USC Today

Sonya Lee

Expert in the art of China and East Asia, including religious works and Buddhist relic worship
  • Assistant professor of Chinese Art and Visual Culture
  • USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Office: (213) 821-2582
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Expertise

  • the visual culture and art history of China and East Asia
  • religious art and architecture in China
  • Buddhist art and Buddhism
  • Buddhist relic worship
  • Silk Road art and material culture, including cave temples
  • political use of the Buddha's life story
  • monumental sculpture in the establishment of sacred sites

Languages

  • Mandarin
  • Cantonese

Additional Information

  • Author, Surviving Nirvana: Death of the Buddha in Chinese Visual Culture (forthcoming)
  • Author, “Le Nirvana du Bouddha et Les Dépôts de Reliques en Chine Médiévale” in Image et Imagination: Le Bouddhisme en Asie (2008); “Transmitting Buddhism to a Future Age: The Leiyin Cave at Fangshan and Cave Temples with Stone Scriptures in Sixth-Century China” in Archives of Asian Art (2008); and “The Buddha’s Words at Cave Temples: Inscribed Scriptures in the Design of Wofoyuan” in Ars Orientalis (2008)
  • Recipient, nonresidential postdoctoral fellowship from J. Paul Getty Foundation
  • Member, Association of Asian Studies, College Art Association
  • Earned Ph.D. in Art History, University of Chicago, 2004