JAN/FEB 2011

VOLUME 42 - NUMBER 1

In our first issue of 2011, we step back a millennium into the realm of the Liao dynasty. Valerie Hansen traces the connections between the Kitan and the world around them through critical archaeological evidence and textual sources. Zhao Feng and Yu Tingting introduce the recent Mengdiexuan Collection donations of Liao textiles to the China National Silk Museum, and we interview the collection’s owners Betty Lo and Kenneth Chu.

Also in this issue, Robert E. Harrist, Jr. considers the Qianlong emperor’s cultural and ideological enterprises with reference to his replications of the Stone Drums, and Marco Huysman and Laurens Heij delve into the ‘three lives’ of Robert Hans van Gulik. Cui Guoming of the Capital Museum, Beijing tells us about recent developments and future plans at the museum. Collectors of Japanese art Sylvan Barnett and William Burto offer insights into the iconography of deer mandalas originating at the Kasuga shrine near Nara.

Sarah Nelson reviews Elizabeth Childs-Johnson’s book on the graph yi in Shang ritual art. We preview annual winter art fairs in Europe and San Francisco, while coverage from New York, Hong Kong and the UK reports on the latest trends in the auction world and the phenomenal record prices being set for Chinese works of art. We also review autumn art fairs in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Beijing. In our commentary, Michael Brand offers a thoughtful perspective on restitution claims.

FEATURES
Margaret Tao. Asia Week Auctions in New York - September 2010
Sylvan Barnet and William Burto. The Kasuga Deer Mandala Hunt
Marco Huysmans and Laurens Heij. Robert Hans van Gulik: Diplomat, Scholar and Writer
Robert E. Harrist, Jr. The New Stone Drums in Qianlong's Empire of Replication
Zhao Feng and Yu Tingting. Liao Silk Textiles: the Elegant Lifestyle of the Kitan Royals
Valerie Hansen. The Kitan People, the Liao Dynasty (916-1125) and their World
PREVIEWS & REVIEWS
Fairs in China Autumn 2010: Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Beijing
Kate Hunt. Autumn Auctions in the UK - November 2010
Sarah Milledge Nelson. Book Review: The Meaning of the Graph Yi and its Implications for Shang Belief and Art, East Asia Journal: Studies in Material Culture, Monograph No. 1, by Elizabeth Childs-Johnson, Saffron Press, London, 2008
INTERVIEWS
Interview with Rosemary Bandini and Max Rutherston
Interview with Cui Guoming of the Capital Museum, Beijing
An Interview with Betty Lo and Kenneth Chu
COMMENTARY
Michael Brand. Commentary: Collaboration, Not Confrontation