The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) has announced its 2026 book prizes. Xu Yang, Associate Professor in the Department of Arts and Design at the University of Macau, has received the Bei Shan Tang Catalogue Honourable Mention for editing Yuan Ming Yuan: Art and Culture of an Imperial Garden-Palace. It is the only work to receive this distinction this year and the first publication from Asia to achieve this honour in the prize’s history.
Founded in 1941 and headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), is the world’s largest academic organisation dedicated to Asian studies. Each year, the AAS awards prizes for outstanding English-language books on Asia across various fields, including the prestigious Joseph Levenson Book Prize. The Bei Shan Tang Catalogue Prize, sponsored by the Bei Shan Tang Foundation, recognises exceptional catalogue publications in the field of Chinese art history.
In 2026, two works centred on Chinese gardens received recognition: Growing and Knowing in the Gardens of China, published by the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, was awarded the Catalogue Prize, while YUAN MING YUAN received the Honourable Mention. Previous winners of the Catalogue Prize include Visualizing Dunhuang: The Lo Archive Photographs of the Mogao and Yulin Caves (Princeton University Press, awarded in 2023), Power and Perspective: Early Photography in China (Yale University Press, awarded in 2024), and China’s Hidden Century, 1796–1912 (The British Museum Press, awarded in 2025). The Honourable Mention was introduced in 2025, with the inaugural recipient being C.C. Wang: Lines of Abstraction by Hirmer Publishers in Germany.
Yuan Ming Yuan: Art and Culture of an Imperial Garden-Palace (ISBN: 978-988-70436-0-7) was jointly published by the Hong Kong Palace Museum, the Palace Museum, and the Yuanmingyuan Administration Office of Beijing in 2024. Echoing the spirit of “Relics and Archives of Yuanmingyuan”, a 1931 exhibition organised by the Society for the Study of Chinese Architecture (Zhongguo Yingzao Xueshe) in Peiping (now Beijing), the book focuses on the major component of Yuanmingyuan: the Chinese-style landscaping scenes. It broadens research perspectives on Yuanmingyuan through studies of architectural design, garden lifestyle, artistic creation, and visual legacy.
The volume assembles contributions from an international team of scholars: Puay-peng Ho (National University of Singapore) discusses the role of gardens in imperial family life and state governance; Xu Yang (University of Macau) analyses the depictions of Yuanmingyuan landscapes within the broader context of Qing imperial estate imagery; Cary Liu (Princeton University) reviews the function of visual materials and architectural models in the garden’s design and implementation; Zhongjie Wang (The Palace Museum) traces styles of architectural decoration in the garden; Thomas Hahn (Cornell University) and Jeffrey Cody (Getty Conservation Institute) reflect on late-nineteenth-century perceptions of the Yuanmingyuan ruins and imagery; while Louise Tythacott (SOAS, University of London) and Shichun Lei (University of Oxford) investigate the connection between artefacts dispersed overseas and their original locations in Yuanmingyuan. The volume offers detailed cataloguing of artefacts, presenting numerous new discoveries and interpretations. A comprehensive chronology of Qing imperial garden construction situates Yuanmingyuan within the broader context of the development of imperial garden-palaces both within and outside of Beijing, the imperial capital, enabling readers to gain a comprehensive understanding within its temporal and spatial framework. The book further supplies carefully verified and accurate English translations of scene names. A traditional Chinese edition was published simultaneously.
Xu Yang holds a PhD in Architecture from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and subsequently held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore. He specialises in architectural history and cultural landscapes, with a particular emphasis on the spatial and place-specific qualifications of material culture, and the ways ritual and spirituality manifest within the built environment. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and serves as a reviewer for international journals. Beyond academia, Professor Yang is also a curator of Chinese art, with projects addressing architecture, landscape, and ritual art. His research and curatorial initiatives have been supported by the National Social Science Fund of China, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, and the University of Macau.
The award will be presented on 13 March 2026 at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference in Vancouver, Canada, where the citation will be read.
