Date: 8 January 2025
Lecture: 19:00-20:00 HKT / 6:00-7:00am EST / 11:00-12:00 GMT
Place: Online via Zoom
Lecture fee: FREE
Lecture recording, now on the OCS HK Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/6XvGyNV5W3c
The OCS of HK is pleased to announce an online lecture by Justin Jacobs on “Plunder? How Museums Got Their Treasures” in conversation with Nicole Chiang.
It has become popular to accuse Western museums of being “active crime scenes”. In his new book, historian Justin Jacobs of American University challenges this notion and advocates for a more nuanced understanding of how artefacts reached Western shores. Jacobs widens his scope from his previous book (Compensations of Plunder) to include Chinese, Egyptian, Greek and other participants in the global antiquities trade, including the hidden role of private dealers. This collaborative dynamic is largely ignored by contemporary museum critics, and unfolds a narrative that not only helps us to better understand the origins of existing museum collections, but suggests a more promising way forward.
In conversation with Prof. Jacobs, we are delighted to welcome Dr. Nicole Chiang, curator at the HK Palace Museum and an historian who has shed light on the true nature of Qing imperial collections.
This event will take place online (Zoom). Attendees will have a chance to participate in the Q&A.
Justin M. Jacobs is a Professor of History at American University, whose research areas include China, Xinjiang, the Silk Road, antiquities, and archaeology. He is the author of several books, including Plunder? How Museums Got Their Treasures and The Compensations of Plunder: How China Lost Its Treasures. Besides teaching classes, he is active online, with lectures on East Asian history on the podcast “Beyond Huaxia: A College History of China and Japan”, and as an instructor for two Great Courses series on UNESCO sites.
Nicole Chiang is a Curator of the Hong Kong Palace Museum. She began her career at the National Palace Museum in Taipei and subsequently served at the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Museum of East Asian Art in Bath. With a Ph.D. from SOAS, her research interests include Qing art and material culture as well as collecting history and theories. She is the author of Emperor Qianlong’s Hidden Treasures: Reconsidering the Collection of the Qing Imperial Household (2019). Her edited anthology A Movable Feast: The Culture of Food and Drink in China will be published by HKPM and the Palace Museum in 2025, accompanying an exhibition of the same title.