This project challenges a lot of things that Modernism assumes to be given. Also, I have a personal interest in diasporic movements and to be able to follow them so personally is a fascinating exercise.

Ivan, Student Researcher 2021

This project has been of great personal value to me. Not only was I able to deeply engage in academic research and work together with other student researchers, I also had the opportunity to think about the reverberation of modernism into our present day while being sensitive to the differences in past and present lived experiences.

Jingzhi, Student Researcher 2021

Ling Shu Hua’s Friendship Scroll is a document that reorients Modernism Studies in a truly transnational direction, both in the singularity of its provenance and in its evolution in a continual process of reception. The scroll deserves far greater recognition globally, and Stalla’s project seeks to illuminate the ways in which it embodies some of the most exciting developments in literary studies and visual cultures today.

Mark Byron, Associate Professor of English, University of Sydney

Ling Shu Hua's Friendship Scroll is a dynamic archival object that has taken us on an historical journey from China to Europe and back around the globe. I have loved developing sound pieces that help to layer the histories we know, imagine those we don’t, and to blend the past with the present. Through this project we are placing these inscriptions in conversation with one another and with those of us researching and imagining now the relationships and ideas of the artists and scholars of the modernist era.

Diana Chester, Lecturer in Media Production, University of Sydney

Trying to decipher Ling Shu Hau’s scroll rewarded me with a rich display of interdisciplinarity: there is history, art, language, poetry and travel all woven together. The project challenged me to locate the familiar in a totally foreign arrangement.

Madi Lommen, Student Researcher 2020

When I saw the scroll I was amazed. I haven't seen a scroll that is so long and the pictures and writings are quite small...quite amazing. I feel it was meant to be that Heidi contacted Heartroom Gallery to ask if someone could translate the scroll, and also she was interested in coming to the Chinese calligraphy class taught by Mr Chew. When Heidi shared that she was working on Ling Shu Hua, the artist who owned the scroll....would you believe it....Mr Chew had her book, Dreams from a Mountain Lover’s Studio!!

Mei Ho, Artist and Owner, Heartroom Gallery

With the opening of the scroll, it’s amazing to see that so many artists are devoted to exploring the integration of the East and the West in the fields of art in the early 21th century. It not only provides us another way of rethinking about the diversity of modernism and cosmopolitanism, but also gives another example of cultural integration and communication between the East and the West.

Chen Si, Doctoral Candidate, Comparative Literature, Tsinghua University