Silent travellers? : native Chinese in Europe as agents of Sino-European interaction, 1650-1830

Abstract

The thesis focuses on how early Chinese visitors to Europe contributed to the spread of knowledge about China in the Western world, between 1650 and 1830. It is argued that the relative importance of Chinese travellers in the development of European proto-sinology has been underestimated and neglected. Early Chinese visitors who reached Europe provided useful first-hand information that European scholars could not have accessed elsewhere. The study focuses on thirteen native Chinese individuals who visited parts of Europe that make up the modern-day countries Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Austria, and Italy. Focusing on these marginal travellers enriches our understanding of who were the agents of cross-cultural exchange, besides the well-studied philosophers and Jesuit missionaries. This microhistorical approach serves to counterbalance the civilisational, macro-historical perspective that is common in studies of Sino-Western encounters. Few transnational, comparative studies have focused on the early encounters between Europeans and the early Chinese in Europe, and how these influenced the Western ideas of Chinese culture. Building on theories by Mary Louise Pratt and Kapil Raj, the thesis argues that subordinated or marginal groups could engage with and reshape Western ideas about themselves and their own cultures. The thirteen travellers thereby serve to exemplify the agency of native go-betweens. They were not passive sources of knowledge, but active ones: they had agency in the processes of knowledge circulation and were subjects rather than objects. The thesis comprises three thematic chapters. The first chapter argues that the visitors were an important source of linguistic knowledge, about the Chinese language(s). The second chapter argues that Chinese visitors were crucial for the understanding of the Chinese-language collections of the Bodleian Library and the British Museum Library. The third chapter argues that for Chinese material objects in Europe to be fully understood, Chinese subjects were needed. The prevalence of imported Chinese items in Europe gave the visitors ample opportunities to explain and exemplify. The educational level and linguistic skills of the travellers were crucial factors that decided whether they were able to convey knowledge while in Europe. Even though they were perhaps not considered highly educated back home, the education they had was highly esteemed in Europe. Another crucial factor was moving in the right circles. For a Chinese subject to make an impression on a society, he needed to associate with the society’s upper social stratum. Thus, going to Europe entailed an elevation in social status for many of the travellers, due to the general European sinophilia of the 17th and 18th centuries. However, it became increasingly difficult to satisfy the curiosity of the Europeans. Unlike the proto-sinologists of the 17th and 18th centuries, the academic sinologists of the early 19th century showed little interest in using the many Chinese that started arriving in Europe after 1780, since they had little knowledge of classical texts and erudition. This thesis therefore identifies the period between 1650 and 1830 as a significant era for Sino-European exchange facilitated by native Chinese visitors.