Collecting Antiquity in Modern China

“This is a most erudite book written with great theoretical sophistication. It deals with a rare and rather obscure subject, modern Chinese antiquarianism, by putting it in an entirely new light and turning it into a radical agent of cultural intervention at a moment of danger. The works of some of the most famous modern Chinese intellectuals receive entirely new treatments. A groundbreaking book that poses a great intellectual challenge to all scholars.”

“Collecting Antiquity in Modern China is itself a learned and beautifully made instance of salvage craft. Chen has curated, narrated, and hence saved from oblivion the stories of nine twentieth-century Chinese collectors who took great risks and gradually found in ancient objects and practices the means of resistance to war, revolution, and despair. Cultural catastrophes go on and know no territorial boundaries, but Chen’s book gives evidence that care, memory, and contemplation can continue, too, as infinite resources for our inner lives.”

“In 1965, when Guo Moruo, China’s foremost Marxist intellectual, presented his controversial but ultimately misguided view that the most famous work in the calligraphic tradition, the 4th century Orchid Pavilion Preface, was a later fabrication, he caused an uproar not only in the art world, but in the political sphere as well. Even Mao Zedong joined the discussion. It was one of the many tangled interactions between politics and art in contemporary China.

Chen demonstrates how China, faced with a life-threatening economic and intellectual onslaught from the West, harked back to its collections of visual and material culture and turned them into powerful tools to come to terms with itself and with the world. This meticulously researched study opens a new perspective on China in the 20th century.”

“Collecting Antiquity in Modern China follows antiquarians whose empirical finds led to questions without pre-established answers—a risky enterprise, as they soon discovered. A work of retrieval, salvage, and reparation, it breaks through the shell of consensus and post-facto inevitability, and yet remains unsentimental about its protagonists—a bold and delicate accomplishment.”

Guangchen Chen is assistant professor of Chinese and comparative literature at Emory University.