Academic Staff

Dr. Yi ZHAO (Joey)

Research Assistant Professor

Chinese Material Culture/Art History, East Asian Buddhist Art, Chinese Funerary Art, Religious Material Cultures Along the Silk Routes, Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, Modern and Contemporary Asian Art, Museum Studies and Practices.

A212
+852 3400 8994
joey-yi.zhao@polyu.edu.hk

PolyU Scholars Hub

ORCID ID

Biography

Dr. Zhao Yi (Joey)

Dr. Zhao is an art historian. He mainly works on the Buddhist visual materials and heritages in China before the Tang dynasty (ca. 1^st – 6^th c.), with an emphasis on its collision and fusion with early Chinese funerary art. His scholarship focuses on the visual materials embodying the interactions between Buddhism and various local cultures along the Silk Routes, with special attention given to materials in the understudied Central Asian area. He examines tranAsian Buddhist art and its modern aspects fashioned by the West to examine cross-disciplinary issues concerned by scholars in many fields and create discourses, exhibitions and digital projects intriguing the wider public. He has received systematic training in art history, archaeology and museology, which enable him to pay attention to the various cultural issues involved in the recent life cycle of an object: from the initial archaeological context to the collecting-based knowledge construction by the West in the modern era as well as contemporary museum and curatorial approaches on “Oriental art.”

He is currently working on his book project tentatively titled “Resonation between Tombs and Temples: Art, Beliefs and Practices of Heavens and Pure Lands in Early Medieval China (2^nd to 6^th century).” This book examines how visual materials tell a story on the shifting beliefs in paradise in early medieval China, along with the introduction and development of Buddhism.

Education and Academic Qualifications

PhD in Art History, University of Kansas, 2023.
MA in Museum Studies, The George Washington University, 2016.

Academic and Professional Experience

Research Assistant Professor, Department of Chinese History and Culture, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2023-present.
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Art, Colorado College, 2022-23.

Research Interests

Research Output

Resonation between Tombs and Temples: Art, Beliefs and Practices of Heavens and Pure Lands in Early Medieval China (2^nd to 6^th century) [under preparation]

Zhao, Yi. “New Perspectives on Early Pure Land Belief and Regional Styles of Buddhist Art in Fifth- and Sixth Century Northwestern China.” Artibus Asiae 85, no.2 (2025): forthcoming.

Zhao, Yi. “Buddhism, Heaven, and the Yellow Springs: A Re-evaluation of Hunping Jars.” Archives of Asian Art 73, no.2 (Oct. 2023): 79-106.

Zhao, Yi. “Toyok (Tuyugou) Cave 20: A Pure Land Cave Temple in the Desert with the Earliest Illustrations of the Visualization Sūtra.”Religions 15, no. 5(2024): 576.

Zhao, Yi. “Qinzhou Relief Statuettes: A New Perspective on the Regional Cult of Amitābha in Gansu and Shaanxi Area during the Northern Dynasties.” Journal of Inner and Central Asian Art and Archaeology 4, (2024): forthcoming.

Zhao, Yi. “A Venerated Ghost: Social Life of the Snowy Stream attributed to Wang Wei.” Meishushi yu guannianshi [美術史與觀念史History of Art and History of Ideas] 24, (2019): 353-384.

Zhao, Yi. “Hunping suojian zhonggu zhongguoren de sangzangguannian yu dili xiangxiang: 魂瓶所見中古中國人的喪葬觀念與地理想象 [A Story Told by Hunping jars: Thanatology, Funerary Practices and Geographical Imaginations in Early Medieval China].” In Tang Huisheng jiaoshou qizhi huadan zhushou wenji湯惠生教授七秩華誕祝壽論文集[Collective Anthology in Celebration of Professor Huisheng Tang’s Seventieth Birthday]. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chebanshe, 2024. (forthcoming).

Zhao, Yi趙詣, Chen Chaoyang, and Zhu Pinyan, trans. English to Chinese. Longmen shiku gongyangren: zhonggu zhongguo fojiaozaoxiang zhong de xinyang, zhengzhi yu zizhu guanxi龍門石窟供養人: 中古中國佛教造像中的信仰, 政治與資助關係 [Donors of Longmen:Faith, Politics, and Patronage in Medieval Chinese Buddhist Sculpture,] by Amy McNair (Honolulu, University of Hawaii, 2007). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2020.

2025. 3 “Decontextualization, Reconfiguration and Symbolization: Reinventing Pensive Bodhisattvas in Early Medieval China." Annual Conference of Association for Asian Studies (AAS), Columbus, OH.

2024. 9 “Reinvestigating the Syama Tara Image tributed to Emperor Qianlong by the Sixth Panchen.” The First Symposium on Cultural Symbiosis and Ethnic Integration, Chengdu.

2023.2 “Material Evidence of An Apocryphon: Earliest Illustrations of the Visualization Sūtra.” Co-chair, Session: From Rome to Nara: Interregional and Interreligious Interactions Along the Silk Routes in the Early Medieval Period, Annual Conference of Association for Asian Studies (AAS), Boston, MA.

2023.2 “A Buddhist Transformation of Cosmology and Afterlife Travel: ‘Soul Urns (hunping)’ in Third- and Fourth Century China.” Chair, Session: Mobilities and Networks of Buddhist Art in India and China, 111^th Annual Conference of College Art Association (CAA), New York City, NY.

2022.8 “Images of ‘Becoming the Buddha’: Reinvestigating Images of Pensive Bodhisattva in Early Medieval China.” 19^th Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (IABS), Seoul.

2019.3 “A Path to Paradise: Reevaluating Pure Land Belief in the Northern Dynasties with Sukhāvāti illustrations.” 229^th Annual Meeting of American Oriental Society (AOS), Chicago, IL.

2018.2 “A Hell Built for the Living: the Hell Tableaux at Baodingshan, Dazu.” 106^th Annual Conference of College Art Association (CAA), Los Angeles, CA.

2024-2027 “Resonation between Tombs and Temples: Art, Beliefs and Practices of Buddhist Paradises in Early Medieval China (3rd to 6th century).” General Research Fund (GRF), Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, HKD 395, 409, merit score 4.5/5.

2024. 3-2025. 6 "Before Nomadic Occupation: Reevaluating Early Buddhist Images in China (2nd to mid-4th century), " Startup Fund for New Recruits, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HKD 299,000.

2024.1 Bronze Sacre Trees, Money Trees and Buddha Images: Revisiting the Concept of Heaven, Cosmology, and Funerary Culture in Sichuan. Hong Kong Palace Museum Special Exhibition Talk Series

2024. 4 Artistic Affinities from the Outside: Key Terminology in Early Chinese Painting Theory and its Relationship with Buddhism, University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong. [Lecturer: Dr. Michael Cavayero]

2024. 4. The Power of Curation: Creating Innovative Exhibitions at the Hong Kong Palace Museum, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. [Lecturer Dr. Daisy Yiyou Wang]

2023. 11 City U-HKBU Pair Talks on Art Histories Lecture Series II: Buddhist Objects, and the East Asian Maritime World, responding to Professors Yiwen Li and Shubin Zhang. [Lecturer: Drs. Yiwen Li and Shubin Zhang]

Esteem Measures

Academic Awards:

Annual Graduate Award, Early Medieval China Group, 2022.

Archaeological Experience:

Dayunshan Mausoleum of Prince Jiangdu of the Han Dynasty, Nanjing Museum, 2012. [Annual Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries in China]

Co-translate with Chen Chaoyang and Zhu Pinyan, 龍門石窟供養人: 中古中國佛教造像中的信仰, 政治與資助關係 [Donors of Longmen: Faith, Politics, and Patronage in Medieval Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, by Amy McNair.] Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2020.