The period from the late sixteenth to the late eighteenth centuries was one of complex change for the Chinese. Europe was eagerly looking to the East with an interest in developing a China market, not just in commercial and diplomatic enterprises but in evangelical ventures as well. The resulting contacts produced significant cultural exchanges and appropriations, as well as misconceptions and stereotypes. Profoundly affected by these interactions were the areas of technology and the decorative arts. Europe became enamored ...
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The period from the late sixteenth to the late eighteenth centuries was one of complex change for the Chinese. Europe was eagerly looking to the East with an interest in developing a China market, not just in commercial and diplomatic enterprises but in evangelical ventures as well. The resulting contacts produced significant cultural exchanges and appropriations, as well as misconceptions and stereotypes. Profoundly affected by these interactions were the areas of technology and the decorative arts. Europe became enamored of Chinese style, and a fashion known as chinoiserie permeated the decorative arts. In China, one result of Sino-European contact was the introduction of a new and important technology: the Western mechanical clock. Called in Chinese zimingzhong, or "self-ringing bells," these elaborate clocks were used as status symbols, decorative items, and personal adornments, and only occasionally as timepieces. Most importantly, they were signifiers of cultural power: Europeans, whether missionaries or ambassadors, controlled the introduction of both object and technology, and they used this control to advantage in gaining access to the highest reaches of Chinese society. Through her focus on technology and the decorative arts, Catherine Pagani contributes to an overall understanding of the nature and extent of European influence in late Imperial China and of the complex interaction between these two cultures. This study's interdisciplinary approach will make it of interest to those in the fields of art history, the history of clockwork and of science and technology, Jesuit history, Qing-dynasty history, and Asian studies, as well as to the educated general reader.
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Add this copy of Eastern Magnificence & European Ingenuity: Clocks of to cart. $82.00, very good condition, Sold by Second Story Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Rockville, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by University of Michigan.
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Seller's Description:
Book. Octavo, 286 pages. In Very Good condition with a Very Good dust jacket. Spine red with white lettering. Dust jacket protected with a mylar covering. Mild rubbing to edges and corners of dust jacket. Light scuffing to front cover. Minor shelf wear to boards. Textblock clean. Shelved in Antiques. From the collection of Silvio Bedini. Bedini spent twenty five years at the Smithsonian Institution, serving as curator in the Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering in the new Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History) before serving as first Assistant Director then Deputy Director of the National Museum of History and Technology. He then served as Keeper of Rare Books at the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, before becoming a Historian Emeritus. He specialized in early scientific instruments. 1378966. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.
