[Peacock Power Talk] The Many Faces of the “Big Bird”: The Peacock in Chinese Art

Visually extravagant and instantly recognisable, the peacock has occupied an unusually fluid position in Chinese art. Native to parts of southern China yet often associated with distant lands, it could signify imperial authority, religious protection, virtue, romantic tragedy, luxury, or vanity.

Following the peacock across two millennia of Chinese art, this talk traces the bird from early Chinese visual culture to the cosmopolitan courts of the Tang dynasty, and from its emergence as a major subject in bird-and-flower painting to its use in the decorative arts of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Rather than assigning the bird a single symbolic meaning, it reveals the peacock as a remarkably adaptable cultural image that artists and patrons reinterpreted over time.

This talk is organised in conjunction with Peacock Power: Beauty and Symbolism Across Cultures, on view at the Peranakan Museum until 30 August 2026.

Light refreshments will be served from 6pm at the basement foyer.