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Patricia J. Yu Joins Garden and Landscape Studies as a Predoctoral Resident

Posted On March 22, 2017 | 13:27 pm | by lainw | Permalink

We are pleased to welcome Patricia J. Yu who joins Garden and Landscape Studies as a predoctoral resident from March 20 to April 13.

Yu is a PhD candidate in the History of Art department at the University of California, Berkeley. Her dissertation project addresses the ruins of the Yuanming Yuan (Garden of Perfect Brightness) and its multiple reproductions in modern and contemporary China. Since these acts of reproduction are neither exact copies nor located on the original site in Beijing, she considers them acts of translation in the landscape. By examining the various reproductions of the Yuanming Yuan from the space of the nation to the space of the gallery, from theme park landscape to the virtual space of digital reconstruction, her project also asks how reproducing the Yuanming Yuan serves to reproduce national identities, heritage practices, and even global justice.

Before coming to Berkeley, Yu worked as the collections data specialist at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery of Scripps College. She received a bachelor's degree in history from Pomona College, where she wrote an undergraduate thesis on the role of clothing in the creation of imperial subjects, republican citizens, and communist comrades. She attributes her current research interest in theme park landscapes to growing up in southern California and absorbing the twin influences of Disneyland and Hollywood.