The purpose of this timeline is to show Oscar Wilde's references to nineteenth-century painters around the time he wrote (and revised) The Picture of Dorian Gray. This timeline links five works by Wilde--"The Portrait of Mr. W. H." (1889), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and "The Decay of Lying" and "The Critic as Artist" (both from his essay collection Intentions, 1891)--with paintings by artists he references within the work, also viewable in the linked gallery.

This timeline traces the development of 神州詩社 Shenzhou Poetry Society, the major events of its core members, including 溫瑞安 Woon Swee Oan and 方娥真 Fang E-chen, their mentors, contemporaries, and close friends such as 金庸 Jin Yong, 朱西甯 Chu Hsi-ning, etc., alongside important historical and political events in the Sinophone world (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore).