“Gibbon paintings in China, Japan, and Korea: Historical distribution, production rate, and context”

by Thomas Geissmann, Anthropological Institute, University Zürich-Irchel

“The  gibbons’  role  in  Chinese  art  and  literature  was so important, that the genre also spread to Japan and Korea, although neither country ever belonged to the  gibbons’  habitat.  The  history  of  gibbon  paintings  has  only  rarely  been  studied.  The  role  of  gibbons  in  Chinese (and Japanese) culture has been examined in considerable  detail  by  Van  Gulik  (1967,  pp.  97-99)  and,  to  this  day,  every  serious  re-examination  of  this  topic  builds  up  on  Van  Gulik’s  monograph.”