China's Hidden Century

Jessica Harrison-Hall (Head of China Section, Curator of Sir Percival David Collection of Chinese Ceramics, and Curator of Chinese Decorative Arts and Ceramics, British Museum) will deliver a lecture on the British Museum's recent exhibition, China's Hidden Century. The lecture will be followed by a question and answer session.

The exhibition China’s Hidden Century has closed, having welcomed over 230,000 visitors; the books Creators of Modern China and China’s Hidden Century are published and have been bought by 20,000 people, with pre-orders for a further 20,000 copies, and translations into Chinese planned for both books in 2024. Over 100 million people have engaged with the project through social media. On many objective levels, it has been a success and thanks are due to the 400 people from 20 countries who have helped to make it happen. However, before the Arts and Humanities Research Council project is completed, with its final book - China’s 1800s: Material and Visual Culture, which is an edited volume of 30 research papers from the 2023 conference of the same name - I would like to share with you some of the work from a wide range of disciplines that went into creating this project investigating cultural creativity and resilience in the long 19th century, which engaged both a specialist audience and the general public. Many challenges impacted the project: the Covid pandemic; the dismal economic situation; and a social media storm over an administrative omission. The research has also raised difficult questions of who gets to tell histories. Join us for an exploration of China’s Hidden Century behind the scenes.

Jessica Harrison-Hall is Head of the China Section, Curator of the Sir Percival David Collection, Chinese Ceramics and Decorative Arts at the British Museum. She was lead curator for two permanent galleries at the British Museum: one, a beautiful space with 1,700 Chinese ceramics from the Sir Percival David Collection; the other devoted to a history of China from the Neolithic to the present, which is shown in the Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery for China and South Asia. As Principal Investigator, she has led two major Arts and Humanities Research Council projects: one with Professor Craig Clunas and Dr Yu-ping Luk (2012-2016), investigating early Ming courts and their contacts, resulting in the Ming: 50 Years that changed China exhibition and its books; and the other with Professor Julia Lovell and Wenyuan Xin (2018-2024), researching cultural creativity and resilience in China’s long 19th century. She has authored or co-authored 10 books, including China: A History in Objects, which has been translated into six languages. Most recently, she has been lead curator of the blockbuster exhibition, China’s Hidden Century.

This is one of the events in the on-going China Forum Seminar series, hosted by the China Forum, Jesus College. The seminars, given by eminent speakers, cover a broad range of topics and disciplines.

Booking

This is a virtual seminar. Attendance is free. Advance booking is required by emailing: china-forum@jesus.cam.ac.uk.  Priority will be given to members of Jesus College and the University of Cambridge.