Jin Zhang, Jin Cheng, and the Visibility of the Chinese Artist

Co-organized by HKU and the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, supported by Susan Chen Foundation

Jin Zhang, Jin Cheng, and the Visibility of the Chinese Artist

Date: 22 October 2026 (Thu)
Time: 6:30pm-7:30pm
Venue: Wang Gungwu Lecture Hall, Graduate House, HKU
Doors open at 6:15pm, free seating

Registration: required, click here
HKU students with priority

Abstract: The artist Jin Zhang (1884-1939) and her brother Jin Cheng (1878-1926) were unusual among late Qing artists in the length of time they spent in Europe, in the decade prior to World War One. Yet these painters, who had the widest exposure to Western work, are often spoken of as among the most ‘traditional’ in style. This talk will explore the role of European sojourns in the lives of these two significant figures, and examine the ways in which they negotiated the increasingly firm boundary being drawn at the time between ‘Chinese’ and ‘Western’ art.

Speaker: Craig Clunas is Professor Emeritus of the History of Art, University of Oxford, and the author of over a dozen books on Chinese art and culture. They include, Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in China (1991), Art in China (2009), and Chinese Painting and its Audiences (2017). His most recent book is Sons of Heaven: Family and Dynasty in Ming China (Reaktion Books, 2026). He has taught extensively on twentieth-century Chinese art, and is the author of 回音室：跨國的中國畫 1897–1935/The Echo Chamber: Transnational Chinese Painting, 1897-1935, (Horizon/世紀文景 : Beijing, 2024). A Fellow of the British Academy, he has lectured internationally and curated several exhibitions including Ming: 50 Years that Changed China at the British Museum in 2014.