Abstract: Based on its unique natural scenery and the later humanistic shaping, the West Lake in Hangzhou gradually became one of the most popular themes in traditional Chinese culture and art since the Tang and Song Dynasties. Through the form of “Ten Scenes of West Lake,” it was transformed into an artistic carrier that integrated poetry, landscape and painting. After the Song Dynasty, the artistic theme of the West Lake increasingly broke through the traditional scholarly-oriented paradigm of classical landscape painting, and moved into the increasingly popular field of decorative arts. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, this theme was assimilated into the construction of gardens as well as the decoration of furniture and daily objects through various designs and techniques. From the creation of landscape paintings to the production of woodblock print illustrations, and then to the development of lacquer screen decoration designs, the artistic expression of the scenery of the West Lake reflected the persistent spiritual pursuit of the Chinese people. They looked for an artistic life that integrated nature and human culture. Meanwhile, as the spread of Chinese export art in the Ming and Qing dynasties continued, the landscape of the West Lake in Hangzhou, as a regional landmark, became a popular subject for paintings and decorations. With this trend, this theme gradually spread to regions outside East Asia. Lacquered screens depicting the scenery of the West Lake and other movable artworks played a significant role in this process. With their circulation, the beauty of the West Lake was transmitted to all corners of the world.

Abstract: In an era of fast-food culture where entertainment often overshadows substance, a rigorous examination of Chinese culture should be conducted through the dissemination of entertainment, which is crucial for ensuring the public’s accurate understanding and interpretation of the culture. Movies and TV dramas, as vehicles of entertainment, often prioritize box office performance and online ratings as key metrics of success. Characters and plots may be fictional, but for those movies and TV dramas rooted in historical and cultural contexts, showcasing the essence of history and culture is of significance and necessity for the accuracy of such cultural depictions. Its significance lies in the faithful transmission of culture, while its necessity involves guiding the public toward a correct cultural understanding. This paper examines the porcelain culture depicted in the historical drama The Story of MingLan as a case study. The aim is not to utterly negate the effort put into the show’s props but rather to identify relevant issues and to analyze and discuss the discrepancies between the drama’s porcelain props and authentic artifacts/paintings from the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

Abstract: Banqueting was a cornerstone of Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127 CE) social life, with dining utensils serving as vital artifacts that embodied the era’s aesthetic sensibilities, social customs, and cultural values. This study examines the typology, forms, and compositional arrangements of utensils depicted in Northern Song tomb murals, drawing on archaeological evidence from sites in Henan and Hebei, textual records, and surviving ceramics. It elucidates the ritual frameworks, social hierarchies, and dining practices reflected in banquet scenes, offering a comprehensive analysis of their role in Northern Song society. By correlating mural depictions with material artifacts, this research provides fresh insights into the interplay of functionality and symbolism in banquet culture and establishes a methodological framework for evaluating the authenticity and interpretive potential of historical imagery. The study underscores the critical role of material culture in reconstructing past social practices, contributing to a deeper understanding of Northern Song cultural history.

Abstract: This study aims to reveal the archetypal modes of thinking and aesthetic structures embedded in the collective consciousness of the Chinese people by examining the deep generative logic of folk art. Taking Jin-style painted festival towers (晋式彩楼) as a representative case, the paper focuses on their narrative mechanisms and semiotic system, summarizing their core strategies as four forms of substitution: formal imitation, material substitution, craft substitution, and functional substitution. Together, these four substitutions constitute the fundamental grammar through which Jin-style painted festival towers are translated from everyday utilitarian objects into festive spectacles. More specifically, the narrative principles of Jin-style painted festival towers can be distilled into four progressive and mutually permeating dimensions. First, structural simplification: through radical omission and geometric abstraction, practical constraints are stripped away, freeing maximal symbolic space for narration and establishing the formal precondition for the entire artistic system. Second, decorative alienation: exaggerated additions and accumulations are imposed upon the simplified framework, transforming decoration from a subordinate element into the dominant visual force and generating the core tension of visual impact. Third, chromatic dualization: symbolic orders are constructed through color oppositions—such as red/yellow and black/white—thereby establishing the tonal polarity of festivity and solemnity. Fourth, visual transgression: by deliberately exceeding vernacular norms in scale, volume, and degrees of extravagance, these structures produce a temporary yet intense inversion of hierarchy and values, sketching a utopian orientation specific to the festive moment. This paper argues that festivity is not merely an external occasion for the narrative of painted towers, but rather its intrinsic mechanism of completion. Only within the “state of exception” constituted by festive time do the aforementioned substitutions and transgressions attain legitimacy and full meaning; it is also only then that the painted tower truly becomes a “living text” that can be read and experienced. Through an archaeological dissection of this narrative system, the study seeks to demonstrate that folk art is not a marginal residue of “traditional culture,” but a symbolic practice endowed with a high degree of formal self-awareness and latent social critique. Its logic of multiple substitutions not only reveals the aesthetic strategies developed by Chinese communities under conditions of material scarcity—strategies of “achieving more with less” and “replacing the precious with the humble”—but also offers contemporary design a third possibility beyond the one-directional functionalism of modernism and the stylization of consumerism: a narrative design paradigm rooted in festive exceptionality, collective carnival, and the transgression of meaning.