Yixu Eliza Chen

Bio/Description

Profile

Yixu Eliza Chen is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in Chinese art and visual culture. She is interested in issues of reproduction, transmediality, and Antiquarianism against the backdrop of burgeoning popular cultures and transcultural exchanges in late imperial and early Republican China. Her research considers a variety of mediums, including painting, rubbing, printed materials, and photography. Her dissertation examines ink rubbings and rubbing-incorporated images in China’s long nineteenth century, when the medium of rubbing, which was traditionally regarded as an esteemed means in the preservation, reproduction, and transmission of antiques and calligraphic models, underwent vigorous technical, visual, and conceptual changes.

Chen holds a B.A. summa cum laude in art history with a minor in film and media studies from Franklin and Marshall College and an M.A. in art history and archaeology from Columbia University. Her M.A. thesis investigates Chinese Pictorialist photography of the 1920s–30s in Shanghai, where artists drew on longstanding visual traditions in China and responded to emerging trends in popular culture and the social and political environment in the quest for new modes of expression.

Field(s)
Chinese Art