Associate Professor of Art History Stephen J. Goldberg published an essay, "Modern Woodcuts and the Rise of a Chinese Avant-garde," in Modern China, 1937-2008: Towards a Universal Pictorial Language, ed. by Jaochim Hormann, with an interview with Xu Bing and contributions by Stephen J. Goldberg, Renee Covalucci and Leslie Eliet.

This essay explores the complex convergence of political forces and historical events that brought forth this seemingly simple art form. It also examines the innovative formal strategies and thematic resources woodcut artists developed in response to the rapidly developing conditions during the 1930s and 1940s and since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.