Chinese Whispers: Freud and China – a love affair

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2022

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

This episode of Chinese Whispers is slightly different – instead of taking a look at a theme within China, Cindy and her guest see China through the eyes of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Professor Craig Clunas, chair of art history at Oxford University, has curated a new exhibition at London’s Freud Museum, which displays Freud’s collection of Chinese antiquities. On this episode, Cindy talks to Craig about what these pieces – jades and figurines – meant to Freud, especially in the context of 20th century Europe, where there was appreciation of Chinese art but, as they discuss, not quite the matching level of knowledge. They also chat about the reception of Freud’s theories in China, especially given the country’s turbulent intellectual history since the May Fourth Movement a hundred years ago. Craig sums up the love affair between Freud and China nicely:

‘Just like Freud is using his Chinese things to think with, Chinese thinkers are using Freud to think with.’

The exhibition itself is small but fascinating, and runs until 26 June.

As mentioned in the episode, here is the link to a previous edition of Chinese Whispers with Rana Mitter, for those who want to hear more about China since the May Fourth Movement: https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/china-s-long-history-of-student-protests.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Spectator magazine combines incisive political analysis with books and arts reviews of unrivaled authority. Absolutely free. Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.
0:31.4	Hello and welcome to Chinese Whispers with me, Cindy Yu. Every episode, I'll be talking to
0:36.3	journalists, experts and long-time China watchers about the latest in Chinese politics, society and more. There'll be a smattering of history to catch you up on the background knowledge and some context as well. How do the Chinese see these issues?
0:50.8	This episode of Chinese Whispers is going to be something slightly different.
0:55.0	Instead of taking a look at a theme within China, my guest and I will be seen China through
0:59.0	the eyes of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.
1:01.9	Professor Craig Clunis, chair of art history at Oxford University, has curated a new exhibition
1:07.5	at London's Freud Museum, which displays the psychoanalyst's collection of
1:11.7	Chinese antiquities. On this episode, I'll be talking to Craig about what these pieces, jades and
1:17.0	figurines, meant to Freud, especially in the context of 20th century Europe, where there was
1:21.7	appreciation of Chinese art, but, as we will discuss, not quite the matching level of knowledge.
1:27.7	We'll also chat about the reception of Freud's theories in China,
1:30.8	especially given the country's turbulent intellectual history since the May 4th movement 100 years ago.
1:36.6	The exhibition itself is small but fascinating and runs until June 26th.
1:41.5	Craig Clooner's welcome to Chinese Whispers.
1:43.4	To start with, can you tell us about Freud's
1:46.1	collection? What Chinese items are found in there? Well, Freud had a big collection of antiquities
1:50.6	with about 2,000 objects in it, and the Chinese things are a relatively small proportion of
1:57.1	that numerically, so there's probably not more than a hundred Chinese objects one way or
2:02.5	another. Although they do include some of the larger objects in Freud's collection, Freud was
2:09.6	comfortably off towards the end of his life, but certainly when he started collecting, he wasn't
2:13.6	that well off, and so he bought mostly small things. They're not huge objects,
	...

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