Professor Dame Jessica Rawson is the 2022 Tang Prize Laureate in Sinology. She is a Chinese Art and Archaeology professor at the University of Oxford. She is the first female Warden of Merton College specializing in Chinese bronzes and jade. Her recent research is on horse trading in ancient China and its relation to the Silk Road. She believes that objects have a language of their own, which can give insights into ancient Chinese society and the transmission of culture.

Prof. Rawson renovated the Chinese gallery at the British Museum and curated interdepartmental exhibitions. At Oxford, she raised awareness of Chinese studies and deepened the world’s understanding of Chinese civilization. At the lecture, she will talk about her new book, Life and Afterlife in Ancient China, which explores how twelve grand tombs reveal wider political, dynastic, and cultural developments. Tombs and their treasures are almost the only artifacts to survive from Ancient China, and their scale and sophistication rivals their equivalents in Ancient Egypt. The book sheds light on a constellation of beliefs about life and death and provides a remarkable new perspective on one of the oldest civilizations in the world.