Reimagining the Past: Digital Chinese Heritage Initiatives at UChicago

Zoom Webinar

During the first decades of the last century, many historical artifacts from China were fragmented and removed from their original sites, eventually entering art collections around the world. While these cultural fragments shape how Chinese art is represented and understood outside of China, they stand as evidence of their former completeness after losing their original contexts. Launched in 2019, the Dispersed Chinese Art Digitalization Project (DCADP) at the Center for the Art of East Asia at the University of Chicago initiated several digital projects aimed at virtually reconstructing the dispersed artifacts with their original sites, thus re-contextualizing cultural fragments as they are meant to be appreciated. Using DCADP as an example, this talk will explore the meanings and significance of cultural heritage in the contemporary world and how digital technology can be integrated into these explorations. Digital reconstructions of cultural heritage are not the solution to all the issues arising from the fragmentation and dispersion of China’s artifacts, but they offer an essential way for us to reimagine the past that remains relevant today.   

May 8, 2025
9:00 pm        Japan | South Korea   
8:00 pm        Hong Kong | Beijing | Singapore   
5:30 pm         Delhi   
2:00 pm        Paris   
1:00 pm         London  
7:00 am        Chicago   

Speaker  
Wei-Cheng Lin
Associate Professor of Art History and the College
Chinese Art and Architecture
The University of Chicago
 

Moderator
Mark Barnekow (MBA’88)
Executive Director
The Hong Kong Jockey Club University of Chicago Academic Complex |
The University of Chicago Francis and Rose Yuen Campus in Hong Kong
 

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