If narrative paintings could talk, Tao Yuanming Returning to Seclusion (Fig. 1, section 1) would have multiple stories to tell—starting with how it came to be part of the first major American collection of early Chinese paintings, assembled by the Detroit industrialist Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919), who donated his collection to the Smithsonian Institution and founded the Freer Gallery of Art.

A Western art form imported to China after the opening of the seas, painted enamel metalwares evidence the exchange and interaction of personnel, techniques, raw materials, and artistic styles among the court, Guangzhou (Canton), and Jingdezhen, with forms, designs, and colours provided by both China and the West. Enamels were regarded as a rarity from the East that enchanted nations, winning acclaim in foreign lands and places.

Historical maps of Guangdong, a seaboard province in southern China, belong within several map lineages associated with Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) cartographic projects that include new surveys as well as those related to maritime trade and coastal defence of the region. The numerous large and small ports along its coast have long participated as terminal and transit points in many maritime trade routes; meanwhile, its largest coastal city, Guangzhou (Canton), has long been an important trading and diplomatic port.

‘Sensing the Buddha’, an exhibition at the Musée de Mariemont (21 September 2024 to 20 April 2025) does not concern itself with Buddhism solely in the abstract and the formalistic.

Shards of Chinese ceramics, from the Tang (618–907) through the Qing (1644–1911) dynasty, have been excavated in various harbours and emporiums of the Persian Gulf, Oman, Yemen, Red Sea, and western Africa, showing that the commerce connecting East and West through the Red Sea was continuing to follow the trading routes already established in the Roman period.

In the field of Chinese art, the name Robert Chang Chung Shien brings a sense of awe and evokes an unequivocal sense of respect among later generations. He surpassed and outlived all his advocates and severe critics of his own generation. 

In the second half of the 20th century, Houston-based artist Hong Xian (Margaret Chang, b. 1933) crafted a remarkable corpus of abstract ink paintings. By the late 1970s, her work had reached a wider audience in the United States through solo touring exhibitions organized by Chu-tsing Li (1920–2014), a Chinese American art historian and active promoter of young modernist artists from Taiwan and the United States. 

My process is different from many contemporary Chinese ink painters. I don’t begin with a clear image in my mind. I generally just start by making a few lines and then allow the brush to lead me. I react to the textures that naturally arise from the interaction of the ink and paper.

In March of this year, Professor Ide Seinosuke will retire from Kyushu University after twenty-one years as a faculty member, having previously worked for seventeen years (1987–2003) at the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties.