlin.edu/amam/asia/pekingopera/Default.html | |
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| Period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties (386–589) |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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A brief introduction to art in China during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period. With 3 related artworks.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nsdy/hd_nsdy.htm | |
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| The Pipa |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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An introduction to the Chinese pipa, a four-string plucked lute that "descends from West and Central Asian prototypes and appeared in China during the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534)."
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pipa/hd_pipa.htm | |
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| Playing with Shadows: An Introduction to Shadow Puppetry |
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| The Kennedy Center, ArtsEdge
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"Discover the secrets behind the art of shadow puppetry in this multimedia exploration, designed for grades 5-8, which explores this age-old art form through animations, videos, interactive activities, and more." With questions for discussion and two related lesson plans (see left-hand column): "Puppets on the Move: China and the Silk Road" and "Shadows & Light, Science & Puppetry." Uses Flash.
Go to Museum Resource: https://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/multimedia/series/AEMicrosites/playing-with... | |
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| Puppets on the Move: China and the Silk Road |
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| The Kennedy Center, ArtsEdge
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This lesson is part of the unit: 'Teaching Shadow Puppetry.' Through map-making, research, and class discussions, students will gain an understanding of the dynamics of trade in China along the Silk Road and the role of trade in urbanization throughout the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties. The lesson will culminate in student-produced and student-created shadow puppet performances that demonstrate students’ understanding of Chinese culture during the days of the Silk Road and of the connection between trade and urbanization.
Go to Museum Resource: https://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/lessons/grade-6-8/Puppets_on_the_... | |
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| The Qin |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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An introduction to the qin, a type of zither that is "the most prestigious of China's instruments." "Chinese lore" holds that the qin dates back to the third millennium BCE.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mqin/hd_mqin.htm | |
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| Qin Dynasty (221–206 B.C.) |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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An brief overview of the Qin dynasty in China. There are no related artworks, but one map and a short section about the terracotta figures at the tomb of Qin Shihuangdi.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/qind/hd_qind.htm | |
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| The Qing Dynasty (1644–1911): Painting |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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A discussion of painting during the Qing dynasty, with a focus on three principal groups of artists working during the Qing: the traditionalists, the individualists, and the courtiers and professional artists. With 14 related artworks.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/qing_1/hd_qing_1.htm | |
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| The Rag-dung (Cloisonné Trumpets) |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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A brief overview of the history of the Tibetan rag-dung, "long trumpets played in pairs for morning and evenings calls to prayer, preludes, and processions. ... By the Ming dynasty, the rag-dung may have been used in court rituals, as the elegantly decorated examples illustrated here attest."
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dung/hd_dung.htm | |
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| Rank and Style: Power Dressing in Imperial China |
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| Pacific Asia Museum of USC
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"Rank and Style: Power Dressing in Imperial China is an educational and interactive exploration of how the Chinese elite in the Ming and Qing dynasties expressed status through insignia of rank and the robes and accessories that went with them. It draws on the extensive collections of the Pacific Asia Museum as well as several private collections." Includes a glossary of textile terms and symbols, a chronology, discussion questions, and a reading list. Teaching Unit at the link below. See also Introduction.
Go to Museum Resource: https://pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu/exhibitions/past/exhibitions-at-usc-pam-prior... | |
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| Recarving China's Past: Art, Archeology, and Architecture of the Wu Family Shrines |
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| Princeton University Art Museum
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Interactive virtual reality tour, "Explore the Wu Family Shrines"; two pdf files: "Exhibition Handout," "Recarving China's Past"; "Map of Shandong Region Han Dynasty Archaeology Sites" with labels for the Wu Family Shrine and many other archaeological sites. “An interactive model of the Wu Family Shrine – created using 3D modeling software and GPS readings – allows you to explore the foundations of one of ancient China’s richest cultural eras.”
Go to Museum Resource: https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/legacy-projects/WuShrines/interactive.htm | |
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| Recording the Grandeur of the Qing |
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| Columbia University, Asia for Educators
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This interactive teaching unit gives the viewer unprecedented access to four monumental artworks of the Qing period – four of the twenty-four southern inspection tour scrolls commissioned by the Qing emperors Kangxi (r. 1662-1722) and Qianlong (r. 1736-1795). Each of the four featured scrolls is displayed online in its entirety, with key details annotated by Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Maxwell K. Hearn. Five background essays by Dr. Hearn and Columbia history professor Madeleine Zelin serve as guides to the historical and artistic context in which the scrolls were created. Produced in cooperation with the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Go to Museum Resource: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/qing/index.html | |
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| Red Luster (Lacquer) |
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| The Newark Museum
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Much of East Asia Lacquer is made from a toxic resin produced by the so-called ‘varnish tree’ (Toxicodendron vernicifluum, formerly identified as Rhus vernicifluum) native to parts of China that also grows in areas of Korea and Japan. Initially, this tree’s resin is processed into a liquid that may be applied over any surface such as woods, metals, cloth, ceramics, baskets, shells, and so forth. To maximize lacquer’s significant protective coating, multiple thin layers are applied and each layer must fully dry before the next is added. Drying is carefully controlled to prevent cracking that would weaken the functional and decorative properties. Raw lacquer dries into a naturally dark color. Adding opaque minerals, such as cinnabar reds (mercury sulfide), orpiment yellows (arsenic sulfate), and malachite greens (copper carbonate) creates colored lacquers. In different processing stages, lacquer can be worked in a variety of techniques.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.newarkmuseum.org/red-luster | |
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| Remembering 1882: Fighting for Civil Rights in the Shadow of the Chinese Exclusion Act |
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| Chinese Historical Society of America
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"In 1882 Congress passed the nation's first major immigration legislation -- a law to prevent people of Chinese descent from entering the United States. Remembering 1882 explores the historical debate around the Exclusion Act from its origins through its full repeal in 1968, the civil rights struggle of Chinese Americans and allies, and the historic importance of habeas corpus in the Chinese American community."
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.civilrightssuite.org/crs/InfoPage.php/iID/180 | |
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| Responses to Chaos: Art, Religion and Literature in Six Dynasties China (221 to 581 CE) |
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| China Institute
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Chinese and Western historians have treated the era from 220 to 581 in China as a “Dark Age” because The collapse of the Han (206 BCE—220 CE), one of the greatest dynasties in Chinese history, resulted in political chaos, which permitted foreign, mostly nomadic pastoralists living north of China, to occupy much of North China and to found Chinese-style dynasties. The country had no central government and was plagued by repeated conflicts and wars….Rather than being a Dark Age, the era from 220 from 581 contributed enormously to religion and the arts in China and set the stage for the cosmopolitan and even more multicultural Tang dynasty.
Go to Museum Resource: https://china360online.org/?property=introduction-to-dark-ages-in-china-220-581 | |
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| Return of the Buddha: The Qingzhou Discoveries |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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"In 1996 a chance discovery in Qingzhou ... in the northeastern province of Shangdong, brought to light an incredible buried treasure. Workers leveling a school sports field stumbled upon a pit brimming with hundreds of broken, but otherwise well-preserved, sixth-century Buddhist statues." Content organized into five topics -- Discovery (about the excavation), Color, Styles, Gallery (featuring 9 sculptures), and Resources (links to related websites).
Go to Museum Resource: https://archive.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/online/returnofbuddha/base.html | |
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| Rise & Fall of the Canton Trade System |
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| Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Visualizing Cultures
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"The images in this unit portray the abundant variety of commercial, art, and craft goods exchanged in the Canton region during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Three cities became the center of the trading system that linked China to the Western European powers and the United States. Macau, the oldest, stayed under Portuguese control from 1557 to 1999. Canton gathered traders from Europe, Southeast Asia, the U.S., and the rest of China. Hong Kong, acquired by the British after the Opium War, grew from a small fishing village to a major international port during the 19th century." With three in-depth essays by Peter C. Perdue, professor of history at Yale, plus an extensive image gallery and a curriculum guide.
Go to Museum Resource: http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/rise_fall_canton_01/index.html | |
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| Sacred Texts: Chinese Qur'an |
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| The British Library
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This Chinese Qur'an from the 17th century "shows how Islamic styles of calligraphy and illumination were combined with local styles, symbols, and aesthetics that came from a very different culture." Featuring excellent high-resolution images of one leaf from this manuscript, along with background information about the Qur'an and Islam in China.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/chinesequran.html | |
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| Sacred Texts: The Ashem Vohu |
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| The British Library
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This is a "9th or 10th century Sogdian manuscript from Dunhuang, China," containing "a version of one of the holiest Zoroastrian prayers: the Ashem Vohu, composed originally in the Avestan (old Iranian) language." Featuring excellent high-resolution images of the manuscript, along with background information on the Songdians, Zoroastrianism in Central Asia, and the significance of this particular manuscript.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/ashem.html | |
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| Sacred Texts: The Diamond Sutra |
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| The British Library
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The British Library's copy of the Diamond Sutra, printed in China and dating to 868 CE, is the world's earliest dated, printed book. A central text of Indian Buddhism, the Diamond Sutra was first translated from Sanskrit into Chinese in about 400 CE. This webpage gives background information on Buddhism, sutras, and the significance of the Diamond Sutra. There is also a link to detailed information about this particular copy of the Sutra, as well as excellent images and even a "Turning Pages" feature that gives viewers a close-up look at the Sutra.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/diamondsutra.html | |
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| Sacred Texts: The Kaifeng Torah |
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| The British Library
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This 17th-century scroll "was specially prepared for one of the farthest-flung and most remarkable religious communities of history: the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng." Featuring excellent high-resolution images of one section of the scroll, along with background information about Kaifeng and Judaism in China.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/kaifengtorah.html | |
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| Scholar's Library and Study |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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With introductory overview and images (including a 360-degree panorama view) of this permanent architectural installation at the MIA of a Qing dynasty scholar's study and attached rock garden. The IN THIS ROOM section has information about and images of furniture and decorative objects in the room; the CURATOR INTERVIEW section examines aspects of the room in greater detail. There is also a link to another installation -- a reception hall dating to the early 17th century -- also with an image gallery, object descriptions, panorama view, and curator interview.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/architecture/chinese-scholars-study.cfm | |
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| Scholar-Literati Scroll Project |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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Students will become members of the “literati/scholar” class by demonstrating their understanding of Chinese history, philosophy, and poetry. They will also display high achievement in the “Three Perfections”: calligraphy, painting, and poetry. This project is designed to be a creative alternative to daily or weekly assignments which might otherwise be assembled in a notebook or binder at the end of the 7th-grade Medieval China unit. Downloads includes handouts and maps.
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/resources/scholar-literati-scroll-project/ | |
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| Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove |
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| Asia Society
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"The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove were a group of Chinese learned men from the third century CE. During a time of political upheaval, the group distanced themselves from governmental service, choosing instead to spend time engaged in Daoist-inspired discussions, poetry, and music, sometimes while inebriated. ... Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, featuring traditional works of art from China and Japan, has been organized to accompany and provide some cultural context for Asia Society’s exhibition of Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest, the contemporary video work by Chinese artist Yang Fudong."
Go to Museum Resource: https://asiasociety.org/new-york/exhibitions/seven-sages-bamboo-grove | |
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| Shang and Zhou Dynasties: The Bronze Age of China |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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A discussion of material culture during China's Bronze Age, which began around BCE 2000. Bronze production is discussed at length, along with jade carving. With 9 related artworks.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/shzh/hd_shzh.htm | |
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| Silk and Bamboo: Music and Art of China |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Online presentation of a 2009-2010 exhibition that "celebrates the musical heritage of China—one of the oldest continuously documented traditions with roots reaching back more than eight thousand years. Featuring some sixty objects and illustrations ... Silk and Bamboo: Music and Art of China reveals the dynamic interplay of cultures, the continuity of musical practice, and the diversity of China's musical traditions from the fifth century B.C. to the present." With images of 18 objects, mostly dating from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2009/silk-and-bamboo | |
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| The Silk Road [PDF] |
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| Pacific Asia Museum of USC
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Lesson plan designed for grade 6, focusing on preparing students to explore works of Asian art. “Enduring Questions: How did societies interact with each other? How did connections between societies increase over time? How did the establishment of the Silk Road increase trade, the spread of Buddhism, and the connections between China and other regions of Afro - Eurasia?”
Go to Museum Resource: https://pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu/files/2019/03/USC-PAM-My-Masterpieces-Curricu... | |
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| The Silk Roads in History |
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| University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
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“There is an endless popular fascination with the “Silk Roads,” the historic routes of economic and cultural exchange across Eurasia. The phrase in our own time has been used as a metaphor for Central Asian oil pipelines, and it it common advertising copy for the romantic exoticism of expensive adventure travel. One would think that, in the century and a third since the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen coined the term to describe what for him was a quite specific route of east-west trade some 2,000 years ago, there might be some consensus as to what and when the Silk Roads were. Yet, as the Penn Museum exhibition of Silk Road artifacts demonstrates, we are still learning about that history, and many aspects of it are subject to vigorous scholarly debate.” An excellent rich site on the Silk Roads.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-silk-roads-in-history/ | |
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| The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 in Woodblock Prints from China and Japan |
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| The British Library
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Produced in conjunction with theJapan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR), this web exhibition “The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895： as seen in prints and archives” has been produced as a collaboration between the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR) and the British Library. Its aim is to bring together the collection of prints of the Sino-Japanese War held by the British Library and documents made public by JACAR to show how the events of the Sino-Japanese War were depicted and recorded by the people of the time. Both the Japanese and the Chinese prints included in this special web exhibition were produced at the time of the Sino-Japanese War to show the people of their respective countries what the war was like, a role played nowadays by news photographs. Therefore each country had a tendency to portray its own soldiers as strong and brave, but those of the opposing country as weak and small. Moreover many of the depictions seem to be based not on actual observation of the locations or events but on hearsay. Indeed some of them show scenes which could not have happened. From this it is clearly evident that these works were intended as propaganda at the time.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.jacar.go.jp/english/jacarbl-fsjwar-e/index.html | |
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| Six Dynasties, 220-586 |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"The wars, plagues, and political instability that characterize this lengthy period forced the Chinese to question traditional belief systems, especially Confucianism, and encouraged many to embrace Buddhism and Taoism." A brief, one-paragraph overview, along with a map, a video clip featuring an MIA curator, and 10 objects representative of the period.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-six.cfm.html | |
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| Song and Yuan Dynasty Painting and Calligraphy |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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"Presented here in text and image are eighty-five works of Song and Yuan dynasty painting and calligraphy in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art. The works are arranged in five thematic groups: secular figure painting (17 examples); landscape painting (29 examples); religious figure painting (25 examples); natural subjects (11 examples); calligraphy and rubbings (3 examples). Each group is further subdivided into topical categories arranged in rough chronological order. Some groups contain contemporary paintings created in border regions beyond the control of Song and Yuan authorities as well as a small number of Ming dynasty works that continue Yuan styles. Every work is fully documented through images and related text. Labels, frontispieces, inscriptions, colophons, and seals have been transcribed, and texts of art historical relevance are accompanied by annotated English translations."
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/publications/songyuan/ | |
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| The Song Dynasty: China in 1000 CE, The Most Advanced Society in the World |
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| Columbia University, Asia for Educators
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In 1000, 1100, 1200, and 1300, China was the most advanced place in the world. Marco Polo (1254-1324) recognized this when he got to China in the late 13th century after traveling through much of Asia. In what is now Europe, this was the period now referred to as the “high” Middle Ages, which fostered the Crusades and witnessed the rise of Venice, the mercantile center that was Marco Polo’s home.A magnificent picture scroll painted by a Chinese artist in the 12th century provides us with a look at society and urban life in China during this time. **This scroll, which appears throughout this teaching module, is often referred to as the “Beijing Qingming scroll” because it is in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing. Painted during the Song dynasty by the artist Zhang Zeduan, this scroll is believed to be the earliest extant version of the famous Qingming shanghe tu 清明上河圖 (see 'Translations of the Qingming shanghe tu' for more about the translation of this title), of which there are many versions. Widely considered to be China’s best-known painting (it has even been called “China’s Mona Lisa”), this rarely displayed 12th-century scroll was briefly on view in Hong Kong in July 2007.
Go to Museum Resource: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/songdynasty-module/index.html | |
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| The Spread of Buddhism Across Asia |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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Understand, through the analysis of artifacts and maps, how Buddhism changed as it spread across Asia and came to reflect the countries that embraced it. Downloads include a slideshow and handout on Buddhist artifacts and a lesson plan.
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/resources/the-spread-of-buddhism-across-asia/ | |
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| Steeped in History: The Art of Tea [PDF] |
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| Fowler Museum at UCLA
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"Throughout its history tea has been a prevalent theme in the visual arts—scenes of tea embellish ceramics and textiles and are the subject of paintings and drawings, and all manner of vessels have been fashioned for the preparation and presentation of tea. Steeped in History brings together rare Chinese ceramics and paintings, 18th- and 19th-century Japanese ceramics and prints, extraordinary English and Colonial American paintings, vintage photographs and historical documents, tea-serving paraphernalia and furniture from many countries, and much more —to tell the fascinating history of tea." This curriculum guide to the exhibition includes five lessons corresponding to the five themes of the exhibition: 1) China, Cradle of Tea Culture; 2) The Way of Tea in Japan; 3) Tea Craze in the West; 4) Tea and Empire; 5) Tea—Parties and Poetry.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.international.ucla.edu/media/files/Fowler_tea_curriculum.pdf | |
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| Sui, 581-618 |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"First ruled by a progressive leader and then by his ne'er-do-well son, this brief period closed with the arrival of a third emperor, one who would usher in the T'ang dynasty, another Chinese golden age." A brief, one-paragraph overview, along with a map, a video clip featuring an MIA curator, and 2 objects representative of the period.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-sui.cfm | |
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| Sung (Song), 960-1279 |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"Considered the third Chinese golden age, this complex dynasty was divided almost evenly into Northern (960 - 1126) and Southern (1127 - 1279) halves." A brief, one-paragraph overview, along with two maps (of Northern and Southern Song), a video clip featuring an MIA curator, and 72 objects representative of the period.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-sung.cfm | |
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| Sword Bearer Lamp (China) – 3-D image (470-422 BCE) |
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| Princeton University Art Museum
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Bronze, made with piece-mold technique. ”The lamp is cast using piece-molds, and assembled from multiple pouring casts of the body and head, with cast-on components, including the chin strap ends, waist knot, sword, and the lamp pan and shaft. The body and head are cast in three successive pours, making use of different alloy compositions to achieve a polychromatic effect. The head and lower hem are cast with a darker ruddy colored bronze, while the outer tunic, waist knot, sword, and lamp dish and shaft are cast with a pale gold colored alloy. The rectangular tenon end of the lamp shaft is inserted into the hands the figure and pinned in two directions to prevent movement, and secured by lead. According to tomb inventories (qiance) this type of lamp is called zhuyon According to tomb inventories (qiance) this type of lamp is called zhuyong ("lamp-figurine"), and similar lamps have been found in Warring States and Western Han (206 B.C.–A.D. 9) burials. Such lamps may have been used in tombs to provide light during burial rituals, to guide the deceased soul on their afterlife journey, or to embody the soul in the form of an eternal flame during funerary ceremonies.
Go to Museum Resource: https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/asian-art/china/models/swordbearer-lamp-model | |
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| T'ang, 618-906 |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"The second of the four greatest dynasties, the T'ang combined aggressive military and economic expansion with political stability and creative achievement." A brief, one-paragraph overview, along with a map, a video clip featuring an MIA curator, and 41 objects representative of the period.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-tang.cfm | |
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| Talavera de Puebla |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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A brief discussion of blue-and-white Talavera pottery produced in Puebla, Mexico, which was influenced by Chinese export porcelain passing through Mexico on its way to Europe.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tala/hd_tala.htm | |
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| Tales of Our Time |
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| Guggenheim Museum
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The artists in this exhibition challenge the conventional understanding of place. By portraying often-overlooked cultural and historical narratives, Chia-En Jao, Kan Xuan, Sun Xun, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, Tsang Kin-Wah, Yangjiang Group, and Zhou Tao explore concepts of geography and nation-state. Their artworks address specific locations, such as their hometowns, remote borderlands, or a group of uninhabited islands, as well as abstract ideas, such as territory, boundaries, or even utopia. China, too, is presented here, not only as a country but also as a notion that is open for questioning and reinvention.
The exhibition’s title riffs on Gushi xin bian (Old Tales Retold,1936), the name of a book by modern Chinese literary giant Lu Xun in which he recasts ancient legends to critique society, reimagine history, and illuminate problems of his era. The artists in Tales of Our Time similarly call attention to the dynamic relationship between storytelling and history writing. Official histories are, in their eyes, full of fabrications, and storytelling provides a means to reconstruct the past and demystify the present. While some of the artists engage storytelling by creating characters and plots, others imbue their forms with narrative content by adapting metaphor and allegory. All of them, however, dispute the line between fiction and fact in order to make and unmake boundaries—those dividing communities, regions, nations, and continents, as well as those separating past and present, reality and dreams, and rationality and absurdity.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/tales-of-our-time | |
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| Taoism and the Arts of China |
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| The Art Institute of Chicago
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An excellent website for teaching about Taoism. Covers the following three themes: 1) Taoist Tradition (discusses Laozi, Taoist cosmology, and the sacred immortals); 2) Taoist Church (discusses religious Taoism, ritual, and the Taoist pantheon); 3) Taoist Renaissance (discusses popular religion, divine manifestations of yin, and inner alchemy). Also features more than 25 works of art, related diagrams, a map, timeline, glossary, bibliography, and six lesson plans for the middle- and secondary-school levels.
Go to Museum Resource: https://archive.artic.edu/taoism/menu.php | |
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| Taoism and the Arts of China [PDF] |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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"This packet introduces Taoism, and its expression in Chinese art. What exactly is Taoism? (pronounced “dow-ism”) The “Tao” (pronounced “dow”) is change, motion, energy, the source of all matter and creation. It unfolds as the interaction of two kinds of energy (qi, pronounced “chee”), called yin and yang. These two energies interact in a state of constant movement. Taoism is a world of beliefs, writings, ceremonial practices, philosophies, and art that strives to harmonize the life of human beings with the forever and naturally changing universe. Like any religion or set of indigenous beliefs, Taoism has evolved over the centuries to encompass many ideas, mythologies and cultural practices."
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2019/09/Taoism-Teache... | |
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| Taoist Art |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"The Taoist philosophy is indigenous to China. Formed in the late Bronze Age, it has a history of over two thousand years and it exercised a deep and lasting influence on Chinese painting, calligraphy, poetry, medicine, political theory and personal conduct." Brief introductory text and 14 artworks from the MIA collection, most with descriptions. Also, a featured collection of paintings depicting the Three Purities -- "the supreme deities of orthodox religious Taoism."
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/explore/explore-collection-taoist-art.cfm | |
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| Teaching The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology [PDF] |
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| National Gallery of Art
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Teaching materials developed in conjunction with the exhibition The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from The People's Republic of China. Organized into four sections, each with images and descriptions of 4 to 6 related objects: 1) Late Prehistoric China (archaeology, jade, pottery); 2) Bronze Age China (Fu Hao tomb excavations; Sanxingdui findings); 3) Chu and Other Cultures (Marquis Yi tomb excavations); 4) Early Imperial China (excavations at the tomb of the First Emperor). Also with pronunciation guide and glossary, chronology, list of additional resources, and list of teaching activities.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/Education/learning-resources/teaching-pa... | |
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| Teaching China with the Smithsonian |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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This teaching resource developed in 2020 supports educators everywhere in engaging and inspiring students through the exploration of Chinese art, history, and culture. Focusing on artworks that can highlight key curricular themes, the materials are searchable by object, dynasty, and theme. With supporting lesson plans, videos and interactive maps and charts. The individual lesson plans are included throughout OMuERAA, but teachers can find a work of art that enhances their history lessons by using the “dynasty” search function on this site.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/for-educators/teaching-china-with-the-smithsonian/ | |
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| Technology and Tea Culture (Song) |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Students will be able to identify, explain, and analyze the technique behind producing the tea bowl with “oil spot” glaze and relate this work to the cultural and historical context of tea culture in the Song dynasty as well as the Song’s Commercial Revolution.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/for-educators/teaching-china-with-the-smithsonian/les... | |
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| Testing the Scholars: How do you choose who runs a dynasty? Why do people seek power? [PDF] |
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| The Field Museum
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In this lesson plan students will explore the classical Chinese civil servants exam system, compare it to their current exam systems, and construct their own ideas of what it means to be qualified for a role and how to prove qualification.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/sites/default/files/scholar.pdf | |
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| Throwing Off Asia II: Woodblock Prints of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) |
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| Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Visualizing Cultures
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"The 'Westernization' of Japan included strengthening the military and engaging in major wars against both China and Tsarist Russia. These remarkable propaganda prints illustrate Japan's startling victory in the Sino-Japanese War." See the ESSAY section for an in-depth, illustrated reading of the images from the historical record. See the VISUAL NARRATIVES section for a shorthand view of the unit's primary themes and images. A CURRICULUM section for teachers and students can be found under the "Throwing Off Asia II" menu at the top of the page.
Go to Museum Resource: http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/throwing_off_asia_02/index.html | |
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| Tianlongshan Caves Project |
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| Center for the Art of East Asia, University of Chicago
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The Buddhist cave temples of Tianlongshan (Heavenly Dragon Mountain) are located in the mountains thirty-six kilometers southwest of Taiyuan city in the central part of Shanxi province. They exist today in a damaged state with so many of the sculptures now missing, that visitors to the caves cannot imagine how they looked in the past. Many of the sculptures from the caves are now in museums around the world. However, though the sculptures may be preserved and displayed, visitors to museums cannot understand them in their original historical, spatial, and religious contexts. For these reasons the Center for the Art of East Asia in the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago initiated the Tianlongshan Caves Project in 2013 to pursue research and digital imaging of the caves and their sculptures. The Project seeks to record and archive the sculptures and to compile data that can identify the fragments and their places of origin. In carrying this out, the Project aims to foster better understanding of the sculptural art, the history, and the meaning of the Tianlongshan Caves through creation of this website and through an exhibition of the results of the Project based on digital information.
Go to Museum Resource: https://tls.uchicago.edu/ | |
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| Timeline of Art History: China, 1000 B.C.–1 A.D. |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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"By the end of this period, the boundaries established by the Qin dynasty and maintained by the Han more or less define the present-day nation of China." With a period overview, list of key events, and 8 related artworks. Also has links to additional information about the Qin dynasty (BCE 221-206) and the Western Han dynasty (BCE 206-9 CE), an abridged list of Chinese emperors, and timelines of Japan and Korea during this time.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=04®ion=eac | |
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| Timeline of Art History: China, 1000–1400 A.D. |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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"Reunited once again under the Northern Song dynasty, China maintains complicated relationships with the Liao in the northeast and the Xixia in the northwest." With a period overview, list of key events, and 9 related artworks. Also has links to additional information about the Northern Song (960-1127), Southern Song (1127-1279), Yuan (1279-1368) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties, an abridged list of Chinese emperors, and timelines of Japan and Korea during this time.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=07®ion=eac | |
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| Timeline of Art History: China, 1400–1600 A.D. |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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"The establishment of the Ming dynasty in 1368 marks the return of native rule over all of China for the first time in centuries." With a period overview, list of key events, and 10 related artworks. Also has links to additional information about the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), an abridged list of Chinese emperors, and timelines of Japan and Korea during this time.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=08®ion=eac | |
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| Timeline of Art History: China, 1600–1800 A.D. |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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"The weakening of the Ming dynasty in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century paves the way for the Manchu takeover of China in the mid-seventeenth." With a period overview, list of key events, and 10 related artworks. Also has links to additional information about the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, an abridged list of Chinese emperors, and timelines of Japan and Korea during this time.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=09®ion=eac | |
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| Timeline of Art History: China, 1800–1900 A.D. |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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"After the reign of Qianlong (r. 1736–95), China encounters a succession of economic and political crises that shake the foundation of the empire." With a period overview, list of key events, and 10 related artworks. Also has links to additional information about the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), an abridged list of Chinese emperors, and timelines of Japan and Korea during this time.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=10®ion=eac | |
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| Timeline of Art History: China, 1900 A.D.–present |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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"The twentieth century witnesses the fall of the Qing dynasty, and with it, the ancient imperial system." With a period overview, list of key events, and 8 related artworks. Also has links to additional information about the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), traditional Chinese painting in the 20th century, an abridged list of Chinese emperors, and timelines of Japan and Korea during this time.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=11®ion=eac | |
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| Timeline of Art History: China, 1–500 A.D. |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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"The Han dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.) establishes China's lasting model of imperial order and imposes a new national consciousness that survives today among the Chinese, who still refer to themselves as the 'Han people.'" With a period overview, list of key events, and 7 related artworks. Also has links to additional information about the Western Han (BCE 206-9 CE) and Eastern Han (25-220 CE) dynasties and the Period of Northern and Southern Dynasties (386-589 CE), an abridged list of Chinese emperors, and timelines of Japan and Korea during this time.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=05®ion=eac | |
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| Timeline of Art History: China, 2000–1000 B.C. |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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"Metalworking, especially in bronze, develops throughout China." With a period overview, list of key events, and 3 related artworks. Also has links to additional information about the Shang dynasty (ca. BCE 1600-1050) and Western Zhou dynasty (ca. BCE 1046-771), an abridged list of Chinese emperors, and timelines of Japan and Korea during this time.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=03®ion=eac | |
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| Timeline of Art History: China, 500–1000 A.D. |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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"In the second half of the sixth century, China, long divided into north and south, is further subdivided into the northwestern and northeastern regions ruled by different factions of the once-powerful Northern Wei empire." With a period overview, list of key events, and 10 related artworks. Also has links to additional information about the Period of Northern and Southern Dynasties (386-589), the Tang dynasty (618-906), and the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), an abridged list of Chinese emperors, and timelines of Japan and Korea during this time.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=06®ion=eac | |
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| Timeline of Art History: China, 8000–2000 B.C. |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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"Evidence of pottery making appears during the Early Neolithic period with the rise of agriculture and sedentary living." With a period overview, list of key events, and 3 related artworks. Also has links to additional information about China's neolithic period (ca. BCE 10,000-2000), an abridged list of Chinese emperors, and timelines of Japan and Korea during this time.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=02®ion=eac | |
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| To Enjoy and Defend Our American Citizenship |
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| Chinese Historical Society of America
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This exhibit "(explores) the experiences of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance in their groundbreaking work alongside groups such as the NAACP to challenge discriminatory laws and create the support systems necessary for survival in a segregated United States."
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.civilrightssuite.org/OurAmericanCitizenship/index.php/iID/232 | |
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| Tomb Treasures: Explore a Tomb from China’s Han Dynasty |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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Explore a virtual tomb: Tomb Treasures exhibition and assembled using photography and reference material provided by the Nanjing Museum, the Tomb Treasures 3D Experience begins with an aerial view of a reconstructed Han Dynasty royal mausoleum; the burial mound is lifted to reveal Tombs 1 and 2 prior to presenting an interactive 3D of Tomb 1. Explore 12 different areas of the tomb, where different objects were discovered.
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/resources/explore-a-tomb-from-chinas-han-dynasty... | |
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| Trading Places: The East India Company and Asia |
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| The British Library
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Trading Places "follows the journey of one of the biggest multinationals in history -- the East India Company." Includes a company timeline and "fact file," as well as extensive information on the history of the company and its activities in Asia. Also includes an in-depth look at the history of Bombay. With maps and images throughout. Asia used to be known as 'The East Indies.' Pepper, spices, medicinal drugs, aromatic woods, perfumes and silks were rare commodities in Europe, and therefore valuable. Trading in them could make you a fortune. And for this chance many were willing to risk their lives. There were three great empires in Asia: the Ottoman Turkish; the Mughal; the Chinese. Each was wealthy and sophisticated and had its own international trading network. How could Europe open up its own trading routes to Asia?"
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/trading/tradingplaces.html | |
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| Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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A brief discussion of traditional painting in 20th-century China. With 7 related artworks.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cptg/hd_cptg.htm | |
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| Traveling the Silk Road: Educator's Guide |
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| American Museum of Natural History
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Online educator's guide to the 2010 exhibition at the AMNH that takes visitors "along the world's oldest international highway, on a voyage that spans six centuries (AD 600 to 1200). (The exhibition) showcases four representative cities: Xi'an, China's Tang Dynasty capital; Turfan, a bustling oasis; Samarkand, home of prosperous merchants; and Baghdad, a meeting place for scholars, scientists, and philosophers." Featuring activities for grades 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12, standards correlations, map, glossary, and more.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/traveling-the-silk-road/educator-resources | |
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| Traveling the Silk Road: Take a Journey |
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| American Museum of Natural History
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An online "travel journal" to introduce visitors to the 2010 AMNH exhibition on the Silk Road. With an interactive series of articles covering "stops" in Baghdad, Samarkand, Turfan, and Xi'an. The section on Xi'an covers silk-making and music of the Tang-dynasty era.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/traveling-the-silk-road/take-a-journey | |
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| Treasures from a Lost Civilization: Ancient Chinese Art from Sichuan |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Online presentation of a 2002 exhibition that "presents the fascinating art and material culture of ancient Sichuan, in remote southwest China, uncovered by archaeology of the last 15 years. The 128 works of art on exhibit include monumental bronze images of deities, lively human figures, fantastic ritual vessels, exquisite jades, and spirited ceramic sculptures dating from the late phase of Sanxingdui culture (13th–11th century B.C.) to the Han dynasty (3rd century B.C.–3rd century A.D.). " With images of 10 related artifacts.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2002/sichuan | |
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| The Underground Army of the First Emperor |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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Just east of the modern city of Xi’an, you can see an army of soldiers unearthed. Discovered first in 1974, the work continues on three pits containing over 7,000 model soldiers. The army was buried within a framework of wooden pillars just east of the large tumulus containing the tomb of the First Emperor. It was a massive undertaking, certainly the largest ceramic project ever undertaken anywhere.
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/resources/the-underground-army-of-the-first-empe... | |
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| Understanding Decorative Motifs in Chinese Porcelain |
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| China Institute
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This hands-on activity is designed to be an inexpensive way for students to learn and appreciate the cultural significance of select symbols as they appear on Chinese porcelains.
Go to Museum Resource: https://china360online.org/?property=228-park-ave-s | |
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| Understanding History through Artifacts: Lady Dai’s Tomb |
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| China Institute
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In this lesson, students will examine Lady Dai’s tomb through an exploration of the artifacts found there. They will study the objects buried in Lady Dai’s tomb through images and draw conclusions about Lady Dai and the time period in which she lived. Students will walk away from this lesson with the ability to derive historical knowledge from the comprehensive examination of artifacts.
Go to Museum Resource: https://china360online.org/?property=understanding-history-through-artifacts | |
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| The Vibrant Role of Mingqi in Early Chinese Burials |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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A brief history of the mingqi from the Han to the Tang dynasties: "Burial figurines of graceful dancers, mystical beasts, and everyday objects reveal both how people in early China approached death and how they lived. Since people viewed the afterlife as an extension of worldly life, these figurines, called mingqi or 'spirit utensils,' disclose details of routine existence and provide insights into belief systems over a thousand-year period." With 12 related objects.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mgqi/hd_mgqi.htm | |
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| Visible Traces: Rare Books and Special Collections from the National Library of China |
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| Asia Society
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Online presentation of a 2000 exhibition tracing the evolution of the written and printed word in China. Featuring 70 objects, with short descriptions, under the following topics: 1) Rare Books and Manuscripts; 2) Epigraphical and Pictorial Rubbings; 3) Maps and Atlases; 4) Texts and Illustrations from China's Ethnic Minorities. Also includes a curriculum guide and activities/games for the classroom.
Go to Museum Resource: http://sites.asiasociety.org/education/VISIBLE_TRACES/exhibit.html | |
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| Visions of Enlightenment: Arts of Buddhism |
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| Pacific Asia Museum of USC
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An excellent site for students, with many additional resources for teachers. Text essays with images on the following four topics: 1) The Perfected One: The Buddha; 2) Compassionate Beings: Bodhisattvas, Deities, Guardians, Holy Men; 3) Buddhist Places; and 4) Signs, Symbols, Ritual Objects. Also features an extensive glossary of Buddhist-related terms and an excellent interactive map and timeline outlining the life of the Buddha and the spread of Buddhism. Teaching unit at the link below. See also Introduction.
Go to Museum Resource: https://pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu/exhibitions/past/exhibitions-at-usc-pam-prior... | |
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| A Visual Vocabulary of Brush Painting |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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The brush painting artist can achieve a multitude of effects by varying such factors as the speed and pressure applied to a brush, the size and type of brush, the amount of moisture, the manner in which different shades of ink or colors are loaded onto the brush, the angle at which the brush is held, and the type of paper or silk used for painting. Above are examples, drawn from the museum’s collection, which represent some of the more common techniques. Includes download of visual guide and instructions.
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/resources/a-visual-vocabulary-of-brushstrokes/ | |
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| Wang Hui (1632-1717) |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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An overview of the life and work of Wang Hui, "the most celebrated painter of late seventeenth-century China, (who) played a key role in reinvigorating past traditions of landscape painting and establishing the stylistic foundations for the imperially sponsored art of the Qing court." With images of five paintings by Wang.
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wang/hd_wang.htm | |
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| Wang Jianwei: Time Temple |
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| Guggenheim Museum
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The exhinit Wang Jianwei: Time Temple, is an immersive exhibition of new work by the Beijing-based artist and his first solo museum exhibition in North America. Informed by critical theory and philosophy, his work focuses on a process-based practice that expresses time and movement into the production and experience of art. Includes video resources. See also: Teaching Materials.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/wang-jianwei-time-temple | |
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| Ways of Seeing – Poetry and Painting (Ming) |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Students will analyze and interpret works of art according to events, places, cultures, and historical periods. They will evaluate how social, cultural, and historical context contribute meaning in works of art and examine narratives in artwork and poetry.
Go to Museum Resource: https://asia.si.edu/learn/for-educators/teaching-china-with-the-smithsonian/les... | |
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| When the Manchus Ruled China: Painting under the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Online presentation of a 2002 exhibition. "The most comprehensive exhibition of Qing dynasty painting ever mounted in the West, this selection of more than 60 works will focus on painting under the brilliant reigns of the Kangxi (r. 1662–1722) and Qianlong (r. 1736–95) emperors—a period when the Manchus embraced Chinese cultural traditions and the court became a leading patron in the arts." With images of 6 related artworks.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2002/qing-dynasty-painting | |
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| Who’s Afraid of Ai Weiwei? |
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| University of Illinois
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An 18 min video, produced by PBS/Frontline in 2011, available with a Teachers Resources from the Digital Asia site at the University of Illinois. China's Ai Weiwei is as controversial as he is popular, as much an activist as he is an artist. He has gone from being chosen to design the signature Birds Nest stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics to being jailed and watching his studio get destroyed. Regardless, he finds ways to get his message out.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ai-wei-wei/ | |
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| Wine Jar, with Fish and Aquatic Plants: China, early 14th c. Yuan Dynasty |
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| The Brooklyn Museum
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This jar is a masterpiece of fourteenth-century porcelain and an example of a naturalistic style of surface decoration that was gaining popularity in China at the time. The rich blue color is produced by cobalt-oxide pigment imported from western Asia via the Silk Road. The vessel was created not long after the Chinese had perfected the process of making blue-and-white ceramics. It was produced in the imperial kilns of Jingdezhen and was probably a gift for a government official. The fish is an auspicious animal in Chinese culture, and the carp in particular was considered lucky during the Yuan Dynasty, when this jar was created. Fish were kept in ponds for enjoyment and for food, and there are many Chinese myths and stories that include them as characters. The Chinese names of the four types of fish depicted on the jar—qing yu (black carp), bai yu (silver carp), li yu (carp), gui yu (perch)—sound like the Chinese words for “honest and incorruptible.” The lotus, a large, beautiful aquatic flower that often grows from mud, is a Buddhist symbol representing a human’s ability to overcome suffering. See also exhibition publication [PDF].
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/66256 | |
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| Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing |
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| Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Interactive website designed to complement a 2001 exhibition of works by contemporary artist Xu Bing, who is known for his "bold, teasingly thought-provoking works of art (that) challenge preconceptions about written communication." Includes audio interviews with the artist and interactive explorations of three works from the exhibition. Uses Flash.
Go to Museum Resource: https://archive.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/online/xubing/default.html | |
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| Words as Art/Art with Words: Chinese Calligraphy Teacher Packet [PDF] |
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| Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
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"How do you integrate words and art to express an idea? China’s educated elite painted artful writing, more commonly known as calligraphy, since at least the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). Chinese calligraphy is a visual art. The fluid strokes, dots and lines that form each character are its focus. The content of a calligraphic work, while sometimes inspiring or moving, is usually nothing new. What is fresh, exciting, and creative is the way it is visually expressed. In China, painting and writing developed hand in hand, sharing the same tools and techniques..."
Go to Museum Resource: https://education.asianart.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2019/09/Calligraphy-w... | |
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| Work of Giants: The Chinese and the Building of the First Transcontinental Railroad |
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| Chinese Historical Society of America
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Museum unit memorializing the efforts of the 12,000 Chinese laborers who worked on the Central Pacific portion of the Transcontinental Railroad. The involvement of Chinese workers in the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad is common knowledge. We hope to present information that enhances the basic facts–that the Chinese railroad workers were the backbone of the enormous construction project to carve a road through granite of the Sierra Nevada, ever diligent and efficient, adapting to new construction techniques, and enduring harsh working and living conditions, which all resulted in the completion of the railroad ahead of schedule. The Transcontinental Railroad is an American legacy, a triumph of the human spirit and a cornerstone of the history of Chinese in America.
Go to Museum Resource: https://chsa.org/exhibits/online-exhibits/work-of-giants-the-chinese-and-the-bu... | |
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| The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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“This exhibition covers the period from 1215, the year of Khubilai's birth, to 1368, the year of the fall of the Yuan dynasty in China founded by Khubilai Khan, and features every art form, including paintings, sculpture, gold and silver, textiles, ceramics, lacquer, and other decorative arts, religious and secular. The exhibition highlights new art forms and styles generated in China as a result of the unification of China under the Yuan dynasty and the massive influx of craftsmen from all over the vast Mongol Empire—with reverberations in Italian art of the fourteenth century.” Includes the video “The World of Khubilai Khan: A Revolution in Painting,” with Maxwell K. Hearn. See also exhibition publication.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2010/khubilai-khan | |
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| The World of Scholars' Rocks: Gardens, Studios, and Paintings |
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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Online presentation of a 2000 exhibition that "features more than 30 scholars' rocks from the noted collection of the Richard Rosenblum family, ranging in size from desktop pieces to freestanding works of several feet in height. They are accompanied by about 90 paintings dating from the 11th to 20th century, drawn primarily from the Museum's collection." With images of 9 related rocks and paintings.
Go to Museum Resource: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2000/world-of-scholars | |
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| Wutaishan: Pilgrimage to Five Peak Mountain |
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| Rubin Museum of Art
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"The sacred mountain Wutaishan (Mount Wutai), located in Shanxi Province, China, is believed to be the earthly abode of the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, Manjushri, and for a thousand years it has been a focus of transnational pilgrimage for the Chinese, Tibetans, Mongols, and Manchus alike." This online archive of a 2007 exhibition features an excellent interactive tool for viewing the "focal point of the exhibition: ... an intricately-detailed, hand-painted woodblock print map of Wutaishan, created in the 19th century by a Mongolian monk at a monastery on Wutaishan, called Cifusi. Six feet wide, this rare map offers a panoramic view of Wutaishan, which can be read as both a primary historical record of the lay of the land and as a declaration of the political primacy of Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhism, claiming Mongolian ethnic and sectarian identity over the mountain."
Go to Museum Resource: http://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=1274 | |
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| Xiangtangshan Caves Project |
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| Center for the Art of East Asia, University of Chicago
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The Northern Qi dynasty (550-577) produced a large body of important works of art during its brief existence. A central achievement of the period is the complex of Buddhist caves of Xiangtangshan and their stone sculptures and engraved inscriptions, created near the Northern Qi capital with official sponsorship. Unfortunately, the cave shrines are now severely damaged and the sculptures and fragments of carvings from the cave sites scattered around the world. The Xiangtangshan Project has sought to acquire a better understanding the caves in broader narratives of the art and visual culture of the Northern Qi period and of the history of Buddhism in China. Its components and objectives were to 1) to conduct collaborative research, 2) to create a digital database of images and information on the caves and sculptures of Xiangtangshan, and 3) to present of the results of research with digital reconstruction of the caves, an exhibition, and international conferences. This website serves as a database of the project's results and a resource for future research. See also: supplemental website with Buddhist sutras and dedicatory inscriptions.
Go to Museum Resource: https://xts.uchicago.edu/ | |
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| Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest |
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| Asia Society
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"In 2003, Yang Fudong produced the first part of his now seminal, five-part film, Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest. One part of the film was created each year (in sequential order), and the entire work was finished in 2007. The work has no clear narrative, although each part takes place in a different setting. Some parts take place in a rural environment, while others are set in cities. The film poses questions about the dissonance between men and women, individuals and society, the past and present, and reality and an ideal world."
Go to Museum Resource: http://sites.asiasociety.org/yangfudong/ | |
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| Yin Yu Tang: A Chinese Home |
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| Peabody Essex Museum
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"Yin Yu Tang, a late Qing dynasty merchants' house, was originally located in southeastern China. Re-erected at the Peabody Essex Museum, Yin Yu Tang is now open to visitors." This companion website to the permanent installation at the museum allows visitors to explore "this rare example of the region's renowned architecture and to learn about the daily life of the Huang family, who lived in Yin Yu Tang for over 200 years." With in-depth text, images, and diagrams organized around the topics Orientation, Construction, Ornamentation, Belongings, and Preservation. Uses Flash.
Go to Museum Resource: http://yinyutang.pem.org/ | |
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| Yuan, 1280-1365 |
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| Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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"Mongol invader Genghis Khan and his hordes conquered much of Asia, including China; his grandson Kublai Khan established this dynasty, during which the Mongols reopened and expanded overland trade routes linking China, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean." A brief, one-paragraph overview, along with three maps (of the Mongol Empire, the Silk Road, and the Yuan Dynasty), a video clip featuring an MIA curator, and 20 objects representative of the period.
Go to Museum Resource: http://archive.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-yuan.cfm | |
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