East-West Influences in the Arts of Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan & China
October 22 - November 19
10.45 – 12.45 Wednesdays
£83.00 – £345.00
Description
This course will study the influences from East to West, and West to East, on the East Asian cultures of Cambodia and Vietnam, Japan and China, from Classical times to the Modern era. China was the most influential culture in East Asia. Its influence is seen everywhere, from the complex writing system to its elegant paintings, ceramics, literature and architecture, and its role in society is equal to that of Greece and Rome in the Western world.
We will study the highest culture of the court in these specific countries, as that determined the language, culture and character of the nations that supported them, giving each the particular expression of their arts, religion and creative output.
How these influences were established, and how they changed with the incoming Western traders that brought new ideas and arts to the traditional ways will be explored in depth.
“Very insightful course, thought provoking. Loved looking at how different cultures handle same/similar materials.”
Course Outline
22 Oct 2025 – Vietnam (Denise Heywood)
When Vietnam became part of France’s empire in the 19th century, the French brought scholars, artists, archaeologists, architects and urban planners as well as colonial administrators. They uncovered the ancient ruins of the Hindu civilisation of Champa, contemporary with Angkor, dating back to the 9th century, preserving sculptural artefacts from temples in new museums.
But they also made Indochina visibly French. Town planners created an elegant capital, Hanoi, known as the Paris of Asia. Its French style Opera House and Cathedral, overlooking grand villas on wide tree lined boulevards, became part of La Perle d’Indochine, which included an inspirational School of Fine Arts. Imbuing their students with Western ideas, artists such as Alix Aymé, influenced by Gauguin, and Victor Tardieu, a pupil of Matisse, formed a whole generation of Vietnamese painters, such as To Ngoc Van and Bui Xuan Phai, whose creative expression fused Eastern imagery with Paris Modernism. In turn the Vietnamese artists influenced their teachers with lustrous lacquer work, gilding, calligraphy, weaving and silk painting, evoking the beauty of their landscapes and richness of their cultural traditions.
This lecture shows the artistic context of ancient Hindu temples, Buddhist pagodas and Chinese style palaces that was transformed by the addition of French architecture and culture. A new aesthetic emerged, depicted by French artists as paradisical and romantic, reflecting an era and a way of life that vanished with war.
29 Oct 2025 – Cambodia (Denise Heywood)
When French scholars uncovered and studied the ancient ruins of Angkor, it became the Jewel in the Crown of their empire. French artists, such as Andre Maire and Alix Ayme, captivated by the vision of ruins emerging from the jungle, immortalised them in paintings and drawings. Artist and architect Louis Delaporte made plaster casts of the monuments which were reconstructed in France for their colonial exhibitions. So admired was the sculpture of Angkor that Andre Malraux, French statesman and author, famously stole a devata from the most beautifully carved temple of all, but it never reached France. Meanwhile urban planners laid out a gracious Parisian-style city, Phnom Penh, with a Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda.
Adhering to their concept of la mission civilisatrice, they admired and documented religious rituals and living arts, especially the classical dance of the royal court. The dancers were the living embodiment of carvings on the walls of all the temples, especially Angkor Wat, linking the terrestrial and celestial symbolism of the monuments. In 1906 when the royal dance troupe visited France the ageing sculptor Auguste Rodin became besotted by them. In his last great flow of inspiration, he created 150 exquisite watercolours and drawings which made the troupe famous in Europe influencing, among others, the Russian dancer Nijinksy. Rodin understood immediately the sacred art form whose origins are divine and fundamental to the meaning of the temples. ‘Dance is animated architecture’ he wrote. They would then enrapture visitors to Angkor such as Jackie Kennedy for whom they re-enacted welcome sacred ceremonies.
This lecture shows the great civilisation of Angkor as well as Cambodia in its golden age of the 20th century. As the tragedy of war enveloped the region artists such as Alix Ayme hastened back to France, where she created Christian imagery in stylised lacquer inspired by her time in Indochina and Japan. It finishes with the revival of the temples, the triumph of the living arts and the legacy of La Belle Indochine and East-West artistic influences.
05 Nov 2025 – Japan 1 (Suzanne Perrin)
The Classical Court 9th-12thC – Nara & Heian Era. First adopting the courtly practices of Tang dynasty China, the Japanese then parted from this influence to create their own writing systems and court ranks, which became the benchmark for Classical culture in Japan. The court supported an educated elite that fêted women as highly as men in literacy, knowledge, fashion and sophisticated court culture.
The Medieval Era 13th-16thC. Social upheaval brought the Sengoku Wars that overturned the power of the court by warring military factions, bringing new freedoms and responsibilities for the middle ranking Samurai and peasant classes. New ideas and influences came from the West via Portuguese missionaries and traders, creating the first Western style painting in Japan.
12 Nov 2025 – Japan 2 (Suzanne Perrin)
The Pre-Modern Era 17th-19thC – the Popular Culture of Edo. ‘Sakoku rei’ the exclusion order reversed Japan into an isolationist nation, only allowing the Dutch traders at Dejima to bring Western ideas into the country. Visitors to the Dutch concession like Engelbert Kaempfer and Franz von Siebold did much to instruct Japan in Western thought, and introduce the West to Japanese art, culture, flora and fauna. ‘Ukiyoe’ was the presiding artistic art form, with woodblock print production being a major industry that was to become world-wide.
The Period of Transition – Meiji to Modern 19th-20thC
The old feudal regime was rejected in favour of progress and Westernisation, bringing huge changes to the social order, political regime, work and labour, arts and cultural expression. Western artists and photographers recorded a changing Japan, while Japanese artists went to Europe and America to study and record the West. Cross-cultural influences were at their height during this turbulent era.
19 Nov 2025 – China (Suzanne Perrin)
The Classical Court of the Qing Dynasty 17th-20thC
From the earliest times China had a Court that ruled through the centuries, albeit disrupted by wars, the Qing Dynasty being the last one, an anachronism in a changing world. The archaic and complex world of rituals had its own influences, creating lavish works of art comparable to the Tsars of Russia. With encroaching trade from the West, rebellions and uprisings, some surprising links were made, bringing a new cultural identity to an entrenched regime. The new century brought greater changes, and a Westernised culture of commerce rapidly took over, giving freedom of expression for artists and writers to create new narratives.