Yi 羿 - Myth: Shooting the Suns

Paul Bevan, Ashmolean Museum, Christensen Fellow in Chinese Painting, gives the sixth presentation in the symposium. Arrows, fire, and gunpowder were all central to the art of war in pre-modern China and aspects concerning these will be briefly introduced in this talk as they relate to the art work, 'Myth: Shooting the Suns' by Cai Guo-Qiang. Paul Bevan is the Christensen Fellow in Chinese Painting at the Ashmolean Museum, and has taught modern Chinese literature and history at Oxford, Cambridge and the School of Oriental and African Studies. His primary research interests concern the impact of Western art and literature on China during the Republican Period (1912-1949). His publications include A Modern Miscellany - Shanghai Cartoon Artists, Shao Xunmei’s Circle and the Travels of Jack Chen (2018) and “Intoxicating Shanghai”- An Urban Montage: Art and Literature in Pictorial Magazines during Shanghai’s Jazz Age (forthcoming).