WHAT: Alfreda Murck on the pacificism hidden within in a Song scroll

WHEN: October 23, Wednesday 7.00 - 8.00 PM Beijing time

WHERE: La Maison Lyonnaise 2F, 44 Guanghua Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing.

北京市朝阳区光华路44号（巴西大使馆对面）

MORE ABOUT THE EVENT: Popular speaker and longstanding friend of RASBJ, Columbia University adjunct professor Alfreda Murck talks to visiting Peking University professor Martin Powers about a Chinese scroll illustrating a battle that took place a thousand years prior. Alfreda's analysis is inspired by the earliest illustration of Su Shi's Second Prose-poem on the Red Cliff, written in 1082. The Northern Song handscroll, attributed to Qiao Zhongchang, provides visual clues to interpreting the poem and its subtext. Created about forty years after Su Shi composed the Red Cliff poems, the painting supports the possibility that Su Shi was responding to two unsuccessful invasions of Tangut Xi Xia territory. Alfreda will introduce the events, the dramatis personae, and the places that led to the unique imagery in the painting. The talk will be followed by questions and feedback.

MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Columbia adjunct professor and scholar of Chinese visual culture, Alfreda Murck lived in Taipei and Beijing from 1991 to 2013. Her publications include "Poetry and Painting in Song China: The Subtle Art of Dissent" (Harvard Asia Center 2000), "Golden Mangoes –– The Life Cycle of a Cultural Revolution Symbol" (Archives of Asian Art, vol. 57 (2007), "Zhao Lingrang's uses of poetry in Summer Mist along the Lakeshore" (Ars Orientalis vol. 49, 2019), and "Cui Bai's 'Magpies and Hare' as a Commentary on Marriage, Eunuchs, and Self-awareness" (Journal of Song Yuan Studies vol. 49, 2020). Before living in Asia, Alfreda was Associate Curator of Asian Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She received her PhD from Princeton University.

MORE ABOUT THE MODERATOR: Martin Powers is Professor Emeritus in the History of Art, University of Michigan, and chaired visiting professor in the School of Arts at Peking University. He was formerly Sally Michelson Davidson Professor of Chinese Arts and Cultures, and Director of the Center for Chinese Studies in Ann Arbor. Recipient of numerous awards, in 2009 he was a Fellow in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His first two books, published by Yale University Press and Harvard University Press East Asian Series respectively, each won the Levenson Prize for Best Book in pre-1900 Chinese Studies (1993 and 2006).

HOW MUCH: RMB 200 for members of RASBJ and of partner RAS branches; RMB 300 for non-members. One welcome drink is included. You may find payment by Alipay easier than by Wechat. You can also pay by credit card. Interested in becoming an RASBJ member? Please sign up at https://rasbj.org/membership/​

HOW TO JOIN THE EVENT: No later than noon on October 21, please click "Register" or "I will attend" and follow the instructions. After successful registration you will receive a confirmation email. If you seem not to have received it, please check your spam folder. Registrations for those who have not paid by October 21 may be cancelled.

Members of partner RAS Branches: Please register 72 hours in advance of the deadline to allow time for membership verification.

REFUND POLICY: Registrants will be refunded in full if the event is cancelled or postponed by RASBJ.