Dr. Peng Feng, “Chinese Aesthetics and Islamic Art”

Dr. Peng Feng is a professor of art theory and criticism and the dean of School of Arts and the director of Academy of Opera at Peking University. He has published 17 academic books and over 200 papers in Chinese and English, including “True Self and True Thing,” Philosophy East and West, Vol 73, No 1 (2023). He is also a freelance art critic and curator of exhibitions at the international level. Finally, he is a playwright, writing more than 10 plays.

Chinese Aesthetics and Islamic Art
The core concept of Chinese aesthetics is yixiang (意象 thinking-image) rather than beauty, which is one of the most enduring and controversial themes in European aesthetics. Making yixiang and related yijing ( 意境 mindscape) is the highest pursuit of Chinese art. The art that focuses on yixiang and yijing is called xieyi (写意 significantly writing). Different from the pursuit of likeness in representational art and unlikeness in expressive art, xieyi art pursues “the in-between of likeness and unlikeness.” Some similarities or relationship can be founded in Chinese xieyi art and Arabic calligraphy. This lecture will discuss both the “likeness” and “unlikeness” between the two styles.