Institute of Chinese Studies Public Lecture - Shuttered Eyes, Kinship Threads: Tracing Music and Migration in the Family
You are cordially invited to attend a public lecture organised by the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong on Thursday, 24 September 2026. It is our honour to welcome Dr. Jennifer Dorothy LEE, ICS Visiting Fellowship visiting scholar from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, to deliver a talk on the topic: “Shuttered Eyes, Kinship Threads: Tracing Music and Migration in the Family of Yo-Yo Ma”.
Abstract:
What can a single photograph say? The black-and-white artefact featured in this talk, a product of the Nanjing Guanghua Photo Studio, shows a family like many others in 1946, caught between wars and continents. The figures pictured are musicians, primarily, but also teachers, scientists, and jacks-of-all-trades. They are the progenitors of the famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, of his sister Yeou-Cheng, and of me. Drawing on lenses that range from music to art history to…
