Feeling Political: Art as Public Sphere in the Cross-Strait Worlds

For non-Columbia affiliates, registration is required to access the Morningside campus. After registering you will receive an email with a QR code that must be presented along with a government-issued ID (your name must match exactly the name registered for the event) at either the 116th Street & Broadway or 116th Street & Amsterdam gates for entry. Please register using a unique email address (one email address per registrant) by 4:00pm on Feb. 17 for campus access.

Names will be submitted for QR codes 1-2 days prior to the event. Registrants will receive an email from CU Guest Access with the QR code before or on the day of the event. NOTE: You cannot access campus using the QR code from Eventbrite.

Speaker: I-Yi Hsieh, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Geography, National Taiwan University

Moderator: Nick Bartlett, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Chinese Culture and Society, AMEC/EALAC, Barnard College

The recent boom-and-bust of art museums in China has attracted global attentions (Hsieh 2021, Fei 2025). Revealing the industry’s instability rooted in entanglements the financial sector, the wave of museum closures in P.R.C. indicates the changing horizon of art institutions as public space for political cacophony. This talk draws on my book Flora and Fauna: Domestic Nature and Private Collecting in Reform Era Beijing (2025) and the exhibition Contested Waters (2024-2025) to further the conversation by addressing art as public sphere in the cross-strait worlds. I shall introduce my book’s ethnographic lens capturing the rise of private collecting as alternative to the diminishing public realm for political expressions. While, on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, Taiwanese artists and art institutions increasingly showcase projects with a focus on geopolitical tensions. It is the worst of the time and the best of time for political art in the cross-strait worlds.

This event is hosted by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Weatherhead East Asian Institute (located at the School of International and Public Affairs), 420 West 118th Street, New York, United States

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