The complexity and confusion of styles and intentions are true characteristics of modern Chinese art. Just as the definition of ?modernity? was subjected to reinterpretations at various points in China's recent history, current notions of the canon are likewise subjected to change.

This book ? consisting of ten articles by art historians, artist, historian, and curator ? explores the developments of Chinese art in the 20th century, applying critical theories to question and reinterpret concepts that are normally taken for granted. Their writings also reveal the thought processes in...

Founded in 1933, the Seattle Art Museum is home to a premier collection of Chinese art. This book is the first to chronicle and analyze the growth of the collection, which was largely assembled during the first half of the twentieth century. Reviewing more than one hundred boxes of museum archives, annual reports, correspondences, and available records of all transactions, Josh Yiu provides a nuanced account of Seattle's Chinese art collection, and reconsiders the ?golden age? of collecting Chinese art in the early twentieth century. Yiu demonstrates the challenges for Westerners to...