Title
Tower of the Radiant Scholar (Yaokuita) 耀奎塔
Creator
Year/Period
circa 1915 A.D.
Region
Shanghai
Object Type
Material
Technique
Dimension
Object size: 81.3 cm,
Object size: 80.0 x 41.5 x 41.5 cm
Object size: 80.0 x 41.5 x 41.5 cm
Accession No.
2023-00365
Collection of
This is a model of a 7-storey pagoda located in Hezhou, Sichuan. The model is one of a set of 84 carved after famous originals scattered throughout China, for the Chinese exhibition at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) in San Francisco, one of the first to represent the newly formed Republic of China. Scaled down at a ratio of 1:50, they were made by the Tushanwan 土山湾Workshop, a Christian orphanage in Shanghai that trained its residents in vocational art and crafts. The woodcarving workshop, supervised by the Bavarian-born Jesuit Aloysius Beck (1854-1931), employed both local and Western styles and techniques to produce figures of traditional Chinese gods alongside those of Catholic saints.
