Becoming Guanyin - Artistic Devotion of Buddhist Women in Late Imperial China

Yuhang Li examines how lay Buddhist women in late imperial China forged a connection with the subject of their devotion, arguing that women used their own bodies to echo that of Guanyin. She combines empirical research with theoretical insights from both art history and Buddhist studies.

List of contents

List of Figures
Introduction: Gendered Materialization of Guanyin
1. Dancing Guanyin: The Transformative Body and Buddhist Courtesans
2. Painting Guanyin with Brush and Ink: Negotiating Confucianism and Buddhism
3. Embroidering Guanyin with Hair: Efficacious Pain and Skill
4. Mimicking Guanyin with Hairpins: Jewelry as a Means of Transcendence
Conclusion: From Home to Temple and Court: Restaging Women’s Devotional Objects
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the author

Yuhang Li is an associate professor of Chinese art in the Department of Art History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She cocurated with Judith Zeitlin the exhibition Performing Images: Opera in Chinese Visual Culture and coedited the resulting catalog based on the exhibition.

Summary

Yuhang Li examines how lay Buddhist women in late imperial China forged a connection with the subject of their devotion, arguing that women used their own bodies to echo that of Guanyin. She combines empirical research with theoretical insights from both art history and Buddhist studies.

Additional text

Becoming Guanyin is a truly innovative and interdisciplinary book that explores how lay women expressed religious devotion in late imperial China. Through a critical examination of women’s hairpins, embroidery made from women’s hair, and courtesan dance performances, Yuhang Li responds with intelligence to current scholarship on visual and material culture, women’s history, and religious studies. Highly recommended!

Product details

• Authors: Yuhang Li, Yuhang (Assistant Professor) Li, Li Yuhang
• Assisted by: Sun Joo Kim (Editor), Dorothy Ko (Editor), Haruo Shirane (Editor)
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.07.2019
• EAN: 9780231190121
• ISBN: 978-0-231-19012-1
• No. of pages: 312
• Series: Premodern East Asia: New Horizons; Premodern East Asia: New Horiz; Premodern East Asia: New Horizons
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Art history; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; China, ART / History / General, RELIGION / Buddhism / History, HISTORY / Asia / China, HISTORY / Women, ART / Asian / Chinese, Buddhism, History of Art, East Asia, Far East, Asian History, Gender studies: women, Gender studies: women and girls, Oriental art, relgion; buddhism