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Ying-chen Peng

American University, Art History, Faculty Member

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Department of Asian Art, Graduate Fellow

New York University Shanghai, Center for Global Asia, Visiting Scholar

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Asian Art, Visiting Scholar

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Ying-chen Peng specializes in late medieval to modern Chinese art, focusing on gender issues and material culture. Peng is the author of "Artful Subversion: Empress Dowager Cixi's Image Making in Art" (YUP 2023). Her current research includes women's jeans in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and women collectors of Asian art in the Gilded Age.

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American University

Soochow University, China

Melissa Workman

Lifescience Global Canada

Elisabeth Kaske

Universität Leipzig

National Cheng Chi University

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Papers by Ying-chen Peng

Empress Xiaoquancheng’s Portraits: The Beginning of the End of Qing Patriarchy and the Rise of Female Subjectivity

China 1800s: Material and Visual Culture , 2024

Portraiture is a critical and gendered genre in Qing court art. Biographical and symbolic, each p... more Portraiture is a critical and gendered genre in Qing court art. Biographical and symbolic, each portrait of the male sitter is a visual documentation of his idealised self. On the contrary, pictures of imperial women were mainly commissioned and approved by the male patron, in most instances the emperor, to serve the patriarchal gaze rather than demonstrate the sitter's personality or subjectivity. This chapter examines a rare and compelling exception: the portrait of Empress Xiaoquancheng 孝全成 (1808-1840) and the fourth princess commissioned by the Daoguang emperor in 1827. Xiaoquancheng was Daoguang's third empress and bore his successor, Xianfeng 咸丰 (r. 1850-61). The fourth princess, also known as Princess Shouan Gulun 寿安固伦 (1826-1860), was their third child and Daoguang's favourite daughter. The empress is portrayed as the emperor's beloved consort, a caring mother and, most uniquely, an individual accustomed to Han Chinese culture, a representation against the Qing court tradition of forbidding Manchu women from dressing in Han Chinese costumes. While such a personalised depiction was made possible with the emperor's permission, it paved the way for a much more provocative assertion of female agency that Xiaoquancheng's daughter-in-law, Empress Dowager Cixi, orchestrated towards the end of 19th century.

Gendered Blue Womens Jeans in Postwar Taiwan

Threads of Globalization, 2023

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact

6 Reconfiguring Patriarchal Space: Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) and the Reconstruction of the Gardens of Nurtured Harmony

BRILL eBooks, 2017

Gender, Continuity, and the Shaping of Modernity in the Arts of East Asia, 16th–20th Centuries pr... more

Women, Gender and Art in Asia, c. 1500-1900

Routledge eBooks, Jul 5, 2017

6 Reconfiguring Patriarchal Space: Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) and the Reconstruction of the Gardens of Nurtured Harmony

Gender, Continuity, and the Shaping of Modernity in the Arts of East Asia, 16th–20th Centuries, 2017

Gender, Continuity, and the Shaping of Modernity in the Arts of East Asia, 16th–20th Centuries pr... more

Cixi, Empress Dowager

Oxford Art Online

Women, Gender and Art in Asia, c. 1500–1900. Melia Belli Bose, ed

Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2018

Shopping China in Europe

Acquiring Cultures, 2018

Zhongguo huihua zhong de ‘nüxing kongjian’ 中國繪畫中的「女性空間」 (Feminine space in Chinese painting), written by Wu Hung 巫鴻

NAN NÜ, 2020

A Palace of Her Own: Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) and the Reconstruction of the Wanchun Yuan

NAN NÜ, 2012

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) is one of the most significant and controversial political figur... more Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) is one of the most significant and controversial political figures in modern Chinese history, yet her comprehensive engagement with court art, a symbolic realm of sovereignty in China, remains understudied and is therefore deserving of close analysis. To examine her patronage of art, this paper scrutinizes Cixi’s involvement in the Wanchun yuan (Garden of ten thousand springs) reconstruction project and argues that it not only exemplifies her strategy of asserting political power through art but also provides a rare glimpse of how a patron’s creation and decoration of space can be read as a self-portrait.The author contends that, on the one hand, Cixi utilized the location and scale of her own palace the Tiandi yijiachun (Spring united between Heaven and Earth) as a symbol of her continuous power struggle with Qing imperial tradition; and, on the other hand, that the palace’s layout and interior décor also suggest Cixi’s feminine and religious identi...

Staging Sovereignty: Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) and Late Qing Court Art Production

Professor Hui-shu Lee, Chair Empress Dowager Cixi was the last formidable imperial woman of dynas... more Professor Hui-shu Lee, Chair Empress Dowager Cixi was the last formidable imperial woman of dynastic China and the de facto ruler of the Qing Empire between 1862 and 1908. Her significance in modern Chinese politics is well studied, but the matriarch's encompassing engagement in art remains understudied. This dissertation examines concentrically Cixi's avid participation in portraiture, attire and daily accessories, painting and calligraphy, as well as imperial garden palaces, to illuminate her self-expressions in visual and material cultures. I argue that Cixi utilized the notion of court art as a symbolic realm of sovereignty and adapted prior Qing rulers' patterns of representing authority to visualize the power she exercised. As such, the late Qing court art xvi Acknowledgement This dissertation is the culmination of my journey both physically and metaphorically. My interest in nineteenth-century China and women's participation in art and material culture germinated in Taipei, grew in Los Angeles, deepened in Chicago and New York and finally came to fruition in Washington D.C. I am indebted to many inspiring mentors, colleagues and friends. My advisor Professor Hui-shu Lee guided me with her wise advice on various topics of art history and empowered me with her trust and care. My thesis emerged and gradually took shape through our countless discussions in and out of class. Her caring nature helped me confront the big and small challenges I encountered along the way. I thank my committee members Professors Lothar von Falkenhausen,

Chiem 07 Peng proof

EMW12 2final Peng

Shopping China in Europe: Samuel P. Avery (1822-1904) and the Collecting of Asian Ceramics in the Nineteenth-Century Unitedd States

Acquiring Cultures: Histories of World Art on Western Markets, 2019

Women, Gender and Art in Asia, c. 1500-1900

Books by Ying-chen Peng

Artful Subversion: Empress Dowager Cixi's Image Making

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), who ruled China from 1861 until her death in 1908, is a subject... more Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), who ruled China from 1861 until her death in 1908, is a subject of fascination and controversy, at turns vilified for her political maneuvering and admired for modernizing China. In addition to being an astute politician, she was an earnest art patron, and this beautifully illustrated book explores a wide range of objects, revealing how the empress dowager used art and architecture to solidify her rule. Cixi's art commissions were innovative in the way that they unified two distant conceptions of gender in China at the time, demonstrating her strength and wisdom as a monarch while highlighting her identity as a woman and mother. Artful Subversion examines commissioned works, including portrait paintings and photographs, ceramics, fashion, architecture, and garden design, as well as work Cixi created, such as painting and calligraphy. The book is a compelling study of how a powerful matriarch at once subverted and upheld the Qing imperial patriarchy.

Empress Xiaoquancheng’s Portraits: The Beginning of the End of Qing Patriarchy and the Rise of Female Subjectivity

China 1800s: Material and Visual Culture , 2024

Portraiture is a critical and gendered genre in Qing court art. Biographical and symbolic, each p... more Portraiture is a critical and gendered genre in Qing court art. Biographical and symbolic, each portrait of the male sitter is a visual documentation of his idealised self. On the contrary, pictures of imperial women were mainly commissioned and approved by the male patron, in most instances the emperor, to serve the patriarchal gaze rather than demonstrate the sitter's personality or subjectivity. This chapter examines a rare and compelling exception: the portrait of Empress Xiaoquancheng 孝全成 (1808-1840) and the fourth princess commissioned by the Daoguang emperor in 1827. Xiaoquancheng was Daoguang's third empress and bore his successor, Xianfeng 咸丰 (r. 1850-61). The fourth princess, also known as Princess Shouan Gulun 寿安固伦 (1826-1860), was their third child and Daoguang's favourite daughter. The empress is portrayed as the emperor's beloved consort, a caring mother and, most uniquely, an individual accustomed to Han Chinese culture, a representation against the Qing court tradition of forbidding Manchu women from dressing in Han Chinese costumes. While such a personalised depiction was made possible with the emperor's permission, it paved the way for a much more provocative assertion of female agency that Xiaoquancheng's daughter-in-law, Empress Dowager Cixi, orchestrated towards the end of 19th century.

Gendered Blue Womens Jeans in Postwar Taiwan

Threads of Globalization, 2023

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact

6 Reconfiguring Patriarchal Space: Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) and the Reconstruction of the Gardens of Nurtured Harmony

BRILL eBooks, 2017

Gender, Continuity, and the Shaping of Modernity in the Arts of East Asia, 16th–20th Centuries pr... more

Women, Gender and Art in Asia, c. 1500-1900

Routledge eBooks, Jul 5, 2017

6 Reconfiguring Patriarchal Space: Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) and the Reconstruction of the Gardens of Nurtured Harmony

Gender, Continuity, and the Shaping of Modernity in the Arts of East Asia, 16th–20th Centuries, 2017

Gender, Continuity, and the Shaping of Modernity in the Arts of East Asia, 16th–20th Centuries pr... more

Cixi, Empress Dowager

Oxford Art Online

Women, Gender and Art in Asia, c. 1500–1900. Melia Belli Bose, ed

Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2018

Shopping China in Europe

Acquiring Cultures, 2018

Zhongguo huihua zhong de ‘nüxing kongjian’ 中國繪畫中的「女性空間」 (Feminine space in Chinese painting), written by Wu Hung 巫鴻

NAN NÜ, 2020

A Palace of Her Own: Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) and the Reconstruction of the Wanchun Yuan

NAN NÜ, 2012

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) is one of the most significant and controversial political figur... more Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) is one of the most significant and controversial political figures in modern Chinese history, yet her comprehensive engagement with court art, a symbolic realm of sovereignty in China, remains understudied and is therefore deserving of close analysis. To examine her patronage of art, this paper scrutinizes Cixi’s involvement in the Wanchun yuan (Garden of ten thousand springs) reconstruction project and argues that it not only exemplifies her strategy of asserting political power through art but also provides a rare glimpse of how a patron’s creation and decoration of space can be read as a self-portrait.The author contends that, on the one hand, Cixi utilized the location and scale of her own palace the Tiandi yijiachun (Spring united between Heaven and Earth) as a symbol of her continuous power struggle with Qing imperial tradition; and, on the other hand, that the palace’s layout and interior décor also suggest Cixi’s feminine and religious identi...

Staging Sovereignty: Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) and Late Qing Court Art Production

Professor Hui-shu Lee, Chair Empress Dowager Cixi was the last formidable imperial woman of dynas... more Professor Hui-shu Lee, Chair Empress Dowager Cixi was the last formidable imperial woman of dynastic China and the de facto ruler of the Qing Empire between 1862 and 1908. Her significance in modern Chinese politics is well studied, but the matriarch's encompassing engagement in art remains understudied. This dissertation examines concentrically Cixi's avid participation in portraiture, attire and daily accessories, painting and calligraphy, as well as imperial garden palaces, to illuminate her self-expressions in visual and material cultures. I argue that Cixi utilized the notion of court art as a symbolic realm of sovereignty and adapted prior Qing rulers' patterns of representing authority to visualize the power she exercised. As such, the late Qing court art xvi Acknowledgement This dissertation is the culmination of my journey both physically and metaphorically. My interest in nineteenth-century China and women's participation in art and material culture germinated in Taipei, grew in Los Angeles, deepened in Chicago and New York and finally came to fruition in Washington D.C. I am indebted to many inspiring mentors, colleagues and friends. My advisor Professor Hui-shu Lee guided me with her wise advice on various topics of art history and empowered me with her trust and care. My thesis emerged and gradually took shape through our countless discussions in and out of class. Her caring nature helped me confront the big and small challenges I encountered along the way. I thank my committee members Professors Lothar von Falkenhausen,

Chiem 07 Peng proof

EMW12 2final Peng

Shopping China in Europe: Samuel P. Avery (1822-1904) and the Collecting of Asian Ceramics in the Nineteenth-Century Unitedd States

Acquiring Cultures: Histories of World Art on Western Markets, 2019

Women, Gender and Art in Asia, c. 1500-1900

Artful Subversion: Empress Dowager Cixi's Image Making

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), who ruled China from 1861 until her death in 1908, is a subject... more Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), who ruled China from 1861 until her death in 1908, is a subject of fascination and controversy, at turns vilified for her political maneuvering and admired for modernizing China. In addition to being an astute politician, she was an earnest art patron, and this beautifully illustrated book explores a wide range of objects, revealing how the empress dowager used art and architecture to solidify her rule. Cixi's art commissions were innovative in the way that they unified two distant conceptions of gender in China at the time, demonstrating her strength and wisdom as a monarch while highlighting her identity as a woman and mother. Artful Subversion examines commissioned works, including portrait paintings and photographs, ceramics, fashion, architecture, and garden design, as well as work Cixi created, such as painting and calligraphy. The book is a compelling study of how a powerful matriarch at once subverted and upheld the Qing imperial patriarchy.