Date: 17 Jan 2026 - 17 Jan 2026
Bronze has held an enduring place in Chinese culture for over 3,000 years. Originally cast as ritual vessels for formal banquets and various sacrifices, bronzes are still widely used today—embellishing households, furnishing altars, or serving as diplomatic gifts.
This talk traces the origins of the delicate scholar’s studio bronzes now exhibited at UMAG back to the Neolithic Age. Prehistoric ceramic containers served as prototypes for the food and wine vessels of the Bronze Age. These objects, associated with authority and power, gradually formed the core of major imperial collections and inspired later practices of recreation, antiquarianism, and archaism throughout dynastic China.
Key questions include: Why was bronze so highly treasured in ancient China? In what contexts were bronzes used across different periods, and how were they employed? What motivated later revivals of ancient bronzes?
This is an event associated with the exhibition Handmade and Handheld: Song to Qing Dynasty Chinese Bronzes for the Scholar’s Studio. For exhibition details, please click here.
Date: Saturday, 17 January 2026
Time: 3:15–4:45 p.m.
Venue: Drake Gallery, 1/F, Fung Ping Shan Building, UMAG, HKU, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Language: English
Please click here to register.
Speaker
Dr Shengyu Wang is Associate Curator at UMAG. She is a China Oxford Scholarship awardee with a DPhil and MPhil in Archaeology from the University of Oxford, with a focus on early China. She double-majored in Museology and Chinese Literature at Peking University as an undergraduate.
Before joining UMAG, Shengyu was an Associate Curator at the Hong Kong Palace Museum, co-leading exhibitions such as Gazing at Sanxingdui in 2023. She lectures and publishes regularly on Chinese art and archaeology, and has participated in excavations in mainland China, Hong Kong, and the UK.
Moderator
Dr Florian Knothe, Director, University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong