Erica Yao

Yao's dissertation project examines how eighteenth-century emperors and courtiers of China designed their surroundings to substantiate aspects of their imperium. Through three case studies, she explores how the overt display of imperial objects was purposefully contrived by cultural politics - a practice distinct from previous Chinese traditions of concealing imperial treasures for safekeeping. Because objects were not viewed in isolation but rather formed a system that generated meaning through juxtaposition and presentation, Yao's project considers the cultural and intellectual apparatuses, as well as the political and material economies, that governed environments for display at the imperial palace. Yao examines the production, presentation, and practice of the ideological display and staging of empire and culture. Her approach to researching systems of display is grounded in the ways objects were ideologically understood in the mid-Qing court. Unpacking this aspect of visual culture, which resulted from the hybridization of native, peripheral, and foreign cultures by the imperial center and which affected current tastes and production, consequently provides a more nuanced understanding of cultural practices during the Qing dynasty.