The Tang Center

The art world is currently enthralled with contemporary Chinese art. This thought−provoking book argues, however, that American audiences have only been exposed to a narrow range of what is available−with the majority of exposure having been given to "avant−garde," "experimental," or politically charged art. Outside In discusses contemporary Chinese art in a far wider range of styles and subject matter and substantially expands on our understanding of this work.

The book features six artists−Arnold Chang, Michael Cherney, Zhi Lin, Liu Dan, Vannessa Tran, and Zhang Hongtu−all of whom are American citizens yet are widely diverse in age and experience as well as geographical and ethnic origins. In addition to extensive personal interviews and artists' statements, there are essays that challenge the categorization of art into such focused genres as "Chinese," "contemporary," and "American," and reexamine the factors that shape the development of "Chinese art" in America.

In the Heat of the Sun and Devils on the Doorstep are two of the finest and most honored Chinese films ever made. Body in Question is the first book to examine these groundbreaking works in depth and one of the first books in English to study individual Chinese films in depth.

These two award-winning films by renowned director-actor Jiang Wen and cinematographer Gu Changwei are unsurpassed in China for their exquisite attention to realistic detail, their stylistic range, their emotional breadth, and their razor-like commentary on contemporary China. In scenes that range from hilarious to horrific, China's ruling elite and its complicated relationship with Japan are subjected to the filmmakers' ironic treatment and profound concern with social justice. In the Heat of the Sun has become unavailable, and Devils on the Doorstep has been suppressed by the Chinese government.

Jerome Silbergeld gives these two important films careful and extended study in Body in Question. He uses cinema and photography, political history, anthropology and philosophy, Chinese rhetorical traditions, and concepts of justice to explore the films' visual complexity and intellectual force, providing a unique look at the artistry and pressing concerns of Chinese cinema today. An accompanying DVD includes major clips from both films.

The "Wu Family Shrines" pictorial carvings from Han dynasty China (206 BCE−220 CE) are among the earliest works of Chinese art examined in an international arena. Since the eleventh century, the carvings have been identified by scholars as one of the most valuable and authentic materials for the study of antiquity. This important book presents essays by archaeologists, art and architectural historians, curators, and historians that reexamine the carvings, adding to our understanding of the long cultural history behind them and to our knowledge of Han practices.

The authors offer a thorough analysis of surviving physical and visual sources, invoking fresh perspectives from new disciplines.  Essays address the ideals, practices, and problems of the "Wu Family Shrines" and Han China; Han funerary art and architecture in Shandong and other regions; architectural functions and carved meanings; Qing Dynasty Reception of the Wu Family Shrines; and more.

The calligrapher and book artist Xu Bing has been called the most innovative Chinese artist of our time. As a citizen of both China and the United States and the first Asian-American artist to win the prestigious MacArthur Foundation "genius award," Xu Bing has fascinated and challenged audiences around the world with his imaginative textual art. From his 4,000 unreadable Chinese-looking characters, which unite Asian and Western audiences alike in an egalitarianism of induced illiteracy, to his invention of a "square words" language that makes "Chinese" readable by anyone at all, Xu Bing's use of language is at once artistically brilliant, highly entertaining, and profoundly subversive-a sharp-witted, masterly word-play that, in his own words, "strikes at the very essence of culture."

In exhibitions on four continents, Xu Bing's printed art, mixed-media installations, and performance pieces-from books and calligraphic sculptures to inscribed pigs-have fascinated specialists and general audiences alike and generated a growing body of literature. This volume presents the first multidisciplinary study of Xu Bing's art and its intellectual implications. Included is an illuminating account by Xu Bing of his own work, as well as essays by leading scholars in a number of different fields. The essays address the place of this work within the long history of Chinese calligraphic practice, examine it in the context of Chinese intellectual dissidence, discuss Japanese avant-garde parallels, and judge it from a Western art-historical viewpoint. The contributors are Hal Foster, Robert E. Harrist, Jr., Perry Link, and Gennifer Weisenfeld.

Bridges to Heaven: Essays on East Asian Art in Honor of Professor Wen C. Fong
Edited by Jerome Silbergeld, Dora C.Y. Ching, and Alfreda Murck

The Family Model in Chinese Art and Culture
Edited by Jerome Silbergeld and Dora C.Y. Ching

Re-presenting Emptiness: Zen and Art in Medieval China and Japan
Edited by Gregory Levine and Yukio Lippit

Art and Archaeology of the Erligang Civilization
Edited by Kyle Steinke

Commemorative Landscape Painting in China
Anne de Coursey Clapp

Friends at Brushwood Gate: Essays on East Asian Art in Honor of Professor Yoshiaki Shimuzu
Edited by Gregory P. Levine, Andrew Watsky, and Gennifer Weisenfeld