Biography

Dr. Guolong Lai is an Associate Professor of Chinese Art and Archaeology at the University of Florida. He received his BA in International Law at Jilin University (1991), MA in Archaeology and Paleography at Peking University (1994), and Ph.D. in Art History at UCLA (2002). He has worked at the National Museum of Chinese History (now the National Museum of China), the Getty Conservation Institute, received Pre-doctoral and Post-doctoral Fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution, the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University, Stanford University, the American Council of Learned Society (ACLS), the Ford Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, Chiang Ching-Kou Foundation, and the Henry Luce Foundation. He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (2014-2015), and a Getty Scholar at the Getty Research Institute (2018-2019).

He is a member of the Editorial Boards of Bamboo and Silk (published by Brill), the Chinese Studies in History (Taylor & Francis Group, Routledge), the Bulletin of the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology (Hong Kong), the Library of Classical Learning (The Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology, Hong Kong); the founding Associate Editor of bilingual (English-Chinese) Zhejiang University Journal of Art and Archaeology, the associate editor of Bulletin of the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology (Hong Kong),

His research interests include early Chinese art and archaeology, Chinese paleography, museology, collecting history and provenance studies, and historic conservation in modern China.

Selected Publications

Books

Excavating the Afterlife: The Archaeology of Early Chinese Religion (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2015), included in the Mellon Foundation’s Art History Publication Initiative Series, and won SAA (Society for American Archaeology) Honorable Mention-Book Award in the Scholarly Category (2016).

Books Edited

• Occult Arts, Art History, and Cultural Exchange in Early China: Festschrift in Honor of Professor Li Ling on his Seventieth Birthday (in Chinese and English). Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press, 2021.
• New Philology and the Study of Early China (in Chinese, co-edited), Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 2018.
• Unmasking Ideology in Imperial and Colonial Archeology: Vocabulary, Symbols, and Legacy. Co-edited with Bonnie Effros, Los Angeles: The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2018.
• Festschrift in Honor of Professor Gao Ming on his Ninetieth Birthday (in Chinese, co-edited). Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 2016.
• Collectors, Collections, and Collecting Arts of China: Histories and Challenges (co-edited). Gainesville, FL: The University Press of Florida, 2014
• Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor & His Legacy. Co-author, Exhibition catalog, Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore, 2011.
• A Bronze Menagerie: Mat Weights of Early China, Co-author, Exhibition catalog, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts, distributed by University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006.
• Assistant in the translation and research of Principles for the Conservation of Heritage Sites in China, Los Angles: The Getty Conservation Institute, 2002, 2004.

Selected Articles

• “Early Chinese Screens in Archaeological Context.” In Ping Foong and Chelsea Foxwell (eds). The Multivalent Screen: Materiality and Representation in East Asian Visual Culture. Art Media Resources, Inc., 2019, pp. 31-47.
• “Digging up China: Imperialism, Nationalism, and Regionalism in the Yinxu Excavation, 1928-1937.” In Bonnie Effros and Guolong Lai eds. Unmasking Ideology in Imperial and Colonial Archeology: Vocabulary, Symbols, and Legacy. UCLA: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2018, pp. 83-119.
• “Genealogical Statements on Ritual Bronzes of the Spring and Autumn Period.” In Edward Shaughnessy ed., Imprints of Kinship: Studies of Recently Discovered Bronze Inscriptions from Ancient China. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 2016, pp. 235-259.
• “The Emergence of ‘Cultural Heritage’ in Modern China: A Historical and Legal Perspective.” In Akira Matsuda and Luisa Mengoni (eds). Reconsidering Cultural Heritage in East Asia. London: Ubiquity Press, 2016, pp. 47-85.
• “Color and Color Symbolism in Early Chinese Ritual Art: Red and Black and the Formation of the Five Colors System.” In Mary M. Dusenbury ed., Color in Ancient and Medieval East Asia. Yale University Press in association with Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, 2015, pp. 25-43.
• “Demonography and the Changing Visual Culture During the Han and Jin Periods” (in Chinese). In Yen Chuan-ying and Shih Shou-chien, eds., Transformation in Chinese Art During the Han-Chin and Tang-Song Periods. Taipei: Rock Publishing International, April 2014, pp. 63-93.
• “Deciphering the Graphs ‘Lai’ and ‘Qiu’ with an Excursion on Fanqie-spelling in Early Chinese” (in Chinese). The Bulletin of the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology (Hong Kong), No. 1 (2014), pp. 171-195.
• “The Genealogies and Lineages of the States of Chu as Seen in the Chu ju Manuscript” (in Chinese). In Chen Zhi ed., Jianbo, jingdian and gushi (Manuscripts, Classics, and Ancient History). Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, August 2013, pp.159-164.
• “A Liao-Dynasty Votive Mirror in the Cotsen Collection.” In Lothar von Falkenhausen ed., The Lloyd Cotsen Study Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors, Volume II, Los Angeles: Cotsen Occasional Press, UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2011, pp. 184-197.
• “An Explanation of the Graphs Yu, Du and Di in Chu Bamboo Manuscripts with an Excursion on the Related Issues in Paleography and Historical Linguistics (in Chinese), Journal of Chinese Linguistics (Hong Kong) 39.1 (2011): 403-418.
• “On the Pledge-Sacrifice in Chu Divinatory and Sacrificial Records” (in Chinese), Jianbo (Journal for the Study of Bamboo and Silk Manuscripts), 6 (2011): 359-378.
• “Rereading ‘Jian dawang bohan’: Narrative Structure and Ideological Background,” (in Chinese), Proceedings for the Second International Forum for the Study of Chinese Excavated Texts, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2011, pp. 443-474.
• “Religion and Empire in Early China and Ancient Rome: A Comparative Perspective” (in Chinese), Sinologie française/Faguo Hanxue, 14 (2009), 196-218.
• “On the Relationship between Two Chinese Graphs ‘Sha’ and ‘San’ with an Excursion on the Principles of Graphic Loan” (in Chinese), Jianbo 4 (2009), 315-331.
• “The Tale of Two Tureens: Connoisseurship, Taste and Authenticity,” Orientations, 39.8 (2008), 64-71.
• “Imperial Taboo Characters and the Study of Excavated Manuscripts” (in Chinese), Jianbo yanjiu 2006, edited by Bu Xianqun and Yang Zhenhong. Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe 2008, 126-133.
• “Textual Fluidity and Fixity in the Manuscript Culture of Early China” (in Chinese), Jianbo vol. 2 (2007), 515-527.
• “Linguistic Bias and Archaeological Study of the Origins of Chinese Writing” (in Chinese), Kaoguxue yanjiu 6 (2006) (Festschrift in Honor of Professor Gao Ming of Beijing University), 53-78.
• “The Diagram of the Mourning System from Mawangdui.” Early China 28 (2003): 43-99.

Conferences/Workshops Organized

• “Phonetic Series (Xiesheng) in Old Chinese Phonology and Paleography,” a workshop at the Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences, Zhejiang University, July 15-16, 2019.
• "The Excavated Poetry (Shijing) and Early Chinese Empires: Approaching from the Perspectives of Paleography, Philology, Phonology, and Classical Exegesis," co-organized with Cai Liang of the University of Notre Dame, Oct 26-28, 2018.
• “The Integration of Old Chinese Phonology and Paleography,” an international conference co-organized with Chen Zhi, The Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology and the University of Macau, Hong Kong and Macau, July 15-17, 2017
• “Occult Arts, Art History, and Cultural Exchange in Early China: An International Conference in Honor of Professor Li Ling,” Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, June 12-13, 2017
•  “Old Chinese Phonology in Multiple Perspectives,” a forum at the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing University, Beijing, May 29, 2017
• “The Protection and Destruction of ‘Tradition’ and ‘Cultural Heritage’ in Modern China,” a forum at the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing University, Beijing, December 23, 2016
• “The Preservation and Research of Cultural Heritage in East Asia,” an international workshop, co-organized with Liu Zhaohui, at the International Center for Studies of Chinese Civilization, Fudan University, December 27-28, 2016
• “The Origins and Early Development of Pictorial Art in Early Civilizations,” an international workshop co-organized with Miao Zhe, The Center for the Study of Art and Archaeology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, October 19-20, 2015
• “Unmasking Ideology: The Vocabulary and Symbols of Colonial Archaeology,” an international workshop, co-organized with Bonnie Effros, supported by the American Council of Learned Societies’ Comparative Perspectives on Chinese Culture and Society Program, the Rothman Endowment of the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere, the Harn Eminent Scholar Chair in Art History Program, at the University of Florida, January 8-11, 2015
• “New Archaeological Discoveries in Xinjiang of the Past Thirty Years,” an international conference at Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China), June 12-13, 2014
• “Collectors, Collections and Collecting Arts of China: Histories and Challenges,” an international symposium sponsored by the Harn Eminent Scholar Chair in Art History Program, School of Art and Art History, University of Florida, February 20-21, 2009
• “The Persistence of Traditions: Monuments and Preservation in Late Imperial and Modern China,” an international conference co-organized with Robert E. Harrist, Jr., sponsored by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the Getty Conservation Institute, the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University, April 2-3, 2004

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Selected Fellowships, Awards, and Grants

• 2020.10-2021.6 Visiting Fellow at the IKGF (The International Consortium for Research in the Humanities) at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
• 2018-2019 Getty Scholar at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angles
• 2016.12-2017.1 Visiting Scholar, International Center for Studies of Chinese Civilization, Fudan University, Shanghai
• 2015-2016 Visiting Fellow, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University
• 2015.7-12 Visiting Scholar, Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou
• 2015 ACLS/Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, Comparative Perspectives on Chinese Culture and Society Grant for a workshop on “Unmasking Ideology: The Vocabulary and Symbols of Colonial Archaeology”
• 2014-2015 The Hetty Goldman Fund for Membership in the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
• 2013 Summer Smithsonian Institution Libraries-Freer/Sackler Library Travel Grant.
• 2010-2011 ACLS/Henry Luce Foundation, Postdoctoral Fellowship in East and Southeast Asian Archaeology and Early History
• 2009 International Educator of the Year Award (Junior Faculty), College of Fine Arts and University of Florida
• 2008 Jack Wessel Excellence Award for Assistant Professor, University of Florida
• 2003-2004 Grants from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation and the Getty Conservation Institute for organizing an international conference “The Persistence of Traditions: Monuments and Preservation in Late Imperial and Modern China,” at Columbia University

Teaching

• ARH 2531 Introduction to Asian Art
• ARH 3552 Early Chinese Art and Archaeology
• ARH 3555 Late Chinese Art and Culture
• ARH 3562 Text and Image in Chinese Art
• ARH 4533 Asian Monuments and Heritage Conservation
• ARH 4559 Archaeology of Death in Ancient China
• ARH 4930 Modern and Contemporary Chinese Art
• ARH 4930 Art and Ritual in Early China
• ARH 4930 Monuments and Memory in Asian Art
• ARH 4930 Technical Art History: Chinese Bronzes
• ARH 4931 Art in Tombs
• ARH 6596 Chinese Heritage and Art Collecting
• ARH 6819 Western Approaches to Early Chinese Art
• ARH 6918 The Archaeology of Writing