The Night Banquet

"Lee's new, path-breaking, 'cultural biography' invites scholars to reconsider this celebrated work in a new light: as a co-creation of the artist and later collectors whose textual additions record shifting interpretations of the purpose and the meaning of the painting over time."

"The reader is led on a journey viewing the way the painting survived, was enjoyed, and analyzed over the centuries. These historical and literary arguments are compelling. . . . detailed and insightful . . ."

"The following chapters almost read like a 'detective' story. The book is a real page turner, as it gives the reader a broad impression of how the painting has been appreciated by different viewers and owners over a long stretch of time."

"Lee's commentary brings both the banquet itself back to life and all those who have taken a peek at the proceedings since that long-ago dynasty."

"[This book] is the first book-length study in English devoted to this painting in its entirety, from the frontispiece to all of the colophons and seals. . . . The Night Banquet is a well-researched and sensibly structured work. Lee successfully merges several subfields of Chinese art history–visual analysis, colleting history, and connoisseurship–under the rubric of “cultural life.”"

"A tour-de-force of historical scholarship, The Night Banquet is an engaging narrative that at times reads like a detective novel. Lee investigates every individual who saw, wrote on, or commented about the scroll, and she leads the reader on an enticing journey of discovery that provides both an overview of Chinese history and an in-depth reading of this extraordinary work of art."

"Lee has been immensely successful in her quest to uncover the history and changing significance of the Han Xizai scroll, detailing what a spectrum of career officials, connoisseurs, collectors, and emperors had to say about it-sometimes disapproving of the subject matter as licentious and immoral, sometimes considering it a vehicle for comment on current political situations. A masterful study, rooted in extensive original research, rich in detail and interpretation, The Night Banquet is a major contribution to the study of Chinese painting and to Chinese culture in general."