This course primarily focuses on the period 16^th– 20th century China.  It will examine artists’ responses to the outside world and investigate how cultural exchanges were formed, merged, and clashed. This course is designed to expand the theme of “outside” beyond conventional geographies to different ways in which art reinforced or challenged acts of exclusion and the dynamics of center-periphery structures. The aim is to move beyond binary relationships of China-West or similar comparative structures. Topics covered will include intersections of European knowledge  and local culture , eccentricity as urban cosmopolitanism, Manchu identity and Qing expansionism, China export trade art and technology, intra-Asian paintings, and visions of the “East” in the global art world.