Professor Hong Awarded Prestigious Fellowship to Conduct Research in China
November 1, 2006

Tacoma, Wash. - The University of Puget Sound is pleased to announce Associate Art Professor Zaixin Hong was awarded the prestigious American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) fellowship for American Research in the Humanities in China for 2005-06.  It is one of four grants awarded to postdoctoral scholars for research in China.

Hong, a native of China, received his bachelor’s degree from Zhejiang University in 1982, and his master and doctorate degrees from the China National Academy of Fine Arts in 1984 and 1996, respectively.

He is currently on sabbatical and will return to China to conduct research for a new book on the little-studied, yet important relationship between Guohua (Chinese national-style painting) and the emerging global market for it. He will study the half-century-long dynamic dialogue between Huang Binhong (1865 - 1955), a leading Guohua master, and Western art dealers, collectors, artists, and art historians
This two-way interchange benefited Huang’s own development and contributed to the art community, especially in the scholarship and marketing of Chinese art. Huang combined his aesthetic innovations with a keen business sense-even networking within Western art marketing and scholarship circles. Considering both the greatness of his paintings, which continue to skyrocket in price, and his leading role in revitalizing the Chinese art tradition, Hong’s research will add a fresh, Chinese perspective, to the current interest in the West in art marketing and collecting, and will contribute to the awareness of Western approaches for art historians.

More on the ACLS:
Historically, the ACLS has developed and administered numerous programs which have served the interests of scholarship in the humanities and social sciences in general, of individual scholars, and of the nation.
The American Council of Learned Societies was established in 1919 to represent the United States within the Union Académique Internationale (UAI) (International Union of Academies), which itself was established earlier that year "to encourage cooperation in the advancement of studies through collaborative research and publications in those branches of learning promoted by the Academies and institutions represented in the UAI—philology, archaeology, history, the moral, political and social sciences." At that time, no organization existed in the United States to perform this function. The ACLS has represented the nation in the UAI with distinction for more than 80 years. More information is available at www.acls.org/mor-hist.htm

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