Yuning Teng completed her doctoral dissertation at the Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar, Universität Hamburg, entitled “The Public Park as a Traveling Concept: Visual Transformations from an Imperial Altar to Jingzhao Park in 1920s Beijing” (summa cum laude). She previously studied art history and film studies at Peking University (BA and MA).

From 2022 to 2025, she served as a research associate and lecturer at the Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar, Universität Hamburg, affiliated with the ERC Advanced Grant project “Visual Scepticism: Towards an Aesthetics of Doubt,” where her research focuses on decolonizing Western difficult heritage in Asian contexts.

Before her career in Germany, she served as deputy director of the Center for Visual Studies at Peking University, China, where she coordinated the Chinese Modern Art Archive (CMAA) and the Annual of Contemporary Art of China (2008–2022). She was Deputy Secretary General of the Wu Zuoren International Foundation of Fine Arts (2013–2022) and a key member of the Chinese Secretariat of CIHA (2012–2021). She also held the position of Junior Chair for the “Landscape and Spectacle” session at the 34th CIHA World Congress in Beijing (2016), she presented at the 35th CIHA in São Paulo (2022), and co-chaired the “Patrimonialization” session at the 36th CIHA in Lyon (2024). She has published several articles in major international publications and delivered lectures on various platforms.

As a curator, she has organized over twenty exhibitions in China and internationally, including co-curating the 2021 Guangzhou Image Triennale with the Hyperimage Group, of which she is a founding member. She is also a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA).

Her research interests encompass political iconography, the Chinese urban landscape, as well as modern and contemporary art.

Research Foci

• Political Iconography

• Urban Landscape

• Modern and Contemporary Chinese Art

Books and Edited Volumes

Hyperimage, Hyperimage Group (DONG Bingfeng, XIANG Zairong, TENG Yuning), Hangzhou: China Academy of Art Press, 2021.

Walking: Xiangqun Lee and His Art, Zhu Qingsheng and Teng Yuning, Beijing: Intellectual Property Publishing House, 2012.

Ideology and Manifestation, Zhu Qingsheng and Teng Yuning, Chongqing: Wenshare Art Museum, 2011.

Music on paper: Enjoy the Chinese Music Art and Culture, written under the pen name Anzhe, Teng Yuning, China Pictorial Publishing Hall, 2006.

 

Articles

TENG, Yuning. “Reis”. In Lexikon der Lebensmittel als Kunstmaterial. edited by Ina Jessen and Fabiana Senkpiel. Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2024. pp.212-217.

TENG, Yuning. “A Short-Lived Challenge to Socialist Realism: Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Other British Artists in a Little Known 1960 Exhibition in China”. In Art and Modernism in Socialist China, edited by Shengtian Zheng, Shuyu Kong and Julia Andrews. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2024. pp. 57-71. doi: 10.4324/9781003450535-6.

TENG, Yuning. “Media Transformation in a Transcultural Perspective: A Portrait of Muhammad in a Chinese Public Park in the 1920s”. Motion: Migrations. Proceedings of the 35th World Congress of Art History, edited by C. Mattos Avolese. São Paulo, 2023. pp. 1274-1288.

TENG, Yuning. “The Refabrication of Napoleon: The Image of Napoleon in China (1900-1930)”. Journal of Art Theory & Art History, No.10, edited by Zhou Xian. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2023. pp. 85-105.

Hyperimage Group (DONG Bingfeng, XIANG Zairong, TENG Yuning). “Rethinking Collectivity: Re-/De-Collectivizing Art in Action”, in CIHA Journal: Terms for a Global Art History. Volume 1: Terms of Engagement. edited by Thierry Dufrêne and Peter J. Schneemann. Heideberg: Arthistoricum.net 2023. pp. 163-175. doi: https://doi.org/10.57936/terms.2022.1

TENG, Yuning. “Napoleon as a Tragic Hero in China: From Paul Delaroche’s »Napoleon at Fontainebleau« to Chinese Illustrations”, in: Seismographen und Orientierungsspiegel Bilder der Welt in 60+x Kunstgeschichten – Uwe Fleckner zu Ehren, edited by Leena Crasemann, Benjamin Fellmann and Yannis Hadjinicolaou. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022.

Hyperimage Group (DONG Bingfeng, XIANG Zairong, TENG Yuning). “Collectivity as a Method: the Case of 2021 Guangzhou Image Triennial”, Film Art, No. 399/2021 vol. 4, 2021, pp. 63-68.

TENG, Yuning. “A Modern World Garden in the Ancient Temple of Earth: Public Space Designed for Patriotic and Nationalistic Propaganda”. in Art, Design and Society: Global Perspectives, edited by Anupa Pande and Savita Kumari. Delhi: Macmillan Publishers, 2021, pp. 188-195.

TENG, Yuning. “Landscape and Spectacle: Critical Summery of the Session 11 of CIHA 2016”. Proceedings of the 34th Congress of the International Committee of the History of Art (CIHA), 2016, Beijing. Beijing, 2020. pp. 1144-1146.

TENG, Yuning. “A Challenge to Socialist Realism–Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Co. in an Unknown 1960 Exhibition in China”. in Das verirrte Kunstwerk: Bedeutung, Funktion und Manipulation von Bilderfahrzeugen in der Diaspora，Uwe Fleckner & Elena Tolstichin ed., Hamburg: De Gruyter, 2020, pp. 155-175.

TENG, Yuning. “The Deadly Danger of Globalization: On the Political Iconography of the Corona Virus”, published on the blog of the research project “Bilderfahrzeuge–Aby Warburg’s Legacy and the Future of Iconology”, 2020, https://bilderfahrzeuge.hypotheses.org/4977

TENG, Yuning. “From Imperial Altar to Public Park: Political Strategies for Reforming the Temple of Earth in Modern China”, in: Conference Proceedings & Papers for Garden Studies from Multi-cultural Context, Shijiazhuang: Hebei Fine Arts Publishing House, 01/2017, pp. 223-242.

TENG, Yuning. “Landscape and Spectacle: Critical Summery of the Session 11 of CIHA2016”, Nanjing: Art Monthly, 2016.

TENG, Yuning. “Disperse the Political Shadow–A Study on Constructing and Deconstructing Authority in a Case of Cixi’s Portraits”, in Hermeneutik des Gesichts. Das Bildnis im Blick aktueller Forschung, Hamburg: De Gruyter, 2015,pp. 183-208.

TENG, Yuning. “Changing Ideas: Landscape and Contemporary Chinese Art”, in La Chine Ardente, Mons, 2015, pp. 48-50

TENG, Yuning. “Body into Landscape: Self-Expressing in Chinese Performance Art”, Performance Art in China, Hong Kong: Siji Publishing House, 2015. pp. 118-139.

TENG, Yuning. “De la autoridad a la autonomía: repensando y trascendiendo el paisaje político de Pekín en el arte chino contemporáneo”, translated by Mariana Escalante.in: China and Mexico. A cultural dialogue from the Humanities and Social Sciences. UNAM, Mexico, 2015. pp. 245-256.

TENG, Yuning. “The Method and Practice of Compiling Art Archive”. Fine Arts Research, Nanjing, Southeast University Pressing, 03/2015. pp. 265-272. Also in Selected Critiques of Chinese Art Critics 2014, Hebei Fine Arts Publishing House, 2015. pp. 249-256.

TENG, Yuning. “A Re-Discussion on Criticism and Curating—A Record of the Eighth Annual Meeting of Chinese Art Critics”. Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Journal. 01/2015. pp. 36-39.

TENG, Yuning. “Disperse the Political Shadow–A Study on Constructing and Deconstructing Authority in a case of Cixi’s portrait”, The Challenge of the Object / Die Herausforderung des Objekts, Congress Proceedings, T. 1-3. Hrsg. von G. Ulrich Großmann/PetraKrutisch. Nuremberg, 2013. pp. 1198-1202.

TENG, Yuning. “Inquiries into Ideology and Manifestation”. Art Contemporary. 10/2011. pp.62-65.

TENG, Yuning. “Promote the Ideas upon Academic Work”,Contemporary Art & Investment, Beijing, 2011.pp.18-20.

TENG, Yuning. “Ten Issues in Chinese Contemporary Art Theory”,Selected Critiques of Chinese Art Critics 2010, Hebei Fine Arts Publishing House, 2010. pp. I-VIII.

TENG, Yuning. “How to Talk About the Tendency of Art Criticism”,Contemporary Art & Investment, Beijing, 2010. p.99.

TENG, Yuning. “The Main Issues in Chinese Art Theory in 2008”, Selected Critiques of Chinese Art Critics 2009,Hebei Fine Arts Publishing House, 2009. pp.306-315.

TENG, Yuning. “The Meaning of Avant-garde in New Media Art”, Muse Art, 07/2009.

TENG, Yuning. “The Basis of Original Creation”,Contemporary Artists, 05/2009.pp.80-83.

TENG, Yuning. “Summary of Modernization of Chinese Traditional Art in China”, Annual of Contemporary Art of China 2008, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2009. pp.213-234.

TENG, Yuning. “Summary of Art Critic in China”, Annual of Contemporary Art of China 2008, Guangxi NormalUniversity Press, 2009. pp.192-212.

TENG, Yuning. “Film and Video Art in Chinese Contemporary Art”,Annual of Contemporary Art of China 2008,Guangxi Normal University Press, 2009. pp.10-11, 15-17, 19.

TENG, Yuning. “Investigation on art spaces in China”, Contemporary Artists, 02/2008. pp.28-31.

TENG, Yuning. “Summary of Feminist Criticism in China”,Annual of Contemporary Art of China 2007, GuangxiNormal University Press, 2008. pp.44-57.

TENG, Yuning. “Survey of Chinese Galleries and Art Spaces in China”,Annual of Contemporary Art of China 2007,Guangxi Normal University Press, 2008. pp.126-134.

TENG, Yuning. “Femaleness as an Excuse: The Limitation of Feminist Art”, Oriental Art Finance, 01/2007. pp.80-86.

TENG, Yuning. “Survey of Art Fairs in China”, Annual of Contemporary Art of China 2006, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2007. pp.290-291, 296-297, 299.

TENG, Yuning. “Contemporary Art and ‘Chinese Element’”, Oriental Art Finance, 11/2006. pp.68-74.

TENG, Yuning. “A Research on the power and influence of Capital Abroad in Chinese Contemporary Art before 2006”, Annual of Contemporary Art of China 2005, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2006. pp. 352-357.

 

Conferences and Presentations (Selected):

TENG, Yuning. “From National Disgrace to Pride: Detoxifying the Ketteler Monument’s Colonial Memory through Relocation to a Park in Beijing”. Presentation at the conference “Difficult Heritage and ‘Nature’: Greening as Forgetting – Greening as Healing?” Hamburg: Universität Hamburg and Warburg-Haus, 09/2024.

TENG, Yuning. “‘Lenin in the Art Field’‚ or a Formalist Bourgeois? The Acceptance and Adaptation of Pablo Picasso in 20th Century China”. Presentation at the international symposium “Picassoeast. Uses and Abuses of Picasso in Eastern Europe, 1945-1989”. Romanian Academy. Bucharest, 01/2024.

TENG, Yuning. “Feminisms and Pluralization in Contemporary Chinese Art”. Presentation at the “Sino-German Museum Conversations”, Goethe-Institut China & Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, 12/2022.

TENG, Yuning. “Contemporary Chinese Art and Ecology”.Presentation at the panel talk of the exhibition “Clear River, Calm Sea”. St. Katharinenkirche, Hamburg, 11/2022.

TENG, Yuning. “Silent Memory: Harrison Forman’s Wartime Photographs and Images of the Shanghai Lockdown”. Presentation at “Mobile Memories”: Annual Conference of the International Research Project “Bilderfahrzeuge. Aby Warburg’s Legacy and the Future of Iconology”, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, 11/ 2022.

TENG, Yuning. “Artists’ Work against Corona in China”. Talk at The Indiana University Global Gateway Network Webinar Series “Art in the time of Corona”, hosted by Indiana University Global Gateway Network, 05/2020.

TENG, Yuning. “The Refabrication of Napoleon”. Presentation at “Arts, Power, and Politics”: Second Spring Academy for Young Chinese Art Historians. German Center for Art History Paris. Paris, 05/2019.

TENG, Yuning, “Art Spaces in China”.Presentation at International Association of Art in Germany (Internationale Gesellschaft der Bildenden Künste). Berlin, 09/2007.