EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

Section 7 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 75 each other in the cave structure. The focus will be on the Subjugation theme which is characterized by new iconographic forms emerging during that period. Whereas the tableaux features many continuities as compared to “standardized” depictions of Māra’s attack on Śākyamuni, there are also new features, one of them being the unusual side panels on both sides of the Māra theme. The side panels contain allusions to eleven or twelve narratives the identification of which poses difficulties based on the fact that the caption texts are missing from the cartouches. An attempt will be undertaken to identify some of the narratives alluded to in the tableau. Andreeva Petya (University of Pennsylvania) Revisiting the Qingming Shanhe Tu Narrative: A Newly Discovered Qing Dynasty River Painting Key words: river paintings, Qingming festival, Qing copy, Penn Museum Astudy of a painting such as Qingming Shanhe tu would all too often rely heavily on visual analysis. Find- ing fitting textual evidence to enhance or challenge the visual cues in Chinese panoramic paintings can be an arduous task. Furthermore, Ming and Qing versions of Zhang Zeduan’s original demonstrate the challenges that art historians and sinologists alike are facing in their analysis of Ming and Qing river panoramic paintings. All current studies have ignored a version of Qingming shanhe tu even though it is signed and dated to 1825 and the signature likely belongs to the actual painter. My paper will thus focus on this version of Qingming shanhe tu, currently owned by at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Art andArcheology. Through a meticulous examination of the painting’s colophon, and a systematic comparison with earlier versions of panoramic river paintings, I will argue that the text in Qingming shanhe tu, both in the form of a colophon and inscription, is often meant to be a distraction from matters of connoisseurship. A local artist such as the painter of this specific piece would frequently borrow allusions to river festivals from poems or even local gazetteers to include in their colophons. References to specific geographic locations and patrons for the painting can also prove unreliable. Thus, one needs to look closely at matters of syntax, punctuation, and logical and transitional flaws in the text to verify the validity of the statement(s). Visual analysis alone cannot adequately elucidate the visual narrative. My paper will show that references to specific historical events or people may be highly speculative when primary textual sources are missing. In my conclusion I will attempt to prove that there exists a strained relationship between the written word and the purely visual narratives present in Qing copies of Qingming shanhe tu. Bollo Sofia (University of Zurich) “Look at that old vase!”—Mapping Contemporary Agency of Neolithic China within Museums Contexts Key words: museum narratives, neolithic China, objects interpretation, objects display, representa- tion of the past Ancient Chinese civilization has been described as the oldest continuous civilization in the world, having its heartland in the Central Plain along the Yellow River. Its continuity and unity have been debated across a range of disciplines, as well as celebrated in official cultural heritage discourses. However, an ever-expanding archaeological database is recently providing a different picture of prehistoric China, directly challenging the traditional historical narrative. Today early Chinese artefacts are widely and permanently exhibited in many regions around China, which is currently witnessing an extraordinary growth of museums institutions. Reconstructing the past in the present involves the use of contemporary values, along with a collective wish for its care and preservation. Museums not only are containers of objects, but they also can be consid- ered as stages and key sites for the production, transformation and dissemination of knowledge. Displays of similar, or even identical, objects can be very different from one occurrence to the other, following dis- tinctive strategies of representation. As the objects are put on display, stories about ancient China and its origins unfold in museums and create multiple narratives on ancient Chinese civilization’s.