Inaugural Lecture
Yuan Mei (1716 - 1798) and a Different "Elegant Gathering"
By Professor Jeffrey Riegel
The Sydney University Arts Association invites you to the Inaugural Lecture by Professor Jeffrey Riegel.
In his Inaugural Lecture, Professor Jeffrey Riegel, Head of the School of Languages and Cultures, will explore the relationship between the famous eighteenth-century Chinese poet Yuan Mei and his female disciples. Yuan Mei's meetings with them - a source of scandal at the time - are captured in a painting, now kept in the Shanghai Museum, the significance of which will be examined in the lecture.
Professor Riegel's lecture will be an exploration of the relationship between the famous 18th century poet Yuan Mei and his female disciples. It will consider the influence that Yuan Mei had on his followers and also the scandals brought on by his close association with them. What interests him most is a supposed series of gatherings of his female disciples that Yuan Mei organized in the city of Hangzhou very late in his life. These meetings were in the tradition of the "Elegant Gatherings" of old in which all male participants engaged in poetry and other refined arts. Yuan Mei's meetings with his female disciples are captured in a painting that is now kept in the Shanghai Museum. Jeffrey Riegel will examine this painting and its colophons closely and attempt to suggest what it meant to Yuan Mei and his followers.
Prior to his appointment at Sydney, most of Jeffrey Riegel's 30-year academic career was spent at the University of California, Berkeley. He retired from the position of Agassiz Professor of Chinese in 2007. He travels frequently to China and has long been committed to helping bring about a greater understanding of China. As Head of the School of Languages and Cultures he has broadened this commitment by stressing the need for Australians to recognise the importance of learning languages other than English and of gaining deeper familiarity with cultures outside the Anglo-American sphere.
When Thursday 25th September 2008
5:30 for 6:00 to 7:30pm
Where Lecture Theatre N395
Woolley Building, Science Road
The University of Sydney
