Professor, Art History Mary and Cheney Cowles Endowed Professor ART 369haicheng@uw.eduOffice Hourson leave during autumn quarter 2022Fields of Interest Archaeology Art History Chinese Comparative Studies Background and ExperienceSummaryEducationPhD, Princeton University, 2007MA, Peking University, 2000Expertise Chinese art and archaeology Comparative studies of early civilizations My teaching includes surveys of Chinese art and various topics on the art and archaeology of the Bronze Age. My research involves two distinct types of comparative study, distinct in theory if not always in practice. The first is the study of cultural contact, exchange, and transmission. The second is the comparison of cultures assumed not to have been in contact for insight into possible trajectories of cultural development. From the former category one of my current projects is to investigate the artistic exchange between China and its neighbors in the first millennium BC, a period that saw the formation of the so-called animal-style art of the Inner Asian steppes and the gradual eclipse of ornament in China and its replacement by representational art. Is this coincidence? Would Chinese art have developed toward representation even without an encounter with the art of the nomads? Or did outside contact supply an essential stimulus? My book Writing and the Ancient State: Early China in Comparative Perspective belongs to the second type of comparative study. It is a cross-cultural analysis of the uses to which writing was put by early states in China, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Central Mexico, and the Maya region, with the Andean states included for comparative purposes. A follow-up of this book project is a comparative study of calligraphy in different cultural traditions. Specialization The use of writing in early states Art and archaeology of ancient China Steppe art Current Research Interests The origins of Western Zhou bells Human sacrifice in the ancient world Kingship in ancient Egypt and China Chinese calligraphy in comparative perspective Recent Courses Chinese art and visual culture Chinese painting and Buddhist art Writing as art Research + Creative Work Selected Publications + Projects Haicheng Wang. "China's first empire? Interpreting the material record of the Erligang expansion." In Art and Archaeology of the Erligang Civilization, edited by Kyle Steinke. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014. Read more Haicheng Wang. Writing and the Ancient State: Early China in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Read more Haicheng Wang. "San hao mu (Tomb No. 3)." Chapter 4 of the archaeological report Dulan Tubo mu (Tibetan Tombs at Dulan, Qinghai.). Department of Archaeology of Peking University and Qinghai Institute of Archaeology. Beijing: Kexue Chubanshe, 2005. Coauthored with Lin Li. Read more Haicheng Wang. "Zhongguo mache de qiyuan" ("The Origins of Chinese Chariot"). Ou Ya xue kan (Eurasian Studies) 3 (2002): 1-75. Read more Research Advised: Graduate Masters Theses Shiyu Zheng. "Emperor Qianlong’s Pictorial and Physical Sites for Western Paradises." MA Thesis, University of Washington, 2018. Read more Qian Yang. "The Circulation of Jades in Early China China (late Neolithic - Eastern Zhou, ca. 4500-221 B.C.)." MA Thesis, University of Washington, 2014. Read more Research Advised: Graduate Practicum Project Emma McIntosh. "Music in the Asian American Art Museum." MA Practicum Project, University of Washington, 2019. Read more Jiani Ma. "The Story of Clay — A Little Potter's Notebook." MA Practicum Project, University of Washington, 2017. Read more Courses Taught Autumn 2024 ART H 308 B: Representational Art of Imperial China Summer 2024 Full-term ART H 212 A: Chinese Art and Visual Culture ART H 308 A: Representational Art of Imperial China Spring 2024 ART H 307 A: Art and Archaeology of Ancient China ART H 412 A: Art History and the Study of Chinese Bronzes ART H 511 A: Seminar in Chinese Art Winter 2024 ART H 212 A: Chinese Art and Visual Culture Autumn 2023 ART H 308 A: Representational Art of Imperial China Summer 2023 Full-term ART H 212 A: Chinese Art and Visual Culture ART H 308 A: Representational Art of Imperial China Spring 2023 ART H 310 A: Chinese Art and Archaeology Neolithic to Han Dynasty Winter 2023 ART H 212 A: Chinese Art and Visual Culture ART H 308 A: Representational Art of Imperial China Summer 2022 Full-term ART H 212 A: Chinese Art and Visual Culture ART H 308 A: Representational Art of Imperial China ART H 600 A: Independent Study or Research Spring 2022 ART H 212 A: Chinese Art and Visual Culture Winter 2022 ART H 310 A: Chinese Art and Archaeology Neolithic to Han Dynasty ART H 413 A: Selected Topics In Chinese Art: Chinese Bronzes ART H 511 A: Seminar In Chinese Art: Chinese Bronzes Autumn 2021 ART H 311 A: Arts of Imperial China Summer 2021 Full-term ART H 212 A: Chinese Art and Visual Culture ART H 311 A: Arts of Imperial China Spring 2021 ART H 310 A: Chinese Art and Archaeology Neolithic to Han Dynasty ART H 511 A: Seminar In Chinese Art: Chinese Bronzes and the Study of Art History Winter 2021 ART H 311 A: Arts of Imperial China Autumn 2020 ART H 212 A: Chinese Art and Visual Culture Summer 2020 Full-term ART H 212 A: Chinese Art and Visual Culture Spring 2020 ART H 212 A: Chinese Art and Visual Culture ART H 311 A: Arts of Imperial China Winter 2020 ART H 310 A: Chinese Art and Archaeology Neolithic to Han Dynasty ART H 412 A: Art History and the Study of Chinese Bronzes ART H 521 A: Topics In Asian Art: Chinese Bronzes Summer 2019 A-term ART H 212 A: Chinese Art and Visual Culture Spring 2019 ART H 311 A: Arts of Imperial China Winter 2019 ART H 310 A: Chinese Art and Archaeology Neolithic to Han Dynasty ART H 412 A: Art History and the Study of Chinese Bronzes ART H 521 A: Topics in Asian Art: Art History and the Study of Chinese Bronzes Autumn 2018 ART H 212 A: Chinese Art and Visual Culture Spring 2017 ART H 412 A: Art History And The Study Of Chinese Bronzes ART H 521 A: Topics In Asian Art: Art History and the Study of Chinese Bronzes Winter 2017 ART H 310 A: Chinese Art And Archaeology Neolithic To Han Dynasty ART H 597 A: Graduate Internship Autumn 2016 ART H 212 A: Chinese Art And Visual Culture ART H 413 A: Selected Topics in Chinese Art ART H 511 A: Seminar in Chinese Art Summer 2016 A-term ART H 212 A: Chinese Art And Visual Culture Spring 2016 ART H 311 A: Arts Of Imperial China ART H 412 A: Art History And The Study Of Chinese Bronzes ART H 521 A: Topics In Asian Art Winter 2016 ART H 310 A: Chinese Art And Archaeology Neolithic To Han Dynasty Autumn 2015 ART H 212 A: Chinese Art And Visual Culture Related News Related News Supporting Faculty Oct 1, 2018 Wang Wins Mellon Fellowship May 8, 2017 Wang Publishes First Book Jul 13, 2014 Faculty Lecture – Haicheng Wang, Art History Oct 1, 2013 2013 Faculty Lecture Series + Exhibits Sep 16, 2013