Britain's Chinese Eye : Literature, Empire, and Aesthetics in Nineteenth-Century Britain

"This book traces the intimate connections between Britain and China throughout the nineteenth century and argues for China's central impact on the British visual imagination. Chang brings together an unusual group of primary sources to investigate how nineteenth-century Britons looked at and represented Chinese people, places, and things, and how, in the process, ethnographic, geographic, and aesthetic representations of China shaped British writers' and artists' vision of their own lives and experiences. For many Britons, China was much more than a geographical location; it was also a way of seeing and being seen that could be either embraced as creative inspiration or rejected as contagious influence. In both cases, the idea of China's visual difference stood in negative contrast to Britain's evolving sense of the visual and literary real. To better grasp what Romantic and Victorian writers, artists, and architects were doing at home, we must also understand the foreign 'objects' found in their midst and what they were looking at abroad."-- Publisher's website Contents......Page 10 Introduction......Page 14 1. Garden......Page 36 Sir William Chambers and the Dissertation on Oriental Gardening......Page 41 The Macartney Mission of 1793 and the Qing Imperial Gardens......Page 50 Robert Fortune as Horticultural Spy in Racial Disguise......Page 69 2. Plate......Page 84 Romantic Satires on Blue and White China......Page 88 The Willow Pattern and George Meredith’s The Egoist......Page 101 Whistler and Rossetti as Collectors of Blue and White Porcelain......Page 110 3. Display Case and Den......Page 124 Exhibiting China in Victorian London......Page 128 Display Cases and Opium Dens in The Mystery of Edwin Drood......Page 138 Edwin Drood’s Inheritors......Page 146 4. Photograph......Page 154 Felice Beato and the Second Opium War......Page 159 Through China with John Thomson’s Camera......Page 165 “A Truthful Impression of the Country”: Isabella Bird......Page 176 Conclusion......Page 192 Notes......Page 200 Works Cited......Page 232 Index......Page 242 Stanford University Press Contents 10 Introduction 14 1. Garden 36 Sir William Chambers and the Dissertation on Oriental Gardening 41 The Macartney Mission of 1793 and the Qing Imperial Gardens 50 Robert Fortune as Horticultural Spy in Racial Disguise 69 2. Plate 84 Romantic Satires on Blue and White China 88 The Willow Pattern and George Meredith’s The Egoist 101 Whistler and Rossetti as Collectors of Blue and White Porcelain 110 3. Display Case and Den 124 Exhibiting China in Victorian London 128 Display Cases and Opium Dens in The Mystery of Edwin Drood 138 Edwin Drood’s Inheritors 146 4. Photograph 154 Felice Beato and the Second Opium War 159 Through China with John Thomson’s Camera 165 “A Truthful Impression of the Country”: Isabella Bird 176 Conclusion 192 Notes 200 Works Cited 232 Index 242 0804759456,9780804759458 This book traces the intimate connections between Britain and China throughout the nineteenth century and argues for China's central impact on the modern British visual imagination through a study of gardens, blue and white willow plates, the opium den, and the photograph, and literary texts.