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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.
Catherine Pagani is Associate Professor, Asian Art History,
University of Alabama.
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