Collecting Antiquity in Modern China

Artifacts and Their Afterlives
A look at twentieth-century Chinese writers and intellectuals who used the material remains of the past to unsettle the present.

In this book, Guangchen Chen argues that discerning collectors used antiquities to upend dominant discourses on history and cultural memory in twentieth-century China. Examining four categories of ancient artifactscarving (oracle bones), rubbing (imprints of inscriptions and books), brushing (calligraphy), and weaving (textiles and costumes)Chen explains how their modern (re)emergences changed our understanding of the relationship between tradition and modernity, textuality and materiality, and the very meaning of Chineseness.

Chen considers intellectuals such as Wang Yirong, Liu E, Luo Zhenyu, Wang Guowei, and Chen Mengjia, who played a pivotal role in the oracle bones modern reception. He also looks to major literary figures including Lu Xun, whose engag