Faith and Forms
The Visual and Material Legacy of Christianity in China, from the 17th Century to Today
Saturday and Sunday, 22–23 March 2025
10am – 5pm
ACM Ngee Ann Auditorium
Registration (with $10 refundable deposit) is required.
Click here to register
Christianity reached China as early as the seventh century, during the Tang dynasty. However, its presence was limited until the arrival of several Jesuit missions in the sixteenth century, which also brought Western science, mathematics, astronomy, cartography, and art to China.
In this two-day conference, scholars and experts from around the world come together to examine the complex relationship between Christianity and Chinese culture. Speakers will explore how Christian ideas, aesthetics, and religious iconography have been woven into the fabric of Chinese visual art, material culture, and architecture, from the seventeenth century to today.
This conference is held in conjunction with the special exhibition Pagoda Odyssey 1915: From Shanghai to San Francisco (till 1 June 2025).
22 March 2025 (Saturday)
9am Registration
10am
Opening Remarks
Clement Onn
Director
Asian Civilisations Museum
PANEL 1: CHINESE CHRISTIAN ART IN CONTEXT
10.15am
Were the European palaces a Buddhist paradise? Framing peacocks and territorial aesthetics in Qing imperial gardens
Dr Wang Lianming
Associate Professor, Department of Chinese and History
City University of Hong Kong
10.45am
Madonna, bodhisattva, beauty: Furen University’s Chinese Catholic paintings in modern China
Dr Patricia Yu
Assistant Professor, Department of Art History
Kenyon College, Ohio
11.15am Tea break
11.45am
Missionaries as artists: Photography by American Passionists in China in the 1930s
Dr Wu Xiaoxin
Director of Research
Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History, Boston College
12.15pm
Works by the Danish architect Johannes Prip-Møller
Dr Ho Puay-peng
Professor, Department of Architecture, College of Design and Engineering
National University of Singapore
12.45pm Lunch
PANEL 2: THE IMPACT OF CHRISTIANITY ON CHINESE MATERIAL CULTURE
2.30pm
Faith, devotion, and business: Chinese textiles in Christian contexts in the early modern period
Dr Maria João Pacheco Ferreira
Curator, Museo de São Roque
3.00pm
The hybrid style of the facade of St. Paul’s in Macau
Liu Heng
PhD Candidate, École pratique des hautes études, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres and Institute of East Asian Art History, Heidelberg University
3.30pm Tea break
4.00pm
Christian iconography on Ming and Qing porcelain: Religious influence and artistic hybridisation
Dr Guo Mo
Assistant Professor, University International College
Macau University of Science and Technology
4.30pm
Chinese Christian cloisonné
Dr Manuel Parada López de Corselas
Associate Professor, Department of Art History
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
5.00pm End of day one
23 March 2025 (Sunday)
PANEL 3: THE TUSHANWAN WORKSHOPS – THE CRADLE OF MODERN CHINESE ART
10am
Networks of beauty: Financing, producing, and exhibiting Chinese Catholic art in 19th-century Shanghai
Dr Antonio de Caro
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Art History
University of Zürich
10.30am
Portraits of a community: Seeing Tushanwan through photography
Dr William Ma
Assistant Professor of Art History
College of Art & Design, Louisiana State University
11.00am Tea break
11.30am
A whimsical architectural archive: The historical significance of the Tushanwan pagodas
Dr Kevin Lam
Senior Curator, Chinese Art
Asian Civilisations Museum
12.00pm
The outreach of the Tushanwan Workshops: The curious case of a scroll in Celje
Dr Helena Motoh
Senior Research Associate
Institute for Philosophical and Religious Studies, Science and Research Centre Koper
12.30pm Lunch
PANEL 4: POPULAR AND CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN ART IN CHINA
2.15pm
Chinese Christian propaganda posters and the subversion of political art
Dr Daryl R. Ireland
Associate Director
Center for Global Christianity and Mission School of Theology, Boston University
2.45pm
Christian spring couplets in urbanising China
Dr Michel Chambon
Research Fellow Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
3.15pm Tea break
3.45pm
Contemporary Catholic art in China
Sr M. Paola Yue
Hong Kong Diocesan Liturgy Commission
4.15pm
Sinicising Catholic architecture in Republican China: More than a conflict of style
Dr Thomas Coomans
Professor, Department of Architecture
KU Leuven
4.45pm
Closing Remarks
Dr Kevin Lam
Senior Curator, Chinese Art
Asian Civilisations Museum
5.00pm End of day two
