The romance of China
Subtitle: excursions to China in U.S. culture, 1776-1876
By: John Rogers Haddad.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 348
ISBN-13: 9780231130943; 9780231504041
Subjects: Americans -- Travel -- China -- History -- 19th century; Public opinion -- United States -- History -- 19th century; China -- In popular culture; United States -- Civilization -- Chinese influences; United States -- Intellectual life -- 19th century; China -- Foreign public opinion, American -- History -- 19th century; China -- Civilization -- Public opinion -- History -- 19th century; China -- Description and travel; United States -- Relations -- China; China -- Relations -- United States
Description: "John Rogers Haddad's analytically rich and methodologically complex work attends to various appearances of Chinese culture in America throughout the nineteenth century. Through a close examination of museums, panoramic paintings, blue and white ceramics, tea advertisements, travelogues, missionary accounts, children's literature, and world fairs, Haddad counters the idea that imperialist domination and racial prejudice eclipsed cultural exchange between Asia and the West during this period. Americans who journeyed to China tended to acquire a degree of respect and admiration for the complex civilization they encountered. Upon returning to the United States, they assembled displays, shows, books, and other cultural forms designed to share their knowledge with ordinary Americans. Haddad's research also reveals the surprising fact that the Chinese played a large but subtle role in shaping the representation of their culture in the United States. Far from being passive, the Chinese exerted substantial control over China's exported image."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Xanadu : an envoy at the throne of a monarch; title: Romantic domesticity : a Chinese world invented at home; title: Pursuing the China effect : a country described through marketing; title: China in miniature : Nathan Dunn's Chinese museum; title: A floating ethnology : the strange voyage of the Chinese junk Keying; title: God's China : the Middle Kingdom of Samuel Wells Williams; title: The cultural fruits of diplomacy : Chinese museum and panorama; title: The ugly face of China : Bayard Taylor's travels in Asia; title: Traditional China and Chinese Yankees : the Centennial Exposition of 1876.