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b'We\\u2019ve asked members of the Getty community to share short reflections on works of art they\\u2019re thinking about right now. These recordings feature stories related to our daily lives.\\n\\n\\n\\nThis week, Amanda Berman considers how studying a set of eighteenth-century French porcelain sculptures reveals hidden racism and what that might mean for us today. To learn more about this artwork, visit:\\xa0https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/5617.\\n\\n\\n\\nOver the next few weeks, look for new recordings every other Tuesday.\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nTranscript\\n\\n\\n\\nJAMES CUNO: Hi, I\\u2019m Jim Cuno, president of the J. Paul Getty Trust. In a new podcast feature, we\\u2019re asking members of the Getty community to share short reflections on works of art they\\u2019re thinking about right now. We\\u2019ll be releasing new recordings every other Tuesday. I hope you\\u2019ll find these stories about our daily lives\\u2014from laundry on the line to a dog at a scholar\\u2019s feet\\u2014thought provoking, illuminating, and entertaining.\\n\\n\\n\\nAMANDA BERMAN: I\\u2019m Amanda Berman, and I\\u2019m a curator of sculpture and decorative arts. While following news on the pandemic, I\\u2019ve been struck by stories of the targeted harassment of Chinese people and the boycotts and vandalization of Chinese-owned businesses. Many of my friends have reacted with shock and outrage, asking, \\u201cHow could this happen here?\\u201d This question got me thinking about the subtle, less obvious forms of racism that foster and support the overtly racist behavior. And it reminded me of these \\u201cdecorative groups\\u201d in the Getty\\u2019s collection.\\n\\n\\n\\nThey were constructed in the mid-1700s in France. I say constructed because they\\u2019re made up of different elements that did not start off life together. Each one is a combination of a few Chinese porcelain objects made after the mid-1600s\\u2014figures of boys wearing Qing dynasty tunics and trousers, rocks, spheres, and lions. These porcelain items were imported to France, where a bronze caster combined them on gilt-bronze bases and added French porcelain flowers. So, the result is this invented thing which uses Chinese elements to create a European decorative item. They\\u2019re beautiful pieces, but knowing how they were made makes me a little uncomfortable. It\\u2019s clear the European craftsman didn\\u2019t understand the cultural origins of the original porcelain pieces, and they had no problem with decontextualizing these objects to turn them into something that played on stereotypes.\\n\\n\\n\\nThese decorative groups fit into a larger category of art from this time that featured Asian-inspired themes, to put it generously. There were furnishings and other objects that used Chinese materials in the construction of a European-designed piece, like these objects. And then there were objects created entirely in Europe, with European materials, made to look vaguely Asian or decorated with stereotypically Asian imagery like pagodas and people in kimonos. European craftspeople drew on styles from Persia to Japan, mixing and matching to create designs that seem strange and culturally insensitive today.\\n\\n\\n\\nRacist ideas about Asian people weren\\u2019t new in 18th century Europe. But increasing trade with Asia brought about a new fascination with Asian cultures and a rise in this Asian-inspired decorative style. This created and reinforced the idea of Asians as \\u201cother\\u201d\\u2014people who were not mainstream or didn\\u2019t fully belong. Exoticizing cultures, conflating them, and disregarding their distinct histories stereotypes and dehumanizes people from those cultures.\\n\\n\\n\\nSo I\\u2019ve been thinking about how these 18th century French objects relate to the question of how anti-Chinese racism can happen here. This obsession with Asian aesthetics, seen in this pair, is akin to cultural appropriation now. And I see a similar subtle racism in the model minority myth\\u2014another example of how Asians in America are considered not fully American, regardless of how many generations have lived here. Not to mention the long history of specifically anti-Chinese racism in US immigration laws.\\n\\n\\n\\nSu'