


SEP/OCT 2025
The new Princeton University Art Museum, with 117,000 objects from cultures around the world covering five thousand years of history, will open on 31 October. The three-story building has entrances on all sides and is arranged in nine interlocked pavilions that embody openness and connectivity. The Asian pavilion on the second floor welcomes visitors with a Southern Song dynasty Chinese wooden statue of Guanyin. We are pleased to work with Zoe Song-Yi Kwok, the Nancy and Peter Lee Curator of Asian Art, on this special issue celebrating the museum’s reopening.
‘Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900’, curated by Pengliang Lu, the Brooke Russell Astor Curator of Chinese Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is on view there until 28 September before travelling to the Shanghai Museum. Chinese bronzes from the 12th to 19th centuries are a significant but overlooked category, and thus the exhibition brings forth new research and perspectives.
Finally, ‘Sōgen butsuga’, on view at the Kyoto National Museum from 20 September to 16 November, highlights the genres, painters, characteristics, and cultural history of Song and Yuan dynasty Buddhist paintings in Japan as well other paintings of East Asia during that period. We look at how tea-drinking practices in the Qing dynasty court were used by the Manchu rulers to govern the Han Chinese and to portray the emperors in a positive light.
FEATURES
Zoe Song-Yi Kwok. Asian Art in the New Princeton University Art Museum
Kit Brooks. A History of Japanese Art at the Princeton University Art Museum
Shing-Kwan Chan. The Princeton Guanyin: A Study in Art History and Collecting History
Wang Yifeng. Illusive Resemblance: Technical Observations on Song Archaistic Bronzes through Two Mountain Vessels (Shanzun)
Ya-hwei Hsu. Antiquarianism in a NeoConfucian Scholars' Cemetery: Discoveries from the Lü Family Cemetery in Lantian, Shaanxi
Jeffrey Moser. The Ox in the Cauldron
Pengliang Lu. Made in Ji'an: A Case Study of a Yuan Dynasty Manufacturing Centre of Archaistic Bronzes
Su Rongyu. A Study of Tripod Cups (Jue) from Ming Imperial Tombs
Natsumi Morihashi. Song and Yuan Buddhist Painting: Early Chinese Masterpieces in Japan
Vivian Tong. Tea-Drinking Practices in the Qing Imperial Court
EXHIBITION REVIEW
Phillip Grimberg. Between Textuality and Materiality: On the Exhibition 'Jinshixue: The Study of Ancient Artifacts and Material Remains of the Past' at the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin
The new Princeton University Art Museum, with 117,000 objects from cultures around the world covering five thousand years of history, will open on 31 October. The three-story building has entrances on all sides and is arranged in nine interlocked pavilions that embody openness and connectivity. The Asian pavilion on the second floor welcomes visitors with a Southern Song dynasty Chinese wooden statue of Guanyin. We are pleased to work with Zoe Song-Yi Kwok, the Nancy and Peter Lee Curator of Asian Art, on this special issue celebrating the museum’s reopening.
‘Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100–1900’, curated by Pengliang Lu, the Brooke Russell Astor Curator of Chinese Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is on view there until 28 September before travelling to the Shanghai Museum. Chinese bronzes from the 12th to 19th centuries are a significant but overlooked category, and thus the exhibition brings forth new research and perspectives.
Finally, ‘Sōgen butsuga’, on view at the Kyoto National Museum from 20 September to 16 November, highlights the genres, painters, characteristics, and cultural history of Song and Yuan dynasty Buddhist paintings in Japan as well other paintings of East Asia during that period. We look at how tea-drinking practices in the Qing dynasty court were used by the Manchu rulers to govern the Han Chinese and to portray the emperors in a positive light.
FEATURES
Zoe Song-Yi Kwok. Asian Art in the New Princeton University Art Museum
Kit Brooks. A History of Japanese Art at the Princeton University Art Museum
Shing-Kwan Chan. The Princeton Guanyin: A Study in Art History and Collecting History
Wang Yifeng. Illusive Resemblance: Technical Observations on Song Archaistic Bronzes through Two Mountain Vessels (Shanzun)
Ya-hwei Hsu. Antiquarianism in a NeoConfucian Scholars' Cemetery: Discoveries from the Lü Family Cemetery in Lantian, Shaanxi
Jeffrey Moser. The Ox in the Cauldron
Pengliang Lu. Made in Ji'an: A Case Study of a Yuan Dynasty Manufacturing Centre of Archaistic Bronzes
Su Rongyu. A Study of Tripod Cups (Jue) from Ming Imperial Tombs
Natsumi Morihashi. Song and Yuan Buddhist Painting: Early Chinese Masterpieces in Japan
Vivian Tong. Tea-Drinking Practices in the Qing Imperial Court
EXHIBITION REVIEW
Phillip Grimberg. Between Textuality and Materiality: On the Exhibition 'Jinshixue: The Study of Ancient Artifacts and Material Remains of the Past' at the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin