Online Lecture: The Peoples of Southwest China and Their Traditional Arts

An Introduction with Lijun Zhang, PhD and Jason Baird Jackson, PhD

Placing the Miao jewelry featured in the Exquisite Adornment exhibition into wider context, Lijun Zhang and Jason Baird Jackson will introduce you to the Miao, Dong, Yao, Bai and other peoples of Southwest China. Drawing on travels and research undertaken in China’s Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi provinces since 2013, they will also provide an overview of the traditional arts that remain important to these peoples, including silverwork, ceramics, embroidery, clothing, and bamboo basketry. They will conclude with reflections on social change in the region and on the ways that these changes are reflected in the arts of its minority nationalities.

Formerly Curator for Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Guangxi Museum of Nationalities, Dr. Lijun Zhang in now an Assistant Professor of Folklore at George Mason University. She is a specialist in the art and architecture of China. With Marsha MacDowell, she was the co-editor of the catalogue Quilts of Southwest China and the co-curator of the associated exhibition. She is also the author of Chinese Folk Arts and Crafts and other works.

Previously serving as Director of Mathers Museum of World Cultures, Jason Baird Jackson is the Ruth N. Halls Professor of Folklore and Anthropology in Indiana University. He is the editor of Material Vernaculars: Objects, Images and Their Social Worlds and author of Yuchi Ceremonial Life.

Together they curated the exhibition Putting Baskets to Work in Southwest China.