Title: “Reflective Surface and Reflection: The Qianlong Emperor’s Mirror Table Screen”
Abstract: This paper takes one pair of table screens as a point of departure, in order to examine the many glass mirror table screens that became an essential element of the interior program of Qing imperial spaces and beyond and was especially favored by the Qianlong emperor (reigned 1736-95). Instead of using the more traditional materials such as inkstones, jade ornaments, or slabs of rock for central panels, painted glass mirrors were employed, thereby giving the screens the ability to incorporate the viewer’s image into the visual presentation. Scholars have briefly mentioned these screens as examples of “occidenterie” that demonstrate the emperor’s taste for the West. Their discussions tend to focus on how Chinese art of the early modern period integrated foreign concepts or to what extent were these concepts and techniques incorporated into the production of Qing court art; yet, the questions of how these objects were able to engage their owner / user, both physically and conceptually, is seldom explored. Following this line of inquiry, I hope to shed light on how the materiality of the screens, made possible by the cultural exchanges between China and Europe, offered the Qianlong emperor an alternative mode of seeing and contemplating the self.
