Birthday Albums and the Aesthetics of Association in Mid-Ming China

What is it about?

Birthday celebration was a common cultural and communal practice during China's Ming dynasty (1368-1644). This article is the first study on this subject in English. It examines birthday albums produced by artists and writers for celebrating elders in the Suzhou community. The article argues that birthday celebration through arts created a collective sense of the "era."

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Why is it important?

This article deals with multifaceted issues in current academic debates, including the relationship between text and image, collaborative work, place, time, and community, It is an in-depth and interdisciplinary study on the cultural production of early modern China. It offers methodological frameworks that effectively structure an understanding of history through visual, textual, and material forms.