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Forgeries have long been seen as ethical disruptions and intellectual threats to art history. Recent scholarships, however, have reconsidered them as reflections of cultural anxieties, desires for authenticity, and indicators of changing tastes. Offering close readings of the practices, languages, and techniques of forged paintings, bronze inscriptions, and art catalogs, this panel redirects the inquiry from “what forgery is” to “what forgery does,” and reframes forgeries not as inherently detrimental but as historically significant objects embedded in specific intellectual and cultural contexts with the complicated cultural, artistic, and historical meanings.

The four papers examine the complex interplay between forgeries and the formation of tastes, values, and art historical narratives in late imperial China. Both centering around the “Suzhou Fake Paintings,” Tongyun Yin analyzes the visual and textual strategies used in a 16th-century handscroll to create a dynamic space for nostalgic construction and deceptive fabrication, while Yutong Li examines workshop practices behind forged depictions of paintings of Tribute Bearers, challenging the notion of forgeries as mere deceptions and instead revealing them as dynamic participants in cultural production. Helena Chen-Abair discusses the rise of forged bronze inscriptions in 19th-century China and their impact on authentication practices and the scholar-collector community. Guo Jianping draws attention to the roles that annotations in painting catalogue—long overlooked materials—played in engaging with issues of forgery and authentication. Collectively, these papers propose a paradigmatic shift from an obsession with authenticity to a critical reevaluation of how forgeries inform or disrupt our perceptions of the past.