Urban imaginaries: the framing of China trade paintings

Abstract

Qing Canton was a city of international trade attracting visitors and merchants who have left behind traces of their experiences in this intercultural port city. They wrote of the curious sounds and sights and purchased mementos and curios for themselves, as gifts, as merchandise, and fuelled a growing market in exotic wares that were neither wholly Chinese nor western. This type of objects, grouped under the rebus of 'China Trade' included paintings that recorded sights of people and places, offering a visual counterpart to their writings. But how was the image of Canton constr...