Jiani Ma (she/her/hers)

My research plan stems from the Jesuit missionary painter Giuseppe Castiglione (Chinese name: Lang Shining 郎世寧, 1688–1766) who served in the Qing court for fifty one years (1715–1766), navigating the reigns of Kangxi 康熙 (r. 1662–1722), Yongzheng 雍正 (r. 1722–1735) and Qianlong 乾隆 (r. 1736–1796). Viewing Castiglione as an index figure of Qing court art, I will investigate the mechanism of Qing painting academy and the imperial enterprise to build a visual empire. My research will focus on the reign of Qianlong (1711–1799), whose encyclopedic effort to categorize global knowledge initiated grandiose cultural projects. In light of the global fashion of categorization, my study will focus on the fusion of Chinese and western art styles, and investigate their specific functions within the nexus of early modern China.