Robert HN Ho Family Foundation Reveals 2018 Greater China Research Grant Recipients

Asia Art Archive (AAA) has announced the three recipients of the 2018 Robert HN Ho Family Foundation Greater China Research Grant. The major grant, worth USD 15,000, was awarded to Singapore-based writer, curator and artist Zhuang Wubin. The two USD 5,000 secondary grants were given to Deng Liwen, a researcher of Chinese contemporary art; and Xinjiang-based artist, critic and curator Zeng Qunkai.  

During their one-year fellowships, the grantees will conduct in-depth research on their proposed topics, utilizing AAA’s collection of materials to complement fieldwork. Primarily interested in the photographic practices of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, Zhuang will focus his research on how, from the 1930s to 1997, the circulation of photographs across Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia contributed to conceptions of “Chineseness.” He will pay particular attention to Hong Kong as the distribution center of these images. 

Deng’s research project, “Southerness as Method: From Southern Artists Salon to Theatre 44,” will examine the enduring influence of the Southern Artists Salon, which was formed in Guangzhou in 1986 by a group of graduates from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, with the mission to initiate interdisciplinary projects. Deng will look specifically at the conceptual connections between the Salon and the contemporary ensemble Theatre 44, and how the two collectives addressed both the local and the global, as well as artistic experimentation.    

Anchored in two seminal shows, Zeng’s “Sensation, Modern, and Oasis: From Twelve Men Exhibition to Restart Exhibition in Xinjiang from 1987 to 2002” aims to elucidate the historical, social and political factors that have influenced the development of contemporary visual culture in the northwestern Chinese territory.

The three recipients were chosen by a jury, which comprised Peggy Wang, assistant professor of art history and Asian studies at Bowdoin College in Maine; Huang Chien-Hung, associate professor of art theory at the Taipei National University of the Arts; AAA’s head of research, John Tain; and Anthony Yung, researcher at AAA.

Xuan Wei Yap is ArtAsiaPacific’s editorial intern.

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