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영어

Does the study of “East Asian art history” represent a collective term covering the art histories of several different countries, or is it a generalized field of study in academia? The present paper addresses this question by examining the study of East Asian history in Taiwan. It is understood that “East Asian art history” is a general term meant to encompass the study the history of art in the countries we now refer to as China, Korea, and Japan. However, the trend in recent scholarship has been to expand and broaden the understanding of “East Asian art history.” Scholars have reached beyond the geographical boundaries of the above countries to find new approaches in a greater cultural context. This paper examines the issue from four perspectives: 1) new curricula at educational institutions, 2) new results in research, 3) new acquisitions at the National Palace Museum and new approaches to its original collection, and 4) new topics for exhibition and research. Taiwan’s art history education developed in Taiwan University during 1970s, which was formed in close cooperation with the National Palace Museum. The first generation of art historians in Taiwan became the researchers at the Museum, and almost focused in topics which related to Museum’s collections. Since 1989 the Graduate Institute of Art History was established in Taiwan University, afterwards, the topics of art history was no longer confined to the study of Chinese art history, Buddhist art, Japanese art, or export porcelain were also included. Following the developments of educations in the fields, new results in the study of East Asian art can be addressed in several stages. Among them, that of export porcelains has shown that researchers have a greater grasp of material exchange and a more careful analysis of phenomena. In recent years, scholars of East Asian studies have begun to address exchange by placing greater emphasis on how culture has played different roles. As the result, when the studies based on the consideration of the “cultural image” of East Asia, in which the physical boundaries between regions have been dissolved. Finally, in the fourth perspective, the turn from regional studies to cultural developments have spurred greater interest in cultural interaction. With this new perspective on East Asia, the former one dealing with individual regions has effectively been replaced by one in which East Asia is an inseparable whole of context and impact.