A Meaningful Day at the Davis Museum: Silk Painting, Conservation, and Community
May 5, 2026 · Fei Wu
On April 8, 2026, we had the honor of attending “Immortalizing Magu: The Conservation of a Chinese Painting” at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College. The event was led by Dr. Yuhua Ding, Kemper Assistant Curator of Collections and Academic Affairs, in conversation with Jing Gao, a world-renowned conservator of Asian paintings, Deborah La Camera, Partner and Senior Conservator at Studio TKM Associates, and Berit Raines ’27. Together, they shared the story behind a year-long conservation project that preserved a sixteenth-century Chinese painting for future generations.
For us, this event felt personal in the most beautiful way.
My mother, Xiang Li, was invited and introduced as a silk painting expert. As many of you know, Xiang spent decades working in traditional Chinese painting, including her years at the Palace Museum in Beijing, where silk painting, mineral pigments, and historical techniques were not simply studied — they were lived, practiced, and passed down through generations of artists and conservators.
At the Davis, we were surrounded by people who deeply understand the value of this work: experts from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Harvard Art Museums, Wellesley College, and other cultural and academic communities. It was not just a lecture or a museum event. It felt like a rare gathering of people who care about the same fragile, powerful question:
How do we preserve the past in a way that remains alive for the future?
Reuniting Through Art and Memory
One of the most special moments for us was reconnecting with Jing Gao, one of my mother’s former Palace Museum colleagues from the 1980s. Jing has been working at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston since the early 1990s, and seeing her again in this setting was emotional and meaningful.
There is something extraordinary about watching artists, conservators, curators, and scholars reconnect through the same materials they have dedicated their lives to: silk, brush, pigment, paper, mounting, and preservation.
For many people in the audience, these words may sound technical. But for Xiang and Jing, they are part of a shared language. A language shaped by years of training, patience, and respect for cultural heritage.
The event offered a close look at how silk paintings are made, cared for, studied, and conserved. We were able to see not only the beauty of the finished work, but the complexity behind it — the structure, the fragility, the layers of decision-making, and the quiet expertise required to bring an ancient painting back to life.
Why These Events Matter
What moved me most was the educational spirit of the event.
Wellesley students were not simply looking at an ancient Chinese painting behind glass. They were invited into the process. They learned how a painting on silk behaves differently from a painting on paper or canvas. They saw how time, humidity, handling, and previous repairs can affect a work of art. They heard from people who understand these works not only as objects, but as living cultural records.
This is why events like this matter so much.
They create a bridge between museum professionals and students, between ancient art and contemporary education, between traditional Chinese techniques and today’s global conversations around preservation and cultural memory.
The Davis Museum’s exhibition, “The Immortal Magu: A Sixteenth-Century Chinese Painting Up Close,” centers on a restored Ming dynasty hanging scroll of Magu, a Daoist deity associated with longevity and beauty. The project brought renewed attention to a work that had been severely damaged and hidden from public view for decades.
To witness this kind of restoration is to understand that conservation is not only about repair. It is also about care, scholarship, humility, and time.
Xiang Li’s Work in This Larger Conversation
For Xiang Li, attending this event was especially meaningful because her own work is rooted in many of the same traditions.
Her Chinese Empresses Collection is painted on silk using traditional Chinese brush techniques and mineral pigments. Over the past twelve years, she has painted more than 200 empress portraits, each one requiring deep research, historical imagination, and months of handwork.
But Xiang’s work is not only about preserving tradition. It is also about making tradition visible and accessible again.
In recent years, we have brought her paintings into museums, universities, botanical gardens, libraries, cultural festivals, and community spaces. Every time we install her work, we see new conversations begin. Children ask about Chinese history. Students ask about silk. Museum visitors ask about women in power. Artists ask about technique. Families ask about the stories behind each empress.
That is the power of art when it enters community spaces.
It does not stay still. Rather it travels from one person to another. These conversations open doors and create curiosity.
A Community of Experts, Students, and Storytellers
What made this Wellesley event so special was the range of people in the room. There were museum experts, conservators, curators, students, educators, artists, and community members. Everyone arrived with a different background, but the painting brought us together.
This is exactly the kind of environment where cultural heritage can continue to grow.
When experts from the MFA, Harvard Museums, Wellesley, and other institutions gather in the same room, something important happens. Knowledge becomes shared. Relationships deepen. Students see career paths they may never have imagined. Artists like Xiang Li are recognized not only for their finished works, but for the deep technical knowledge behind them.
For Xiang to be introduced as a silk painting expert in this setting was a proud moment. It affirmed something we have always known: her work belongs in these conversations. Not only as art to be admired, but as living knowledge to be shared.
Looking Ahead
As Xiang Li Art continues to grow in New England and beyond, we are grateful for opportunities like this — opportunities that connect us with museums, scholars, students, and communities who care about Chinese art and cultural preservation.
The Davis Museum event reminded us that art history is not only found in books or archives. It is also found in conversations, reunions, demonstrations, and the careful hands of people who have dedicated their lives to keeping these traditions alive.
We left Wellesley feeling inspired and deeply grateful.
Grateful to Dr. Yuhua Ding for her thoughtful leadership.
Grateful to Jing Gao and the conservation team for sharing their knowledge.
Grateful to the Davis Museum for creating a space where ancient Chinese painting could be experienced up close.
And grateful that Xiang Li’s own journey — from the Palace Museum in Beijing to museums, galleries, and cultural spaces across Massachusetts — continues to be part of this larger story.
We will be sharing photos and video clips from this beautiful day, including the moment Xiang Li was introduced as a silk painting expert.
These are the moments that remind us why we do this work.
To preserve.
To connect.
To teach.
To remember.
And to keep the art alive.
