Chinese Art History Lecture Series 2026

Professor Dame Jessica Rawson DBE FBA recently gave a lecture series at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) as Distinguished Visiting Professor. Professor Rawson’s lecture series, given 29 January-4 February, was entitled ‘The Loess and China’s Civilisation’ and consisted of the following lectures:

(1) China’s Unique Architecture: A New View from Recent Archaeological Discoveries

(2) Jade and Gold: Chinese and Eurasian Cultures Compared

(3) The Dancing Horses of the Tang Dynasty (618-906) and their Predecessors

Professor Dame Jessica Rawson was Merton’s first female Warden, serving for 16 years from 1994 to 2010. She was also Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 2006 to 2011 and was appointed Professor of Chinese Art and Archaeology at Oxford in 2000.

Professor Rawson’s primary academic interests are in early China’s history and material culture. She is best known for her research on the interaction of the peoples of central China with those along the borders with northern Eurasia, which resulted in major innovations, such as the introduction of metallurgy to China. She presented her research as a Global Fellow at Peking University in 2017 and as an Academic Fellow at the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou from 2017 to 2019. She has also taught at the Universities of Cambridge, London and East Anglia, and has held visiting professorships at the universities of Heidelberg and Chicago, and she was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge. Professor Rawson received a CBE in 1994 and was awarded the title of Dame in 2002 for services to oriental studies.

The lecture series was sponsored by Bei Shan Tang Foundation.