Date: 21 February 2025 (Friday)
Time: 12:15-1:30 p.m.
Format: Hybrid mode (On-site: LAU 5-203, Lau Ming Wai Academic Building, City University of Hong Kong/ Online via ZOOM: click here)
Speaker: Prof. Ka-yi HO (Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Language: English

Abstract
The Wanli Emperor, Zhu Yijun (r. 1563–1620), was the longest-reigning emperor of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). During the latter years of his reign, he abstained from attending public court events for nearly thirty years, contributing to his reputation as a negligent ruler. Since the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), he has often been blamed for the downfall of the Ming dynasty. The two monumental handscrolls housed in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Imperial Procession Departing from the Forbidden City (Chujing tu) and Imperial Procession Returning to the Forbidden City (Rubi tu), have recently been re-identified as depicting the Wanli emperor’s 1583 visit to the Ming imperial mausoleums in the Mountains of Heavenly Longevity (Tianshou shan), located in the northwestern suburbs of Beijing. These paintings offer a rare glimpse of Wanli’s lesser-known early image, presenting him in a light that aligns more closely with the ideal of a sagacious emperor. This in-class talk will analyze the artistic features and political background of this rare surviving set of court paintings from the Wanli court. It aims to demonstrate Wanli’s keen interest in appreciating and commissioning paintings, as well as to shed light on the artistry and politics of Ming court painting.

Biography
Professor Ka-yi Ho received her Ph.D. degree from the Department of Art History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interests include ancient Chinese painting, Chinese court art, religious painting of the Ming and Qing periods, artistic and cultural interactions in East Asia, and the history of art collecting. Professor Ho teaches courses in the history of Chinese painting and calligraphy, including artistic traditions in China, court painting, literati painting, etc. Before joining the Department of Fine Arts in 2020, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the department and the Art Museum, CUHK, and an Andrew W. Mellon predoctoral fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Inquiry：
Department of Chinese and History
Tel.：3442 2054
Email：cah@cityu.edu.hk