Abstract
This paper reexamines the late nineteenth-century Chinese painting genre known as “eight-brokens” (bapo) as a site of epistemological inquiry into the material and graphic foundations of knowledge. Bapo paintings typically depict fragmented ephemera—rubbings, fan paintings, book pages, handwritten letters, even photographs—layered in illusionistic compositions that simulate tearing, folding, and overlapping. By translating diverse media, forms, and technical processes into meticulously brushed ink, these works generate a vivid abundance of knowledge-bearing objects while simultaneously exposing their constructed, graphic nature. Focusing on the depiction of ink rubbings—long esteemed for their indexical authenticity and tactile replication of antiquities, this paper examines a moment when the medium’s perceived objectivity was reimagined in graphic terms. As haptic impressions were translated into painted forms, bapo paintings invited viewers to perceive rubbings both as tangible relics of antiquity and as stylized graphic modules, resonating with emerging visual logics of print and design. This dual perception challenges inherited binaries between indexical replication and craft-based fabrication, material truth and visual fiction. Situating bapo within a burgeoning print culture and increasingly commercialized workshop practices, the paper argues that these images contributed to a broader reordering of visual knowledge amid the upheavals of the late Qing period—marked by dynastic collapse, rapid urbanization, a rising popular cultural sphere, and expanding transnational exchange. Torn, layered, and translated, bapo paintings staged a reflection on the mediated nature and historiography of knowing itself.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Eight-Brokens, Bapo, Visual Knowledge, Medial Translation, Graphic Construction, Chinese Painting
