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Guest Lecture by Dr. Alice Yu Cheng
Depicting animals on ancient Chinese bronzes: a case study on horses
Dr. Alice Yu Cheng
(Museum Rietberg)
Tuesday, April 8, 2025, 12:45-13:45
University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 73, 8006 Zürich
RAK-E-8
Abstract:
Animal motifs are an essential part of ancient Chinese bronzes. These motifs are based on real as well as imaginary animals. Studying them allows us to gain insight into the ancient perception of nature, and on how the concept of nature was appropriated for political and social purposes. This talk examines the animal motifs on bronzes from the Shang through the Han dynasty (1500 BCE – 220 CE).
A key focus of the talk will be on depictions of horses on bronzes. Horses are not native to China. They were imported from the Steppe via the north and northwest of China into the Central Plains, the dynastic center of China. Yet after being introduced, throughout the period concerned in this talk, horses still had to be repeatedly brought in from the north and northwest because environmental factors in the Central Plains, such as the lack of selenium, hindered the breeding of strong horses. The need to obtain and maintain horses thus initiated a large migration of people from the north and northwest. The result was the formation of a supply network that involved not only the horses and skilled workers but also the relevant tools and commodities. These had a significant impact on the political, economic, military, and cultural spheres of ancient China. Such an impact is well reflected on the horse depictions on bronzes
Alice Yu Cheng is a postdoctoral researcher in Chinese art and archaeology, affiliated with the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, Switzerland. She is also the chief editor and author of the forthcoming catalogue on the Chinese bronzes in the Museum Rietberg. Alice was born in Taipei, but grew up in Hong Kong and received her higher education in the U.S. and the U.K. She studied art history at The University of Chicago as an undergrad. She received her D.Phil. in archaeology in 2019 from The University of Oxford. She specializes in the Bronze Age period of ancient China. In her dissertation, she explores how a social identity, in particular the “Zhou identity,” was formed during the early Western Zhou dynasty. She examines a wide range of excavated materials including bronze ritual vessels, bronze weapons and ceramics. Nonetheless, she is interested not only in the art of the ancient times, but also in modern art. Her M.A. thesis attempts to decipher the paintings and drawings of Sanyu, a Chinese artist who migrated to Paris to study and make art in the 1920s. Alice is based in Zurich. One of her current projects is to publish her research on the Chinese bronzes in the Museum Rietberg in the format of an academic catalogue. She also conducts interdisciplinary collaborations with scholars from the West and China on the bronzes.
The lecture will be held in English and is open to all students. No registration is necessary. For questions, please contact us via email at kgoa@khist.uzh.ch
East Asian Art History: MA Information Online Event at UZH Master Info Days 2025
Tuesday, March 4, 2025, 18:30-19:30
Online via Zoom (link below)
Description:
Why study for your Master’s in East Asian Art History at the University of Zurich? As Switzerland’s only dedicated program in the field, our Chair of East Asian Art History offers a unique opportunity to explore the artistic cultures of China, Japan, and Korea. You will engage with their interconnected histories and examine their pivotal role in shaping global art, politics, economies, and societies, all while developing critical perspectives on visual culture both past and present.
Join our online information session on March 4, 2025, to learn more about our MA program, chaired by Prof. Dr. Ewa Machotka. Our approach combines hands-on study of art objects with theoretical insights, enabling you to pursue individual research interests—whether in Japanese prints, contemporary eco-art, or Buddhist imagery—while actively engaging in transcultural dialogues and exploring emerging scholarly debates on environmental issues and digital transformation.
During the session, you will hear directly from Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Stephanie Santschi and Saskia Goldschmid, a recent M.A. graduate, about their experience in the program, their academic journey, and how it shaped their career. Discover how our research-based learning approach—combining topical seminars, practical workshops, and international excursions—can open doors to careers in museums, galleries, heritage institutions, academia, and the global art market.
More information and online access
Public Lecture: Cracks in the Concrete: Community, Cityscapes, and the Politics of Naturing Tokyo’s Waters
Prof. Dr. Takehiro Watanabe, Sophia University, Tokyo
Tuesday, February 25, 2025, 12:45-13:45
University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 73, 8006 Zürich
RAK-E-8
Abstract:
Tokyo’s water infrastructure is a feat of engineered resilience, yet beneath its concrete surfaces lie tensions—both physical and political—that shape the city’s hydrosocial future. As the Tokyo Metropolitan Government advances plans for an underground detention pond, debates over governance, environmental justice, and public participation expose fractures in dominant flood management paradigms. At the same time, grassroots efforts, nature-based solutions, and the evolving vision of watershed-wide flood management create openings for a more adaptive and community-driven approach—one that allows water, and people, to find new ways to flow through the city.
This talk explores how cities, watersheds, and rivers are shaped by the interplay between large-scale infrastructure and decentralized interventions. By tracing moments of disruption—both literal and figurative—I consider how these cracks in the system create space for rethinking urban water governance in more inclusive and ecologically attuned ways.
Takehiro Watanabe is Associate Professor at Sophia University, Faculty of Liberal Arts and the Graduate School in Global Studies, where he teaches anthropology with a focus on natural environments. He specializes in social and cultural dimensions of environmental issues and focuses on industrial pollution, natural resource management, wildlife conservation, and urban ecology. Currently, he is working on a volume on freshwater environments in Japan. His work has been published in English and Japanese, in journals such as Society & Natural Resources, Wetland Research, Landscape Research, and Gendai shiso.
Conference “Korean Wave(s)? Global Itineraries of Korean Art and Culture
Date: Friday, May 16th, 9:00-18:30
Saturday, May 17th, 9:00-17:15
Venue: Aula RAA-G-01, University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 59, 8001 Zurich
Park-Villa Rieter Lecture Hall, Museum Rietberg, Seestrasse 110, 8002 Zurich
The Conference “Korean Wave(s)? Global Itineraries of Korean Art and Culture”, organized by the Chair in East Asian Art History, University of Zurich in cooperation with the Museum Rietberg, is held in conjunction with the special exhibition “Hallyu – The Korean Wave”. The Conference seeks to engage with the exhibition by examining the global entanglements of Korean art and culture in a broader historical framework. It engages with the notion of “object itinerary” (Joyce 2015) as a tool for analysis of transcultural exchange, which offers a constructive framework for discussing the production, dissemination, and reception of art in a global perspective. This way the Conference conceptualizes the phenomenon of the Korean Wave as part of a continuum of regional and global cultural exchange that has been ongoing throughout Korean history from its earliest days, while critically reflecting on the notion of the 'wave,' as an analytical instrument used in the context of transcultural study of art.
Link to Museum Rietberg exhibition
Link to course catalogue (VVZ)
Course "Korean Wave(s): Global Itineraries of Korean Art" (in context of Conference “Korean Wave(s)? Global Itineraries of Korean Art and Culture” - University of Zurich – Museum Rietberg, 16th – 17th of May 2025)
The Conference “Korean Wave(s)? Global Itineraries of Korean Art and Culture”, organized by the Chair in East Asian Art History, University of Zurich in cooperation with the Museum Rietberg, is held in conjunction with the special exhibition “Hallyu – The Korean Wave”. The Conference seeks to engage with the exhibition by examining the global entanglements of Korean art and culture in a broader historical framework. It engages with the notion of “object itinerary” (Joyce 2015) as a tool for analysis of transcultural exchange, which offers a constructive framework for discussing the production, dissemination, and reception of art in a global perspective. This way the Conference conceptualizes the phenomenon of the Korean Wave as part of a continuum of regional and global cultural exchange that has been ongoing throughout Korean history from its earliest days, while critically reflecting on the notion of the 'wave,' as an analytical instrument used in the context of transcultural study of art.
The conference will examine mobilities of art objects through different environments over time. This exploration will encompass their production, circulation, and transformation as they traverse various cultural and social spaces within East Asia and beyond. Importantly, these concerns are relevant not only to the Korean Wave but also contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the global entanglements of Korean art and culture. This includes their positioning and role within the broader narratives of global art history, as well as the processes of transcultural exchange and globalization at large.
In connection with the conference, students will have the opportunity to participate in the course “Korean Wave(s): Global Itineraries of Korean Art” and attend the conference sessions, actively participate in lectures and panel discussions, and formulate questions for the speakers. The course encourages critical reflection on topics such as the role of transcultural mobility of the production and circulation of art objects, the reception of art objects, their appropriation and adaptation, and the of art historiography in tracing the spatial and temporal trajectories of Korean art. It offers a unique opportunity to engage with leading scholars and experts in the field of East Asian art history and reflect on the global mobilitities of Korean art and culture.
Link to course catalogue (VVZ)
Link to Museum Rietberg exhibition
Strategic Partnership of UZH with the Museum Rietberg
A new partnership between the University of Zurich and the Museum Rietberg has been established to enhance academic and cultural collaborations between the two institutions. This initiative will foster innovative research, exhibitions, and educational programs, bridging academic scholarship and public engagement. The Chair of East Asian Art History is leading the partnership's initial phase, with Dr. Tomoë Steineck shaping strategies for the interdepartmental and interinstitutional collaboration.
In connection to this initative, the Chair of East Asian Art History is planning several activities, including the international conference “Korean Wave(s)? Global Itineraries of Korean Art and Culture” (16–17 May 2025), held in conjunction with the exhibition “Hallyu – The Korean Wave” at the Museum Rietberg in spring and summer 2025.
Students are encouraged to participate via the colloquium tied to the conference.
Additionally, the course “Curating Surimono: Text, Image, Material,” led by curator Dr. Khanh Trinh, will accompany the surimono exhibition at the Museum Rietberg in autumn 2025.
Partnership announcement: https://www.news.uzh.ch/de/articles/news/2024/kooperation-museum-rietberg.html
Zurich Lectures in East Asian Art History - Guest lectures by Prof. Dr. Andrews and Prof. Dr. Fraser
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
18:15-19:45
University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 59, 8001 Zürich
Room RAA-G-15
More Information
Guest Lecture by Dr. Sarah Rebecca Schmid
The Once and Future Territory: Jingū kōgō’s Subjugation of the Korean Peninsula in Meiji Period Visual Culture
Dr. Sarah Rebecca Schmid
(University of Zurich)
Tuesday, December 3, 2024, 14:45–15:45
University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 71, 8006 Zürich
KOL-F-104
Abstract:
Jingū kōgō, also known as Empress Jingū, has been part of Japanese historiography at least since the compilation of the Kojiki (712) and the Nihon shoki (720). While many may not be familiar with the name today, Jingū kōgō has been a mainstay of Japanese culture for over a millennium and has historically played a significant role in Japanese perceptions of Korea. She retained this role until the first half of the 20th century, when she was used to help justify the Japanese annexation of Korea.
This talk will provide an insight into the role that visual and textual material related to Jingū kōgō (often in combination) played during the Meiji period (1868‒1912) in the run-up to the annexation of Korea. The narrative most closely associated with Jingū kōgō, namely her (legendary) subjugation of the three Korean kingdoms of Silla, Baekje and Goguryeo in the 3rd century AD, appeared on banknotes, in history textbooks, on woodblock prints, and even on votive tablets (ema) dedicated to shrines. The talk will take a closer look at the visual culture of the Meiji period and discuss the ways in which these seemingly separate forms of pictorial expression are connected to each other.
Sarah Rebecca Schmid is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies at the University of Zurich. She holds an M.A. in East Asian Art History and Japanese Philology, and a PhD in Japanology. In 2025, she will begin a two-year fellowship at Kyūshū University in Fukuoka (Japan), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). During this fellowship, she will continue her research on Jingū kōgō, particularly on the role she played in the Kyūshū and Kansai regions during the Meiji and early Taishō periods.
The lecture will be held in English and is open to all students. No registration is necessary. For questions, please contact us via email at kgoa@khist.uzh.ch
Zurich Lectures in East Asian Art History - Guest Lecture by Prof. Dr. Maya Stiller
Thursday, November 7, 2024, 18:15–19:30
University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 71, 8006 Zürich
Room KOL-H-317
More Information
15th Annual Kansai University EU Workshop
The 15th Annual Kansai University EU Workshop will take place on Wednesday, 6th November 2024, from 10:30–16:05 (CEST, UTC+2) at the UZH Main Building, Raemistrasse 71, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland, room KO2-F-152.
2024-KU-Workshop_Flyer (PDF, 359 KB)
KU-EU Workshop UZH Abstract Booklet (PDF, 641 KB)
Presentations will be held in Japanese and in English. The workshop is free and open to the public. No registration is required. We look forward to welcoming you!
About the KU-UZH Workshops
The purpose of these workshops is to gather established and young scholars from Japan and Switzerland in order to hold conversations on topics within East Asian art history.
The collaboration between Kansai University in Japan and the University of Zurich is a well-established tradition that takes place twice a year, once in Japan hosted by the Kansai University and once at the University of Zurich. These opportunities have given the advanced students at the University of Zurich the chance to present work in process at scholarly events, surrounded by both established professionals in the field and fellow students and future colleagues.
In Japan, the annual workshop is held on the Kansai University campus and in the mountains of Asuka. In both Japan and Zurich, the sessions are open to the public and widely advertised. Typically, visitors from the museum and academic worlds join us for the discussions.
The workshop is based on border crossing, as it represents collaboration between the academic cultures of Japan and Switzerland. Not only are the languages of the presentations mixed (English and Japanese), but the students and participating faculty members are from both countries. Thus, the young participants get not only a living impression of the presentation styles of both cultures, but also the type of feedback from people working in other countries. For the students the workshops represent a superb way to make connections to their peers across borders. The workshops symbolize the global and cross-cultural aspects of education: by crossing borders we can achieve new forms of communication.
The workshop members typically consist of three faculty members from the Kansai University and one or two member from the University of Zurich. The presenters are advanced students from both universities. The organizers are Professor Ewa Machotka from the University of Zurich and various professors from the Kansai University.
Leiden University-Zurich University Workshop: Ecocritical Perspectives in East Asian Art and Culture
Thursday, October 31, 2024, 09:30 - 18:00
Location:
Lipsius, Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden
Room Lipsius 2.27
Ecocritical Perspectives in East Asian Art and Culture
This workshop brings together historians of the arts of East Asia to highlight the agency of nonhuman actors and actants in shaping knowledge about the world in visual and material culture in the early modern period and beyond. Presentations will cover the representation of animals and plants, paying particular attention to their relationship with human actors. In addition, we see this relation not as a one-way and hierarchic human-centered process but as a continuous feedback loop between people and the environment.
More information and program
Excursion: East Asian Art Collections in the Netherlands
Utagawa Kunimaro (c. 1850–75), “Picture of a Ferocious Tiger Drawn from Life,” 1860, multicolor woodblock print; Sleeve Vase Decorated with Birds and Flowering Branches (detail), c. 1675 - c. 1699. Rijksmuseum, AmsterdamOctober 27–November 1, 2024
This course explores the rich and distinctive collections of East Asian Art preserved in the Netherlands on both practical and theoretical levels, including a workshop jointly organized with Leiden University students. Through a series of museum visits and object-handling sessions guided by museum curators and private collectors, it offers students a firsthand and practical opportunity to engage directly with art objects.
Through a series of museum visits and object-handling sessions guided by museum curators and private collectors, it offers students a firsthand and practical opportunity to engage directly with art objects. The history of East Asian collections in the Netherlands is intertwined with centuries of trade, diplomacy, and cultural exchange between the Low Countries and East Asia. While the Dutch East India Company (VOC) played a significant role in establishing economic, political, and cultural connections, it is not the sole agent of this exchange. These interactions facilitated the acquisition of East Asian objects, which subsequently found their place in private collections, royal cabinets of curiosities, and eventually, public museums and institutions. The course aims to provide insight into these rich histories and their lasting effects.
By facilitating direct engagement with art objects, this course aims to enhance students' skills in visual analysis, interpretation, and critical thinking. It also seeks to deepen their contextual understanding of objects in museum settings, exposing how art and material culture intersect with historical narratives and cultural practices. Moreover, it provides insight into the operation of cultural heritage institutions by acquainting students with museum practices, exhibition design, and curatorial methodologies, essential for students’ professional development.
The course will comprise of three in-class preparatory sessions in Zurich and a four-day on-site program (six days including travel time) featuring visits to various locations including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden. The course also includes a joint workshop titled ”Animal Studies and East Asian Art” organized with Leiden University where students will have opportunity to collaborate with their peers from Leiden University.
More information on courses and excursions of the Chair in East Asian Art History
Guest Lecture by Dr. Melissa Ann Kaul
Introducing the “Animal Turn” into Asian Studies
Dr. Melissa Ann Kaul (UZH and University of Edinburgh)
Tuesday, September 24, 2024, 16:45–17:30
University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 59, 8001 Zürich
Room RAA-G-15
Abstract:
The academic debate on non-human animals is attracting more and more attention worldwide. Disciplines outside the natural sciences in particular have long found it difficult to regard animals as morally valuable enough to be integrated into scientific discourse at all. The works "Animal Liberation" (1975) by Peter Singer and "The Case for Animal Rights" (1983) by Tom Regan marked the birth of the modern animal rights movement and simultaneously brought the treatment of non-human animals to centre stage. The field of Animal Studies, which is becoming increasingly recognised today, takes an interdisciplinary approach to the way in which non-human animals are culturally represented and constructed. However, this so-called 'animal turn' in academic disciplines has so far been limited to Western thinkers and their concepts and theories, largely ignoring Asian philosophy. This is despite the fact that non-human animals have played and continue to play an equally important role in various Asian cultures, not least in their visual representation.
This lecture will therefore not only introduce Animal Studies (in particular Animal Ethics) and the concept of Posthumanism but will also use a Japanese pre-modern thinker to show how animal studies can benefit from and be expanded by East Asian thought.
Melissa Ann Kaul is a Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoc.Mobility-scholarship holder and an Academic visitor at the school of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Science of the University of Edinburgh. She has studied Japanese Studies, Philosophy and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Zurich and holds a PhD in Japanese Philology. Her main topics of research include Animal Ethics, Human-Animal-Relationship in Premodern Japan, Andō Shōeki and Neoconfucianism in Japan.
The lecture will be held in English and is open to all students. No registration is necessary. For questions, please contact us via email at kgoa@khist.uzh.ch
Studieninformationstage 4. & 5. September 2024
Programm Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens:
Mittwoch, 4. September 2024
11:15 - 12:00 Uhr Studienpräsentation Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens mit Q&A
(Assistentinnen und Studierende des Lehrstuhls Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens)
Raum KOL-H-321
13:30 - 14:15 Uhr Vorlesung Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens: Hokusai - The Father of Manga?
(auf Englisch, Ewa Machotka, Professorin für Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens)
Raum KOL-F-109
Donnerstag, 5. September 2024
11:15 - 12:00 Uhr Studienpräsentation Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens mit Q&A
(Assistentinnen und Studierende des Lehrstuhls Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens)
Raum KOL-H-321
13:30 - 14:15 Uhr Vorlesung Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens: Hokusai - The Father of Manga?
(auf Englisch, Ewa Machotka, Professorin für Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens)
Raum KOL-F-109
Mehr Informationen zum Studium
UZH Study - Plattform der Studienionformationstage 2024 (für Anmeldung und weitere Informationen)
Embodied Poems and Samurai Love: Poems for Screen-Paintings (Byōbu-e) and Imaginary Portraits (Kasen-e)
Prof. Joshua S. Mostow (University of British Columbia)
Thursday, April 11, 2024, 18:15–20:00
University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 59, Room RAA-G-15
Ecce homo: the Japanese Male Body in Pain in WWII Visual Propaganda
Prof. Sharalyn Orbaugh (University of British Columbia)
Thursday, April 11, 2024, 18:15–20:00
University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 59, Room RAA-G-15
More Information
MasterTage: 7th March, 2024
11:00–12:00
MA studies in East Asian Art History: Presentation with students
(in English, together with Art History in a Global Context)
Online via Zoom
Public Lecture:
Contemporary Kimono: From Family Ceremonies to High-fashion Communities
Prof. Lucile Druet, Kansai Gaidai University
Friday, 22nd December 2023, 18:00-19:00
Rämistrasse 59, 8001 Zürich, Room RAA-G-15
Abstract
For the past three years the traveling exhibition “Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk” has been highlighting several important perspectives about the design and the sartorial practice of kimono. The show engages the different garments’ material and cultural specificities, how the kimono is connected to ideas of class and identity while inspiring a variety of fashion creators from the Edo period to our contemporary age, inside and outside Japan. This presentation focuses on the latest segment of the kimono’s complex history, namely from the postwar to the Covid-19 era, examining how such an iconic mode of dress as kimono continues to interpellate concepts of immutability, transmission and family as well as innovation, playfulness and creativity. By using a variety of visual and textual references (from the exhibition, personal research and observations), it aims at showing how kimono is spectacularly global and local at the same time, and how kimono “traditions” can be innovative while new creations can surprisingly be conservative.
Lucile Druet is Associate Professor of Japanese Arts for the Asian Studies Program at Kansai Gaidai University (Hirakata, Osaka). Her teaching covers literature, painting traditions, theatrical performances, film and Japanese fashion, focusing on kimono. Interested in the intersection of clothing and embodiment, she researches how kimono is currently practiced in Kyoto (Maiko and Geiko communities, rental and second-hand shops) and how it appears in works of fiction (Tanizaki Jun’Ichiro, Ariyoshi Sawako, Hayashi Mariko) and poetry (Izumi Shikibu, Yosano Akiko).
Flyer (PDF, 161 KB)
This lecture will be held in English and is open to the public (no registration is necessary).
For questions, please contact the Section for East Asian Art History: kgoa@khist.uzh.ch
