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01
Introduction
The 2026 Symposium on Chinese Export Art, hosted by the Hong Kong Maritime Museum in collaboration with the Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong, will take place on October 12 and 13 2026, in Hong Kong. This event builds on the success of the 2025 International Symposium organised by the School of Art and Archaeology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
This two-day symposium, inspired by Hong Kong’s position as a cultural hub between East and West, aims to bring together people from the Asia Pacific region and the West to explore diverse themes, share research, and foster dialogue. It seeks to broaden the discussion of Chinese export art beyond the traditional East/West framework by examining China’s export art trade within the Asia Pacific region and its competitive relationships with other countries.
Hong Kong, as a unique confluence of Eastern and Western cultures, offers an ideal setting for meaningful exchange. The symposium will address broad themes related to the global circulation of Chinese art goods and their influence on tastes across social classes in both the West and Asia Pacific. It encourages researchers to investigate the Asia Pacific export art trade in greater depth, shifting the focus away from Europe alone.
An important feature of the symposium is the encouragement of early career researchers to submit papers, showcase their work, and engage with specialists in the field.
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Forum Themes
Global Circulation and Cultural Adaption
How Chinese export art goods circulated globally, shaping tastes across social classes in both the West and Asia Pacific.
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How Chinese export art commodities shaped overseas tastes, not just for wealthy people, in the West and the Asia Pacific region.
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Exploring Chinese art being copied overseas for domestic markets, rich and poor.
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How foreign tastes influenced export art being traded overseas in terms of art, design, subjects depicted.
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How was this facilitated and by whom?
Creative Commodities; The Economics of Export Art
Scope: The economics and networks behind export art, past and present.
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Looking at networks of production, trade and patronage in China and overseas and how the export art market worked.
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Look at how it was promoted as desirable in the West, and promoted as a significant trade within Chinese economies.
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Comparison of modern China Export Art market with the past.
Commercial Competition and Regional Gateways.
China’s export goods in the Asian context, compared with other Asian producers (e.g. Singapore, Thailand, India & others).
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How did export art from other Asian countries compare to China’s export markets in terms of quality, quantity, material types, responding to Western tastes? What were these objects?
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How did this shape regional trade networks?
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What role did the Greater Bay area of Guangzhou, Macau and Hong Kong play?
4. New Researchers
Scope: to give new researchers experience and support in their research on Chinese export art.
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We encourage new researchers to submit short papers relating to their research around Chinese Export Art. These papers do not need to link to the three main themes of the Symposium, although that is encouraged.
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This is an opportunity to support new researchers' work within a big conference and to encourage dialogue between new researchers and established academics.
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Event Detail
Date
2025.9.23 – 24
Venue
Hong Kong Maritime Museum
Address
Central Pier No. 8, Hong Kong
The 2025 Forum for Asia-Pacific Maritime Culture, co-hosted by the Hong Kong Maritime Museum and the China Maritime Museum, will take place from September 23 to 24, 2025, in Hong Kong. Held in association with the International Congress of Maritime Museums Regional Meeting, this forum seeks to convene leading scholars, maritime professionals, and cultural experts from the Asia-Pacific region and around the globe.