14.11.2023

Lecture: Chen Kaijun, "Technocracy and Porcelain Manufacture at Early-mid Qing Court"

On 21 Nov 2023, Dr. Chen Kaijun (Brown University) will talk about "Technocracy and Porcelain Manufacture at Early-mid Qing Court"

Colloquium "History and Culture of China" session:
"Technocracy and Porcelain Manufacture at Early-mid Qing Court" by Dr. Chen Kaijun (Brown University).
The Colloquium is held on 21 Nov 2023 at 4:15 pm online via zoom:
Meeting Link: https://zoom.us/j/94759700186?pwd=eE1rYWJRcFB0SlZ0aGFEN2NHbkoxdz09
Meeting ID: 947 5970 0186
Passcode: 501205
Abstract Dr. Chen Kaijun’s monograph, Porcelain for the Emperor: Manufacture and Technocracy in Qing China (University of Washington Press 2023), examines the imperial control of technological expertise in the Qing Dynasty—a dynasty founded by the Manchus. The imperial court shaped knowledge production and aesthetic decorum in the Qing Empire. Through a detailed study of porcelain manufacture during the mid-eighteenth century, the book rethinks early modern industrial planning in China in dialogue with the studies of expert culture in the early modern world. The book scrutinizes the crucial roles that multiethnic technocrats played in codifying technological knowledge related to ceramic production and in creating distinctive artistic forms that were essential to the cultural policies of the Qing court in China during the 1680s-1750s. These technocrats, who served as the emperors' private attendants, acted as hands-on mediators at the center of Eurasian cultural exchange.

Bio Kaijun Chen is an Assistant Professor specializing in late imperial Chinese material culture and the history of technology within the Department of East Asian Studies at Brown University. His research primarily centers on the manufacturing of ceramics at court and the dissemination of handicraft knowledge from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. He has authored articles on the intersections of craft and literature, as well as the trade of luxury goods, which have been published in journals such as History and Technology, Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, and Reviews, Arts of Asia, National Palace Bi-monthly, and more. Prior to his professorship at Brown University, he held positions at the Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and the Frick Collection. He was also a fellow at institutions including the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge, UK, Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, and the Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey, US. His work has received generous support from the Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Society, the Metropolitan Museum, the Geiss-Hsu Foundation, College Art Association, and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation.