Curatorship of the Chinese art collection of the Freer Gallery of Art began in 1920, when the first Director, John Ellerton Lodge was hired. During the period when Lodge and his staff curated the Far Eastern art collections, the curatorial staff was small, curatorial areas and titles were less defined, and visiting curators were used to help maintain the collection. Both Lodge and Archibald Gibson Wenley, the following Director, were American pioneers in Chinese art, language, and history and contributed their knowledge to make additions to and studying the Chinese art collection during their tenures. Incumbents of Curatorial - Chinese Art report to the Chief Curator, or Curatorial Chair, which was created in 1998.

Lodge and his staff curated the Far Eastern art collections from 1920 to 1942, when he died. Notable on this staff was Carl Whiting Bishop who made two trips to China in the interest of creating a more favorable environment for American research. He was Associate Curator, 1929-1934, and Assistant in Archeology from 1934 until his death in 1942. One of Bishop's field assistants in China was Wenley, who thereafter began an intensive, seven-year education program in Far Eastern arts and language designed by Lodge himself. Wenley served as Associate in Research, 1942-1943 and Director, 1943-1962. James F. Cahill served as Associate Curator, Chinese Art, 1956-1965. Then William Trousdale was Associate Curator, Chinese Art from 1965-1967. Next, Thomas Lawton served as Assistant Curator, Chinese Art, 1968-1969; Associate Curator, Chinese Art, 1969-70; Curator, Chinese Art, 1970-1972; Assistant Director, 1972-1977; and Director, 1977-1988. Lawton retired in 1987 in order to focus on the study of Ancient Chinese art, which he continued to do as Senior Research Scholar from 1987 to 2001. Hin-cheung Lovell served as Assistant Curator, Chinese Art, 1969-1974, and Associate Curator, Chinese Art, 1974-1979. Shen Fu was Associate Curator, Chinese Art from 1979-1983, and Curator, Chinese Art, 1983-1994. Jan Stuart became Assistant Curator, Chinese Art in 1988 and remains so to the present. Jenny F. So served as Associate Curator, Ancient Chinese Art from 1990 until she advanced to Curator, 1996- . Joseph Chang joined the Curatorial - Chinese Art staff after 1997 and is currently still working there.

Curatorial - Chinese Art conducts research; publishes; lectures; studies and translates texts, seals, and artifacts; and provides expert opinions on provenance, age, quality, or other significance about the Freer/Sackler artifacts of Chinese art. Research and lectures take place both in these galleries and in other research sites in this country and abroad. Some of the study of Far Eastern ceramics was done separately by Curatorial - Ceramics and its predecessors.