Embedded Files
Teresa Huang is a second year at the University of California Irvine majoring in Software Engineering. Although born in America, she is ethnically Chinese and has experienced many aspects of her own culture growing up.
Some of the artifacts Teresa curated have a relation to her family, personal experiences, and general historical knowledge. Her parents are both religiously Buddhist which contributed to her choice of the Seated statue on lotus pedestal resting upon crouching lions. As for the lion dance and dragon dance artifacts, those stemmed from her own memories of watching these performances at various festivals and celebrations. Through research and her own personal knowledge, Teresa aims to explore the different facets of Chinese culture and history, and how these various animals played a part in them.
Emma Grimwade is a first-year majoring in Biology at UCI. The way people function and the biological history of how we came to what we are now have always piqued her interest. She is also a competitive dancer and has a cat named Kali.
Emma is of Filipino and English origin, not Chinese, and has never thoroughly analyzed art like this. But, has a familiarity with Asian culture and has a very deep appreciation for art as she has grown up with dance. What piqued her interest with this theme of "Animals in Chinese Art", is how these animals were/are prominent in Religion throughout Chinese history and also how the animals symbolized the power of rulers so she chose pieces that portray both of those themes. She also decided to pick pieces that included the tiger as she is very interested in the fact that they represent bravery and strength.
Tyler Choi is a curator for the Animals in Chinese Art exhibition. Born in San Francisco to two parents of Chinese origin, he opted to intertwine his own interests with those of Chinese culture. Studying at the University of California, Irvine and majoring in Psychological Sciences, he had a great interest in the dynamics of power between people whether social or physical, so for this exhibition, he focused on the ideas of power as represented by animals. The diversity and contrast between many of the symbols created an interesting pathology into the nature of power, for example while the horse acted as a simple representation of power, other animals acted as more interesting and abstract ideas like the use of the dragon in order to represent mankind. Additionally, with an interest in storytelling, he also chose to curate objects related to that theme. Both Liu Hai and Chang'e are accompanied by their animal companions and this dynamic of companionship was a source of fascination, leading into the objects' inclusions. In addition to curating, he also oversaw much of the leadership and organization of the exhibition coordinating many of the pages to fit the same format as well as rearranging elements for readability. In his free time, he enjoys watching films and taking naps.
Connor Chen is a first year physics major at UCI, hoping to go into astronomy in the future. Astronomy has captivated his interests since he was five, but he has not had many opportunities to explore this subject, so he hopes to dive deeper into it during his time at UCI.
Connor grew up in a Taiwanese family, and learned Mandarin and Chinese culture at a Chinese school. He visits Taiwan with his family annually or every two years. At Chinese school he created artwork that was similar to the Panel with Dragon and Panel with Chinese Zodiac under the kingship and zodiac categories respectively, and he learned about animal symbolism, inspiring him to choose works of art of important animals in Chinese culture, such as the dragons in the Nine Dragon Wall. Lion statues guarding houses are a common sight in China, so an explanation through the Guardian Lion exhibit can teach visitors why those lions are there. Horses were also extremely useful in China for work and transportation, and their connection with people has been essential in progressing to where we are today, hence why he also chose to explore the horse statue under the Power category.
Rui Xu
Hi everyone, I am a second-year student at UCI, I have played soccer since I was a child, and I like playing computer games. Before this class, I can say that I knew nothing about art. However, the knowledge of art in this class attracted me a lot, and I learned a lot of knowledge that would not be touched in history class. I'm from China. I grew up in China. There is always a sense of familiarity when I see something of my own culture in the United States. In my family, we have different animals to represent different meanings. So I chose "symbolic", such as fish, which represents a surplus income in the coming year. Bats represent luck. I want to introduce this Chinese culture to you, which is fun and cool!
Bowen Hu
Hi everyone, I am a first-year computer science major. I have a deep appreciation for music as I have learned percussion since I was just four years old. Music is enjoyed through the ears, but visual art is also very appealing to me because it allows me to practice and enhance my visual senses. Coming from a Chinese family, I know a lot about Chinese festivals, leading me to write about the Dragon Boat and Mid Autumn festivals which I celebrate yearly with my family. I also learned a lot about the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac so I found two sets of the animals as sculptures carved from mediums such as jade and clay. And finally, Sun Wukong was a very inspirational mythical character that I have watched many adventure cartoons on as a kid, which prompted me to write about him.
Nicole Sui is a first-year humanity major here at UCI. She likes to go cafe hopping and going to the beach for fun.
Xiang Zhou is a first-year undeclared student in UCI. He like playing basketball and singing.
Page updated
Report abuse