Download or read book Anglo Chinese Encounters Since 1800 written by Wang Gungwu and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-04-07 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A penetrating and sophisticated 2003 account of the relationship between China and imperial Britain.
Download or read book British Naturalists in Qing China written by Fa-ti FAN and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Western scientific interest in China focused primarily on natural history. Prominent scholars in Europe as well as Westerners in China, including missionaries, merchants, consular officers, and visiting plant hunters, eagerly investigated the flora and fauna of China. Yet despite the importance and extent of this scientific activity, it has been entirely neglected by historians of science. This book is the first comprehensive study on this topic. In a series of vivid chapters, Fa-ti Fan examines the research of British naturalists in China in relation to the history of natural history, of empire, and of Sino-Western relations. The author gives a panoramic view of how the British naturalists and the Chinese explored, studied, and represented China's natural world in the social and cultural environment of Qing China. Using the example of British naturalists in China, the author argues for reinterpreting the history of natural history, by including neglected historical actors, intellectual traditions, and cultural practices. His approach moves beyond viewing the history of science and empire within European history and considers the exchange of ideas, aesthetic tastes, material culture, and plants and animals in local and global contexts. This compelling book provides an innovative framework for understanding the formation of scientific practice and knowledge in cultural encounters. Table of Contents: Acknowledgments Introduction I. The Port 1. Natural History in a Chinese Entrepà ́t 2. Art, Commerce, and Natural History II. The Land 3. Science and Informal Empire 4. Sinology and Natural History 5. Travel and Fieldwork in the Interior Epilogue Appendix: Selected Biographical Notes Abbreviations Notes Index Fa-ti Fan's study of the encounter between the British culture of the naturalist and the Chinese culture of the Qing is both a delight and a revelation. The topic has scarcely been addressed by historians of science, and this work fills important gaps in our knowledge of British scientific practice in a noncolonial context and of Chinese reactions to Western science in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In addition to the culture of Victorian naturalists and Sinology, Fan shows an admirable grasp of visual representation in science, Chinese taxonomic schemes, Chinese export art, British imperial scholarship, and journeys of exploration. His treatment of the China trade and descriptions of Chinese markets and nurseries are especially welcome. I learned a great deal, and I strongly recommend this book. --Philip Rehbock, author of Philosophical Naturalists: Themes in Early Nineteenth-Century British Biology By focusing on the experiences of British naturalists in China during a time when it was gradually being opened up to foreign influences, Fan makes at least two important contributions to history of science: He gives us an authoritative study of British naturalists in China (as far as I know the only one of its kind), and he forces us to rethink some of our categories for doing history of science, including how we conceive of the relationship between science and imperialism, and between Western naturalist and native. Fan's scholarship is meticulous, with careful attention to detail, and his prose is clear, controlled, and succinct. --Bernard Lightman, editor of Victorian Science in Context
Download or read book Chinese Encounters written by Inge Morath and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 1981 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Frontier Encounters written by Franck Billé and published by Open Book Publishers. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China and Russia are rising economic and political powers that share thousands of miles of border. Despite their proximity, their interactions with each other - and with their third neighbour Mongolia - are rarely discussed. Although the three countries share a boundary, their traditions, languages and worldviews are remarkably different. Frontier Encounters presents a wide range of views on how the borders between these unique countries are enacted, produced, and crossed. It sheds light on global uncertainties: China's search for energy resources and the employment of its huge population, Russia's fear of Chinese migration, and the precarious independence of Mongolia as its neighbours negotiate to extract its plentiful resources. Bringing together anthropologists, sociologists and economists, this timely collection of essays offers new perspectives on an area that is currently of enormous economic, strategic and geo-political relevance.
Download or read book Encounters written by Cynthia Y. Ning and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Level 1: Student books 1 and 2 were published in 2012. Level 2: Student books 3 and 4 were published in 2016 -- Introduction.
Download or read book Creating the Opium War written by Hao Gao and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2019-12-20 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Creating the Opium War examines British imperial attitudes towards China during their early encounters from the Macartney embassy to the outbreak of the Opium War – a deeply consequential event which arguably reshaped relations between China and the West in the next century. It makes the first attempt to bring together the political history of Sino-western relations and the cultural studies of British representations of China, as a new way of explaining the origins of the conflict. The book focuses on a crucial period (1792–1840), which scholars such as Kitson and Markley have recently compared in importance to that of American and French Revolutions. By examining a wealth of primary materials, some in more detail than ever before, this study reveals how the idea of war against China was created out of changing British perceptions of the country.
Download or read book The Great Encounter of China and the West 1500 1800 written by David E. Mungello and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2005 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the twenty-first century, China has emerged as the leading challenger to U.S. global dominance. China is often seen as a sleeping giant, emerging out of poverty, backwardness, and totalitarianism and moving toward modernization. However, history shows that this vast country is not newly awakening, but rather returning to its previous state of world eminence. With this compelling perspective in mind, D. E. Mungello convincingly shows that contemporary relations between China and the West are far more like the 1500-1800 period than the more recent past. This fully revised second edition retains the clear and concise qualities of its predecessor, while developing important new social and cultural themes such as gender, sexuality, music, and technology. Drawing from the author's thirty years of experience teaching world history, this book illustrates the importance of history to students and general readers trying to understand today's world.
Download or read book Making the New World Their Own written by Qiong Zhang and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-05-26 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Making the New World Their Own, Qiong Zhang offers a systematic study of how Chinese scholars in the late Ming and early Qing came to understand that the earth is shaped as a globe. This notion arose from their encounters with Matteo Ricci, Giulio Aleni and other Jesuits. These encounters formed a fascinating chapter in the early modern global integration of space. It unfolded as a series of mutually constitutive and competing scholarly discourses that reverberated in fields from cosmology, cartography and world geography to classical studies. Zhang demonstrates how scholars such as Xiong Mingyu, Fang Yizhi, Jie Xuan, Gu Yanwu, and Hu Wei appropriated Jesuit ideas to rediscover China’s place in the world and reconstitute their classical tradition. Winner of the Chinese Historians in the United States (CHUS) "2015 Academic Excellence Award"
Download or read book Meeting Place written by Elizabeth Sinn and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2017-11-01 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meeting Place: Encounters across Cultures in Hong Kong, 1841–1984 presents detailed empirical studies of day-to-day interactions between people of different cultures in a variety of settings. The broad conclusion—that there was sustained and multilevel contact between men and women of different cultures—will challenge and complicate traditional historical understandings of Hong Kong as a city either of rigid segregation or of pervasive integration. Given its geographical location, its status as a free port, and its role as a center of migration, Hong Kong was an extraordinarily porous place. People of diverse cultures met and mingled here, often with unexpected results. The case studies in this book draw both on previously unused sources and on a rigorous rereading of familiar materials. They explore relationships between and within the Japanese, Eurasian, German, Portuguese, British, Chinese, and other communities in areas of activity that have often been overlooked—from the schoolroom and the family home to the courtroom and international trading concern, from the gardens of Government House to boarding houses for destitute sailors. In their diverse experiences we see not just East meeting West, but also East meeting East, and South meeting North—in fact, a range of complex and dynamic processes that seem to render obsolete any simplistic conception of “East meets West.” “Hong Kong’s people have too often been ignored in histories of this colonial port. This important volume restores them through a series of fascinating case studies of connections, collaborations, and conflicts across diverse cultures, languages, and interests. Here we have the bedroom, law court, restaurant, school, dockyard, and offices amongst the other places where Hong Kong’s history was really made.” —Robert Bickers, author of Out of China: How the Chinese Ended the Era of Western Domination “With richly researched studies of heretofore little-known aspects of Hong Kong society and history, Meeting Place offers perceptive insights into the city’s vital role as a focal point for the intersection of diverse cultures, social classes, institutions, and practices. Taking us far beyond the hackneyed stereotype of ‘East meets West,’ this volume provides a kaleidoscopic view of the rich multiplicity, multi-directionality, and hybridity of this global hub.” —Emma J. Teng, author of Eurasian: Mixed Identities in the United States, China, and Hong Kong, 1842–1943
Download or read book Encountering China written by Michael J. Sandel and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-08 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the West, Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel is a thinker of unusual prominence. In China, he’s a phenomenon, greeted by vast crowds. China Daily reports that he has acquired a popularity “usually reserved for Hollywood movie stars.” China Newsweek declared him the “most influential foreign figure” of the year. In Sandel the Chinese have found a guide through the ethical dilemmas created by the nation’s swift embrace of a market economy—a guide whose communitarian ideas resonate with aspects of China’s own rich and ancient philosophical traditions. Chinese citizens often describe a sense that, in sprinting ahead, they have bounded past whatever barriers once held back the forces of corruption and moral disregard. The market economy has lifted millions from poverty but done little to define ultimate goals for individuals or the nation. Is the market all there is? In this context, Sandel’s charismatic, interactive lecturing style, which roots moral philosophy in real-world scenarios, has found an audience struggling with questions of their responsibility to one another. Encountering China brings together leading experts in Confucian and Daoist thought to explore the connections and tensions revealed in this unlikely episode of Chinese engagement with the West. The result is a profound examination of diverse ideas about the self, justice, community, gender, and public good. With a foreword by Evan Osnos that considers Sandel’s fame and the state of moral dialogue in China, the book will itself be a major contribution to the debates that Sandel sparks in East and West alike.
Download or read book Encounters with Chinese Writers written by Annie Dillard and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chinese and U.S. writers try to bridge the culture gap in this “splendid little book” from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (The Washington Post Book World). Winner of the New England Book Show Award It’s been a pilgrimage for Annie Dillard: from Tinker Creek to the Galapagos Islands, the high Arctic, the Pacific Northwest, the Amazon Jungle—and now, China. This informative narrative is full of fascinating people: Chinese people, mostly writers, who encounter American writers in various bizarre circumstances in both China and the U.S. There is a toasting scene at a Chinese banquet; a portrait of a bitter, flirtatious diplomat at a dance hall; a formal meeting with Chinese writers; a conversation with an American businessman in a hotel lobby; an evening with long-suffering Chinese intellectuals in their house; a scene in the Beijing foreigners’ compound with an excited European journalist; and a scene of unwarranted hilarity at the Beijing Library. In the U.S., there is Allen Ginsberg having a bewildering conversation in Disneyland with a Chinese journalist; there is the lovely and controversial writer Zhang Jie suiting abrupt mood changes to a variety of actions; and there is the fiercely spirited Jiange Zilong singing in a Connecticut dining room, eyes closed. These are real stories told with a warm and lively humor, with a keen eye for paradox, and with fresh insight into the human drama. “Engrossing and thought-provoking.” —Irving Yucheng Lo, author of Sunflower Splendor ‘Keenly observed, often comic encounters.” —The New York Times Book Review “Dillard distills her encounters in lively anecdotes, sketches and vignettes. Her charm lies in the simplicity of her storytelling.” —Publishers Weekly
Download or read book Road to Heaven written by Bill Porter and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1994-01 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the Chinese have, historically, always looked up to and encouraged their hermits, Bill Porter wondered whether these people still existed in China today. Roaming the landscape of the Chungnan Mountains, he discovered that they do indeed still flourish, and have extraordinary stories to tell.
Download or read book Encounters With Qi written by David Eisenberg and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1995-06-06 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Bill Moyers visited China to explore the mysteries, and the healing potential, of Chinese medicine for his acclaimed PBS series "Healing and the Mind," he sought out David Eisenberg as his guide. For every reader fascinated by the seemingly fantastical aspects of Chinese medicine, from acupuncture addiction to Qi Gong martial arts, this captivating book offers deeper and more detailed encounters with the physicians and patients, the mystics and the martial artists, who were featured on television. Here is a sympathetic, yet objective appraisal of the concept of Qi (chee), the vital energy which is the unifying principle of Chinese medicine. Here are Chinese sages from the Yellow Emperor of 2700 B.C. to the very modern Dr. Fang, who remarks, "Acupuncture without Qi is only as effective as one man's sticking needles in another." And here are Chinese people from all walks of life as they seek relief, through a rebalancing of their Qi, their vital energy, for ailments from colds to cancer.
Download or read book Modern Chinese Cultural Encounters written by Judy Zhu and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2009 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a Chinese language professor at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLI), Judy Zhu believes that raising cultural awareness is a necessity and should be an ongoing effort regardless of how much one already knows about a foreign language. Modern Chinese Cultural Encounters aims to provide Westerners, especially Americans studying or traveling in China, with a unique Chinese perspective and reference.
Download or read book Decisive Encounters written by Odd Arne Westad and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Though the book highlights the military aspects of the war, it also shows how these took place alongside profound changes in Chinese politics, society, and culture - changes that ultimately contributed as much to the character of today's China as did the major battles. By analyzing the war as an international and not simply a domestic conflict, the author explains why so much of the present legitimacy of the Beijing government derives from its successes during the late 1940s, and reveals how the antagonism between China and the United States, so important to current international affairs, was born."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Britain s Encounter with Revolutionary China 1949 54 written by James Tuck-Hong Tang and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-07-27 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines Britain's recognition of the newly established Peoples' Republic of China in 1950 and the developments leading to the establishment of formal Anglo-Chinese diplomatic relations in 1954. The importance of the USA in Anglo-Chinese relations is also highlighted by this study. Based on archival materials and interviews, this is an attempt to apply a decision-making framework to study the formulation and implementation of Britain's China policy and to explore revolutionary China's conduct in international relations.
Download or read book China Hands and Old Cantons written by John M. Carroll and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early encounters between Britain and China are best known for igniting the First Opium War. Yet they also produced an enormous archive of writings by Britons who spent time in China. Frustrated with the restrictions imposed by the Manchu rulers of the Qing Empire, and unable to live or travel elsewhere apart from Canton and Macao, these diplomats, traders, missionaries, travelers, and military officers devoted thousands of pages to understanding China, its people, and their civilization. In China Hands and Old Cantons, John M. Carroll draws on this wealth of memoirs, ethnographic studies, travel accounts, narratives of military action, translations, and newspaper articles to trace Britons’ wide-ranging, often thoughtful perspectives on China, long before anyone considered going to war. They discussed almost everything they saw and speculated about much of what they could not see—including the size of China’s massive population, the extent of infanticide, the origins and practice of foot binding, and the legality and morality of the opium trade. They claimed that only those who had been there could truly understand the Middle Kingdom and that their firsthand experience gave them and their publications an advantage over those in Britain and elsewhere. Carroll brings a seminal period in the Anglo-Chinese relationship, which revolved around tea and opium, to life through the words of those who experienced it intimately.
