Publications and Research Creation
books
Design and Science in Modern China (London, New York: Routledge, 2024). ISBN HB 9781032713373; EB 9781032716626
What is design in modern China? And what are the ecological stakes in understanding how modern Chinese design encourages us to see––for all of us––now? This book takes up these questions though exploration into the work of three famous designers who were actively engaged with the natural sciences in early twentieth-century Shanghai, Canton, and Beijing. Routledge is the premier publisher of design histories, and this book is part of its new Research in Design History series.
Streetlife Beijing (manuscript in progress)
Once, in a Beijing alleyway, as a wedding procession passed through, the ink painter Chen Shizeng (1876–1923) separated himself from his party to follow the bridal chair. A friend in Chen’s group recalled, “We began to tease him. Later we learned that he was just then painting pictures of customs. Among them there is one of flutes and drums from such a procession.”
Streetlife Beijing takes up Chen’s ethnographic gaze and art practice, captured in a 1914–1915 album of thirty-four pictures titled Beijing Social Life and Customs (Beijing fengsu tu 北京風俗圖). The painted figures are often from the darker side of the street, Manchu "remnant subjects" of the fallen Qing dynasty. They occupy a space and time of their own. This project explores how they do this. How does the album resist colonial Western ethnographic structures of time at a moment when ethnography was being used by the West to see and define China?
To create new modes of scholarship-in-writing that creatively respond to Chen’s own creative decolonizing project (recognizing that this language would not have been his own, even if his project recognizes and addresses the violence of that Western ethnographic gaze), interspersed in the book's framing story about Chen’s album will be stories about the temporal beat of daily life told from the point of view of the pictured figures. Each figure holds or stands next to a cultural object––those “flutes and drums.” The stories will coalesce around such objects.
major exhibition catalogues
ecoArt China / 境善境美. Edmonton: University of Alberta Department of Art & Design, 2021. 160 pp. ISBN 9781551954561
Exhibition catalogue published on the occasion of the online ecoArt China exhibition co-curated with seminar students. Essays by Lisa Claypool, Amanda Boetzkes with Isabel Brandt, Daniel Fried, and Joshua Goldstein, as well as catalogue entries by eleven University of Alberta students.
China’s Imperial Modern: The Painter’s Craft 《中國畫家的技藝：帝國時代的現代性》. Edmonton: University of Alberta Museums, 2012. 156 pp. ISBN 9781551952918
Exhibition catalogue published on the occasion of the 2012 Mactaggart Art Collection exhibition co-curated with seminar students. Essays by Lisa Claypool, De-nin Lee, and Nixi Cura, as well as catalogue entries by twelve University of Alberta students.
China Urban: Exploring the Historical and Contemporary City. Co-editor with Stephanie Snyder. Portland, OR: Reed College Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, 2009. 96 pp. ISBN 10: 0982424051 / ISBN 13: 9780982424056.
Exhibition catalogue published on the occasion of the 2009 Cooley Gallery exhibition. Essays by Lisa Claypool, Stephanie Snyder, and twenty-one Reed College students. Edited volume and contributed essay, “Cityphilia” (18-27).
articles, refereed
“Lunation: The Cold Moon and an Ink Painter in Twentieth Century China.” Archives of Asian Art 75, no. 1 (April 2025), forthcoming.
“China’s Feminist Gap: Edges, Nearness, and Distance in Women’s Arts.” positions: asia critique 33, no. 2 (2025), forthcoming.
“Hauntings: An Ink Painter and a Coal Mine in 1960s China.” Oxford Art Journal 45, no. 1 (July 2022): 45–61.
“A Glance at Nanjing.” Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities Asia. Special Issue about Nanjing, ed. Joshua Stenberg. 11, no. 1 (Winter 2021): 75–88 essay.
“Beggars, Black Bears, and Butterflies: The Scientific Gaze and Ink Painting in Modern China.” Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review no. 15 (March 2015): open-access e-journal; (May 2015): 189–237.
“Habitat Dioramas: The Animal Paintings of Liu Kuiling in Republican-era Tianjin.” Archives of Asian Art 64, no. 2 (November 2014): 163–188.
“Feminine Orientalism or Modern Enchantment? Peiping and the Graphic Artists Bertha Lum and Elizabeth Keith, 1920s–1930s.” Nan Nü: Men, Women and Gender in China 16, no. 1 (2014): 91–127.
“Boundary Forms: Calligraphy and the City at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.” International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 27, no. 3 (September 2014): 273–289.
“Ways of Seeing the Nation: Chinese Painting in the National Essence Journal (1905–1911) and Exhibition Culture.” positions: asia critique 19, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 52–85.
“Zhang Jian and China’s First Museum.” The Journal of Asian Studies 64, no. 3 (August 2005): 567–604.
book chapters, refereed and invited
“High Prices for Recycling”: Thinking about Art History with Photographer Yao Lu.” Essay for conference publication (Re)Made in China: Material Dis:connections, Art and Creative Reuse. Edited by Anna Grasskamp. Berlin: de Gruyter, forthcoming.
“Touring Spaceship Earth.” In Understanding Site in Design Pedagogy. Edited by Sean Burns and Matthew Wilson, 102–108. New York: Routledge, 2022.
“Nanjing yipie” 南京一瞥 [A glance at Nanjing]. In Wangshi ruzuo: Fu Baoshi xiansheng guju shiliaozhan qingnian xuezhe luntan, lunwen ji 往事如昨：傅抱石先生故居史料展青年学者论坛·论文集. Edited by Huang Ge 黄戈, 75–90. Translated by Li Han李菡. Nanjing: Fu Baoshi Jinianguan, 2021.
“Liquid Space.” In Liquid Space: Zheng Chongbin Light Space Installation, 86-90. Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 2020.
“Sites of Visual Modernity: Perceptions of Japanese Exhibitions in Late Qing China.” In The Role of Japan in Modern Chinese Art, Edited by Joshua Fogel, 154–80. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2013.
· reviewed by Don J. Cohn in ArtAsiaPacific no. 87 (2014): 126–127.
“Painting Manuals and Gendered Modernity in Republican-era Shanghai.” In Visualizing Beauty: Gender and Ideology in Modern East Asia. Edited by Aida Yuen Wong, 23–44. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012.
· reviewed by Erin Schoneveld for the College Art Association, caa.reviews (February 27, 2014)
· reviewed by Sarah Frederick in the Woman’s Art Journal 34, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2013): 66–67.
Drawing a line between modernity and tradition? Haipai paintings in the 1897 Jieziyuan huazhuan siji.” In Haipai huihua yanjiu wenji 海派绘画研究文集 [Studies on Shanghai School Painting], 1051–72. Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 2001.
invited interviews
“Liquid Space: A Conversation with Zheng Chongbin.” Yishu: The Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 18, no. 3 (September/October 2019): 100–07.
“Revisiting the Technological Society: A Conversation with Feng Mengbo”《重访技术社会：与冯梦波交谈》Yishu: The Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art [Chinese language edition 中文版，《典藏: 國際版文選》] 12, no. 4 (December 2013): 80–87; [English language edition] 12, no. 4 (July/August 2013): 69–76.
“Architectonic Ink: Zheng Chongbin in Conversation with Lisa Claypool”《营造水墨: 郑重宾与祁珊立的对话》Yishu: The Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art [Chinese language edition 中文版，《典藏: 國際版文選》] 1, no. 2 (April 2012): 15–24; [English language edition] 10, no. 4 (July 2011): 41–53.
“The China Syndrome: Lisa Claypool in Conversation with Peter Kreider and Zhou Yi” 《中國綜合症: 周翊和Peter Kreider 與祁珊立對話》 Modern China Studies 18, no. 2 (2011): 215–33.
“China Urban: An Interview with Xie Xiaoze.” Yishu: The Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 8, no. 4 (July/August 2009): 41–50.
invited feature articles
Co-written with Wenyu He. “Macabre Beauty: Lam Qua’s Medical Portraits.” Orientations (forthcoming).
“An Ink Painter’s Eyes Wide Shut.” Orientations 55, no. 5 (September/October 2024): 2–7.
“Tao Lengyue yu lishide shijian” 陶冷月与阴历的时间 [Tao Lengyue and the Time of History]. 全球化语境中的中国近现代艺术 Modern Chinese Art in the Context of Globalization Conference Proceedings. Central Academy of Fine Arts, 2023. [Chinese].
“Fu Baoshi’s Sympathetic Ink.” Orientations 51, no. 5 (Sept/Oct 2020): 30–35.
“Hearing Colour: Yu Fei’an’s Pigeon Paintings in Modern Beijing.” Center 37. Eds. Peter Lockhart, Therese O’Malley, 73-75. Washington, D.C.: The National Gallery of Art and CASVA, 2017.
“Postmodern Ink”《后现代水墨》. In China Jinling Exhibition Chinese and Foreign Scholars BBS Peak 《2011。中国百家金陵画展，中外学者高峰论坛论文汇编 》, 17–23. Nanjing: Nanjing University, 2011.
Where is Shanghai?” Orientations 41, no 1 (January/February 2010): 50–54. Commissioned by the San Francisco Asian Art Museum.
invited catalogue essay
“City Windows” 城市之窗. Catalogue essay for the exhibition Across Time and Space: Revisiting Twentieth-Century Chinese Oil Paintings. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Museum and Art Gallery, 2025. [English and Chinese]
encyclopedia entries
Encyclopedia entries on “Ren Xiong,” “Art Museums.” In Encyclopedia of Modern China, 4 vols. Edited by David Pong. Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2009.
book reviews
Shadow Modernism: Photography, Writing, and Space in Shanghai, 1925–1937 by William Schaefer (Durham: Duke University Press, 2017). caa.reviews. May 2019. http://caareviews.org/reviews/3527
The Other Kang Youwei: Calligrapher, Art Activist, and Aesthetic Reformer in Modern China by Aida Yuen Wong (Brill, 2015). China Review International: A Journal of Reviews of Scholarly Literature in Chinese Studies 21, no. 2 (May 2016): 192–195.
Republican Lens: Gender, Visuality, and Experience in the Early Chinese Periodical Press by Joan Judge (University of California Press, 2015). Twentieth-Century China 41, no. 2 (March 2016): 203–05.
Art by the Book: Painting Manuals and the Leisure Life in Late Ming China by J.P. Park (University of Washington Press, 2012). The Journal of Asian Studies 72, no. 1 (March 2013): 191–93.
Zhao Mengfu: Calligraphy and Painting for Khubilai’s China by Shane McCausland (Hong Kong University Press, 2011). Journal of Historical Biography 11 (Spring 2012): 138–44.
Friendship in Art: Fou Lei and Huang Binhong by Claire Roberts (University of Hong Kong Press, 2010). The Journal of Asian Studies 71, no. 1 (Winter 2012): 233–34.
The Distorting Mirror: Visual Modernity in China by Laikwan Pang (University of Hawaii Press, 2007). China Review International: A Journal of Reviews of Scholarly Literature in Chinese Studies 16, no. 3 (November 2010): 369–71.
The Odyssey of China's Imperial Art Treasures by Jeanette Shambaugh Elliott with David Shambaugh (University of Washington Press, 2005). caa.reviews. September 2006. http://caareviews.org/reviews/887
public-facing writing
“Staring at the Ceiling” blog. Arts writing and exhibition reviews, https://staring-at-the-ceiling.com
“All Under Heaven: Walter Davis in conversation with Lisa Claypool.” August 20, 2013. www.ualberta.ca/art-design/about-art-and-design/news/2013/august/allunderheavenwalterdavisinconversationwithlisaclaypool.html
work in progress
“Palestine Time: Liu Xiaodong’s In Between Palestine and Israel (2013)”
“Trash Picking with Photographer Yao Lu.”
“An Artist’s Glance Towards Nanjing: Melancholy in the Visual Practices of Fu Baoshi.”
“Out of Time: Lin Fengmian’s Lost Paintings, Crisis, and Restoration.”