TY - JOUR
T1 - Imagining asia through a tour of the orient
T2 - Cathay pacific’s contemporary art in asia exhibition of 1965
AU - Pan, Lu
N1 - Funding Information:
First, I thank Mr. Kuroda Raiji, Executive Director, Department of Operation and Management, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum. During my 2016 tenure as researcher in residence at the museum in 2016, Mr. Kuroda first brought materials on the exhibition in his collection to my attention and encouraged me to research this little-known yet highly interesting example of an Asia-wide art show in the postwar period. I also thank Matthew Edmondson and Jennifer Luk at Swire Archives for helping me to locate historical materials about the art exhibition in the archives and to obtain permission to use the images.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Twentieth Century China Journal, Inc.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/10
Y1 - 2020/10
N2 - On April 22, 1965, Hong Kong’s signature airline, Cathay Pacific Airways, launched the multicity tour of an art exhibition—Contemporary Art in Asia—in Singapore. Consisting of about 130 pieces of artwork, the exhibition toured Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jesselton, Manila, Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Taipei before returning to Hong Kong. The exhibition was mounted as a commercial promotion for Cathay Pacific’s flight network in Asia, but it represents an instance of an Asia-wide art exhibition, something that was rare at that time. This paper situates the exhibition in a broad historical context. By examining city networks, Asian art, and representations of air hostesses from the perspective of Hong Kong, I argue that this corporate-sponsored “tour of the Orient” exhibition reveals diverse imaginations of Asia and its modernity beyond the Orient–Occident binaries of the 1960s.
AB - On April 22, 1965, Hong Kong’s signature airline, Cathay Pacific Airways, launched the multicity tour of an art exhibition—Contemporary Art in Asia—in Singapore. Consisting of about 130 pieces of artwork, the exhibition toured Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jesselton, Manila, Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Taipei before returning to Hong Kong. The exhibition was mounted as a commercial promotion for Cathay Pacific’s flight network in Asia, but it represents an instance of an Asia-wide art exhibition, something that was rare at that time. This paper situates the exhibition in a broad historical context. By examining city networks, Asian art, and representations of air hostesses from the perspective of Hong Kong, I argue that this corporate-sponsored “tour of the Orient” exhibition reveals diverse imaginations of Asia and its modernity beyond the Orient–Occident binaries of the 1960s.
KW - 1960s
KW - Air hostess
KW - Cathay Pacific Airways
KW - Contemporary art in Asia
KW - Hong Kong
KW - Visual culture
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091602411&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1353/tcc.2020.0027
DO - 10.1353/tcc.2020.0027
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85091602411
SN - 1521-5385
VL - 45
SP - 308
EP - 330
JO - Twentieth-Century China
JF - Twentieth-Century China
IS - 3
ER -