Tradition and Transformation commemorates Chu-Tsing Li's achievements as an educator and scholar with essays by friends and former students, marking his long teaching career at the University of Kansas and, in particular, his contribution to the field of Asian studies. The topics of the essays range from early Chinese art history to contemporary Chinese art.

When Chu-tsing Li arrived at the University of Kansas in 1966, it was with a mission: to establish the University as the leader in the Midwest, and eventually one of the important centers in the United States, for the study of Asian art. By the end of his teaching career in 1990, the program in Asian art had produced specialists in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean art and had trained and inspired numerous doctoral students, many of whom have gone on to become established scholars in their own right. In 1978 Dr. Li became the first Judith Harris Murphy Distinguished Professor of Art History at the University of Kansas.

Preface by: Marilyn Stokstad