Ch. 9: When the Local is the Global: Case Studies in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Exposition Projects
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Description
This chapter appears in the book, Expanding Nationalisms at World's Fairs: Identity, Diversity, and Exchange, 1851-1915. Edited by David Raizman and Ethan Robey.
Chapter Abstract: This chapter explores the ways in which an early twentieth-century contingent of Chinese state and commercial elites, presents a Chinese nation at a series of national and international expositions held between 1904 and 1915, and discusses among diverse communities with interests in how "China" was construed at these events. It describes a sequence of Chinese exposition projects over approximately a decade at the start of the twentieth century, beginning with Chinese participation in the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase International Exposition of 1904, a project overseen by the Qing dynasty's Maritime Customs Service. China's involvement in its own national displays began in 1873, as European and American employees of the Qing Dynasty's Imperial Customs Service served as managers of Chinese presentations at the Vienna World's Fair. The position of the Chinese nation and its representation in a global arena was also threatened, a problem Chen Qi and Chen Huide framed almost poetically in an invocation of cultural icons.
ISBN
9780367787165
Publication Date
2017
Publisher
Routledge, Part of the Taylor & Francis Group
City
London
Keywords
China, World's Fair, Political conditions, Social conditions
Disciplines
Asian History | Political History | Social History
Recommended Citation
Fernsebner, Susan R., "Ch. 9: When the Local is the Global: Case Studies in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Exposition Projects" (2017). Books and Chapters. 13.
https://scholar.umw.edu/hist_amst_books/13