Output details

China’s Forgotten Kingdom. Investigates the visual language of the Naxi’s Dongba Culture of the Lijiang region in Yunnan Province, SE China.

The research investigates the visual language of the Naxi’s Dongba Culture of the Lijiang region in Yunnan Province, SE China. The language is unique because it is still in use today; comprising a 4000 Pictograph-language system which is believed to have its genesis in recently discovered cave drawings of Tiger Leaping Gorge. The PI has investigated the corrupted/incomplete drawings at a disregarded/overlooked site. Thus elevated its status, to provide new insights by using an original approach which employs deductive drawing methodologies and photographic techiniques to hypothesise the missing elements of the cave drawings, and links between the drawings and the Pictograph. This approach has provided a framework for further scholarly analysis/insights to the evolution of the Pictograph and its resultant emergence as a visual language that embraces the range of Dongba cultural performances/artifacts.

The study is significant as it investigates a ‘living/breathing’ visual language providing insights to the origin, evolution and purpose of the visual language thus decoding, through drawing practice, visual narratives that present insights to how the culture emerged, evolved, and continues in a modern world. The research discourse is recognised as proving a valuable contribution to preservation of the Dongba Culture through stimulating global interest by the Chinese Minister for Intangible Culture, the China Dongba Research Center and the International Naxi Association.

The rigour of the research has included analysis of the various forms of the visual language, interviews with Dongba leaders/scholars, conference/colloquia/symposia, exhibitions/publications. The outputs are grouped because each ‘breath out and in’ forming the emerging discourse through the dissemination/gathering of information.

The PI has stimulated interest through the curation of five UK/China exhibitions, a ‘Research Director’ contribution to an ITV Productions Documentary and Publications, which have secured interest though CCTV Global and China coverage, UK ITV News coverage together with UK/China national and specialist press.