Yu-Chih Lai is an art historian specializing in 19th-century Shanghai art and the globalized visual and material culture of the 18th-century Manchu Chinese court. She earned her Ph.D. in Art History from Yale University and is an associate researcher at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. She has held prestigious fellowships and visiting positions at Columbia University’s Italian Academy, the Institute for Advanced Study, the University of Tokyo, Heidelberg University, the Getty Center, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her current project, Visual Governance: Art, Translation, and Politics in the 18th-Century Qing Court, examines the role of art, political agendas, and language reform in shaping Qing governance.