Zhengwei Fang (he/him) is a PhD student in the Department of Art History at the University of Bristol. His research focuses on the twentieth century cross-cultural art exchange between Britain and China.
He is working on the landscape art exchange between Britain and China in the first half of the twentieth century, particularly examining how British modernity was introduced to China and how Chinese aesthetics were interpreted in Britain. His work explores the Chinese reception of British landscape art — such as Turner’s and Constable’s artworks, Ruskin’s art theory, and publications on British painting in China as well as British reception of Chinese landscape art — especially through the writings and works by Laurance Binyon, Arthur Waley, Roger Fry and Mitchael Sullivan.
Zhengwei adopts a global and cross-cultural approach to art history. His methods involve archives research on artists and exhibitions, including one that played a role in shaping Sino-British landscape art exchanges and dialogues. He also examines Orientalist and Occidentalist discourses in British and Chinese interpretive texts, investigating how these narratives influenced British perceptions of Chineseness and Chinese perceptions of Britishness.
