Book about China

Chine by Si Renzuo and Peng Wenlan (1994).

This is an illustrated general introduction to Chinese civilisation, so its geography, people, history, religion, philosophy, culture and contemporary life.

Chine by Zheng Shifeng, Chu Shaotang, et. al. (1989), published in France in conjunction with Éditions du Peuple de Shanghai.

This is an illustrated portrait of China as a country, rather than an art-history book. Originally from 1980, it is showing China around the beginning of the Deng Xiaoping reform era, before the enormous physical transformation of Chinese cities during the following 30–40 years.

L’Art chinois or Regard contemporain sur 6,000 ans d’histoire was published by Phaidon (2014).

This is a coffee-table book with academic substance. It deliberately rejects a straightforward dynasty-by-dynasty history. Instead, works are paired on facing pages because they have some visual, historical or conceptual relationship, even when separated by centuries.

5000 Ans d’Art Chinois by Guo Huaiyu, Liu Jing, Zhao Jing and others, with the French translation by Virginie de Bermond-Gettle (2018).

The book is organised around approximately 250 actual Chinese objects, selected by professors from China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts and curators from Chinese museums for their historical, artistic and cultural significance.

One of the books strengths is that it has a chronological range from prehistoric China through to the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912.

The publisher explicitly describes it as a “livre-objet à la reliure japonaise” (Japanese-bound book-object). This means that the pages are folded/doubled. Each sheet is printed and folded so that the fold forms the outer edge of the leaf, rather than being cut open as in an ordinary Western book. This is the traditional fukuro-toji or “pouch-binding” principle. The apparently doubled pages are therefore intentional, not uncut pages awaiting separation. In addition it is bound by a red cord that is the actual visible binding element. Rather than hiding the sewing inside a Western spine, the binding deliberately exposes the cord along the edge of the book.

The irony is that a book entirely about Chinese art, has adopted a binding convention generally described in Europe as Japanese binding (which originally was a Chinese binding method).

The Arts of China by Hugo Musterberg (1972).

This book explores the rich artistic heritage of China, spanning from prehistoric times to the Ch’ing dynasty. It presents a comprehensive overview of Chinese art traditions, showcasing ceramics, bronzes, sculpture, painting, and architecture. The narrative follows the evolution of these art forms through various dynasties, highlighting the unique characteristics and aesthetic principles that define Chinese art.

La Citta’ Proibita, Storia e Collezioni by Piero Corradini (1992).

Piero Corradini (1933–2006) was an Italian sinologist and historian of China, not simply an art-book writer. He describes the Forbidden City not as a container for beautiful objects but as simultaneously an architectural complex, the repository of the Ming and Qing imperial collections, and the physical evidence of the workings of the imperial court and state. It is essentially a study of one of the world’s great palace-museums in its historical context.

Imperial Peking – Seven Centuries of China, by Lin Yutang (1967), and edited by the Musée Cernuschi, an Asian art museum in Paris.

In a contemporary review entitled “Peking in the Past Tense” (Times Literary Supplement, 29 December 1961), the judgement was mixed. It praised the book as a “handsomely produced, excellently illustrated Chinese scrapbook”, and regarded Lin’s chapters on old Peking, its palaces, history and beliefs as an agreeable mixture of history and description. Its principal criticism was very specific. Lin was ostensibly writing about Peking in 1961, but was really describing the Peking he had known between the wars, often using the present tense. The reviewer thought this made parts of the book already outdated after thirteen years of Communist rule. More fundamentally, the reviewer felt that Lin’s China had become “something of a faded stereotype” (even now, I feel the knife going in).

Des Profondeurs de la Terre Chinoise, by Chen Heyi, Tsian Hao and Rou Souitchou (1987).

The book surveys the extraordinary archaeological discoveries made in China after the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949. Its objects cover approximately 2,400 years, from the 14th century BC to the 10th century AD. So it’s more about what archaeology reveals about ancient China.

It looks at the Shang remains and the intact tomb of Fu Hao at Anyang, containing bronzes, jade, weapons and other objects. Then in the state of Zhongshan there are spectacular discoveries from a relatively little-known state of the Warring States period. There is also the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, famous particularly for the enormous set of 65 bronze bells. There are the Han tombs at Mawangdui with preserved silk, manuscripts, lacquer, food, etc. and finally Qin archaeology, including the extraordinary terracotta infantry and cavalry associated with the First Emperor. 

Chinese Cloisonné – The Pierre Uldry Collection by Helmut Brinker and Albert Lutz (1989). The catalog of an exhibition held at the Rietberg Museum, Zurich, in 1985.

The collection was historically housed at Museum Rietberg, but it was largely a private long-term loan, not a Rietberg-owned collection. At least some of it subsequently belonged to Pierre Uldry’s heirs. Its present status as a complete collection is unclear.

Celadons from Longquan Kilns by Zhu Boqian.

Celadon is a type of high-fired stoneware or porcelain whose glaze contains iron and is fired in a reducing atmosphere, i.e. one with restricted oxygen. Under those conditions the iron produces colours ranging from grey-green and olive to the particularly admired soft blue-green or jade-green.

Longquan in southwestern Zhejiang province. But “Longquan ware” refers to an enormous kiln complex/industry spread across the Longquan region. For example, at the important Dayao complex alone, archaeological work has identified 126 kiln sites, spread over about 512 hectares.

Production began around the Five Dynasties/Northern Song period (10th century), flourished during the Northern Song, and reached its greatest artistic and commercial importance during the Southern Song (1127–1279) and Yuan (1271–1368), continuing on a very large scale into the Ming.

UNESCO describes Longquan as having become at its height, the largest porcelain-production centre in China. Longquan celadon is one of the major traditions of Chinese ceramics, and in terms of historical importance it is one of China’s greatest ceramic-production centres and probably the most internationally distributed Chinese celadon tradition.

Chine de tous les jours by Pierre d’Ursel (1985).

The book grew out of d’Ursel’s filmed travel lectures rather than being conceived as an academic study of China. The period now gives it considerably more interest than it had as a current travel book. China had only recently begun the reform period under Deng Xiaoping. The urban redevelopment, industrialisation and huge increase in prosperity that transformed China over the following decades were still in the future. Consequently, photographs intended simply to show “everyday China” have become a visual record of a society during a very particular transition.

Tibet, le rire jaune by Gilbert Leroy (1988).

The book arose after Leroy had already spent considerable time in the Himalayas. He first encountered Tibetan culture in Nepal in 1974 and was among early foreign travellers into Ladakh and Zanskar. Then, in 1985, when Tibet had recently become more accessible to foreign visitors, he travelled there to make this book (and a film).

The Cultural Revolution had ended less than a decade earlier. Religious institutions had suffered enormous destruction, but during the 1980s monasteries were reopening and religious practice was reviving. At the same time China was beginning to open Tibet to foreign travellers. Leroy’s photographs therefore capture Tibetan society during that transitional period.

The title is deliberately double-edged. In French, “rire jaune” means a forced or uncomfortable laugh, smiling when there is little reason to smile. But jaune also obviously evokes the Western imagery traditionally associated with Asia.