Past Awards

Chinese Autobiographical Writing contains full translations of works by fifty individuals that illuminate the history and conventions of writing about oneself in the Chinese tradition. From poetry, letters, and diaries to statements in legal proceedings, these engaging and readable works provide vivid details of life as it was lived from the pre-imperial period to the nineteenth century. With an introduction and list of additional readings for each selection, this volume is ideal for undergraduate courses on Chinese history, literature, religion, and women and family.

This exhibition will feature 100 of the most important masterworks in the genre of flower and bird painting spanning 500 years of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It will examine how coded imagery in these stunning depictions of flora and fauna was used to transmit meanings—central to Chinese art and culture—that link the natural world and the human experience. A fully-illustrated bilingual exhibition catalogue, an international scholarly symposium on the art and culture of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and public and education programs will explore associated themes. GHF funds support the New York presentation of the exhibition.

The Association for Asian Studies will offer grants of up to $2,000 for scholars of the Ming dynasty and Ming-adjacent peoples to attend, either virtually or in person, the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference in Boston. Preference will be given to contingent and part-time faculty, students, and independent scholars.

This interdisciplinary, workshop-style conference aims to develop a deeper understanding of, and foster discussion and debate about, Ming history, global experience with empire in the early modern period, and the role of historical precedents in Chinese governance today. Papers will be presented on four panels, each built around the pre-circulation of papers and designated commentators. The conference will bring together scholars from around the world, and the best papers will be published as an edited volume or one or more special issues of recognized scholarly journals. GHF funds support travel, per diem, and accommodation for graduate student and early-career academics, and cover the costs of the keynote session.

Nine graduate students will give ten-minute presentations on their research at the Society for Ming Studies’ Annual Meeting, highlighting their primary arguments, key sources, and the ways in which their research connects to the Ming. The initiative aims to encourage Ming research and engagement at the junior scholar level, and bring to the fore questions, research materials, and methodologies that productively challenge and enlarge the study of Ming China.

This workshop examines skills that have been overlooked in the literature of craftsmanship and artisanal knowledge. “Nonproducing” skills underscore labor and technical strategies devised to manage the unpredictable human-material interaction that arose in the course of production. The organizers aim to bring the study of skills into conversation with emerging concepts, to contextualize Ming material culture and technology in the transnational and connected history of East Asia and beyond, and to publish select papers.

An award from GHF will allow the Society for Ming Studies to expand the responsibilities of the editor of the Ming Studies journal, who is an elected and semi-permanent member of the Society for Ming Studies’ executive committee. The editor will creatively develop the journal’s digital presence, explore new publishing opportunities for the Ming Studies Monograph Series, work to cement the relationship between the academic society and the journal, and strengthen their positions as leading international venues for scholarship on all aspects of Ming China.

Remapping the World in East Asia aims to rewrite the narrative surrounding the “Ricci Map,” which assumes that a Jesuit missionary taught the Chinese what the world looked like by translating and adapting a Renaissance world map. The volume presents a thoughtful revision, contextualizing and displacing the Jesuit missionary as the central historical actor and questioning assumptions of the superiority of European science. Its editors and contributors introduce readers to the processes of remapping the world, a result of conversations between the Jesuit Matteo Ricci and his Chinese collaborators during the last decades of Ming rule.