University of Southern California
USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
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About
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Sonya Sum Yin LeeAssociate Professor of Art History, East Asian Languages and Cultures and ReligionContact Information E-mail: sonyasle@usc.edu Phone: (213) 821-2582 Office: VKC 351 LINKS Curriculum Vitae |
Education |
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 Ph.D. Art History, University of Chicago, 6/2004
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Description of Research |
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Summary Statement of Research Interests |
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| Dr. Sonya Lee is Associate Professor of Chinese Art and Visual Cultures at the University of Southern California, where she holds a joint appointment in the Departments of Art History and East Asian Languages and Cultures, and the School of Religion. A specialist in religious art and architecture of pre-modern China, Dr. Lee has published widely on the material culture of Chinese Buddhism from the fifth to tenth centuries, in particular cave temples along the ancient Silk Road. Her first book, Surviving Nirvana: Death of the Buddha in Chinese Visual Culture (Hong Kong University Press 2010), discusses how the nirvana image, one of the quintessential motifs in Buddhist iconography, were recast in medieval China as an allegory of survival that empowered the image’s beholder to confront the fundamental anxiety of the Buddha’s absence and imagine the prospect of one’s salvation. The study is a historical reassessment of Chinese Buddhism through the lens of visual culture, as it is a reflection on past methods and theories concerning religious iconography and representation. Currently, Dr. Lee is working on two major projects. One is a book titled Between Culture and Nature: Cave Temples of Sichuan, in which she examines the complex relationship between art and the environment with a focus on representative sites in the southwestern province of Sichuan in China. The second concerns wall painting fragment from Kucha, one of the most important Central Asian kingdoms along the ancient Silk Road. Dr. Lee has done extensive research on the collecting history of these murals in U.S. museum collections. Dr. Lee received her Ph.D. in art history from the University of Chicago. She is the recipient of prestigious fellowships and research grants from the Getty Foundation, Japan Foundation, Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, and Asian Cultural Council. From 2011-12, she was the Paul Mellon Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. | |
Research Specialties |
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| Chinese religious art and architecture, visual cultures of the Silk Road | |
Publications |
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Book |
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 Lee, S. S.
(2010).
Surviving Nirvana: Death of the Buddha in Chinese Visual Culture. Hong Kong University Press.
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Book Chapter |
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Lee, S. S.
(2012).
Storytelling in Real Space: Viewership and Nirvana Narratives in Cave Temples of China. Rethinking Visual Narratives from Asia pp. 127-39. Hong Kong University Press.
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Lee, S. S.
(2009).
Le Nirvana du Bouddha et les dépôts de reliques en Chine médiévale. pp. 134-157. Paris: Image et imagination: Le Bouddhisme en Asie/École française d’Extrême-Orient.
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Lee, S. S.
(2004).
Nirvana Buddha and Its Doubles: Coffin Image, Maitreya, and the Rhetoric of Continuity on the Art Institute of Chicago Stele. pp. 191-234. Beijing, China: Between Han and Tang: Visual and Material Culture in a Transformative Period/Cultural Relics Publishing House.
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Book Review |
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Lee, S. S.
(2011).
Echoes of the Past: The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan, ed. Katherine Tsiang. Journal of the American Oriental Society.
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Journal Article |
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Lee, S. S.
(2012).
Repository of Ingenuity: Cave 61 and Artistic Appropriation in Tenth-Century Dunhuang. The Art Bulletin.
Vol. 94 (2), pp. 199-225.
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Lee, S. S.
(2010).
Transmitting Buddhism to a Future Age: The Leiyin Cave at Fangshan and Cave Temples with Stone Scriptures in Sixth-Century China. Archives of Asian Art.
Vol. 60, pp. 43-78.
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Lee, S. S.
(2009).
The Buddha's Words at Cave Temples: Inscribed Scriptures in the Design of Wofoyuan. Ars Orientalis.
Vol. 36, pp. 36-76.
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Proceedings |
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Lee, S. S.
(2007).
The Pathway of Great Buddhas in Sichuan.
In Art Museum of Dazu Rock Carvings (Ed.), pp. 540-547. Beijing, China. Proceedings from the International Conference on Dazu Stone Carvings 2005/Cultural Relics Publishing House.
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Honors and Awards |
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American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship Recipient, ACLS Fellow, 2011-2012
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Asian Cultural Council Humanities Fellowship, 2011-2012
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Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Research Grant, 2011-2012
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Residency at the Center for the Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Paul Mellon Senior Fellow, 2011-2012
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Getty Foundation Non-Residential Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2008-2009
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Japan Foundation Short-Term Research Fellowship Award, 2008-2009
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Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art Studies Individual Grant, 2008-2009
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Service to the University |
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Administrative Appointments |
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Undergraduate Advisor, 2009-2010
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Service to the Profession |
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Professional Memberships |
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Association of Asian Studies, 2003-2012
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College Art Association, 2003-2012
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