Taiwan's Imagined Geography: Chinese Colonial Travel Writing and Pictures, 1683-1895 (Harvard East Asian Monographs) - Hardcover
Synopsis
Until 300 years ago, the Chinese considered Taiwan a "land beyond the seas," a "ball of mud" inhabited by "naked and tattooed savages." The incorporation of this island into the Qing empire in the seventeenth century and its evolution into a province by the late nineteenth century involved not only a reconsideration of imperial geography but also a reconceptualization of the Chinese domain. The annexation of Taiwan was only one incident in the much larger phenomenon of Qing expansionism into frontier areas that resulted in a doubling of the area controlled from Beijing and the creation of a multi-ethnic polity. The author argues that travelers' accounts and pictures of frontiers such as Taiwan led to a change in the imagined geography of the empire. In representing distant lands and ethnically diverse peoples of the frontiers to audiences in China proper, these works transformed places once considered non-Chinese into familiar parts of the empire and thereby helped to naturalize Qing expansionism.
By viewing Taiwan-China relations as a product of the history of Qing expansionism, the author contributes to our understanding of current political events in the region.
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About the Author
Emma J. Teng is Professor of Chinese Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Taiwan's Imagined Geography. Chinese Colonial Travel Writing and Pictures, 1683-1895
Published by
Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2004
ISBN 10: 0674014510
ISBN 13: 9780674014510
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Hardcover
Seller: Pallas Books Antiquarian Booksellers, Leiden, Netherlands
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cloth, 8vo xix+370 pp., 34 ills., 15 color plates Taiwan, history, China; very good condition. Seller Inventory # 32072
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Taiwan's Imagined Geography: Chinese Colonial Travel Writing and Pictures, 1683-1895 (Harvard East Asian Monographs)
Published by
Harvard University Asia Center, 2004
ISBN 10: 0674014510
ISBN 13: 9780674014510
Used
Hardcover
Seller: Grey Matter Books, Hadley, MA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. Fine, attractive glossy illustrated dust jacket, sturdy gray cloth boards, khaki endpapers, inside is bright and clean. Seller Inventory # 005224
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Taiwan's Imagined Geography: Chinese Colonial Travel Writing and Pictures, 1683-1895
Published by
Harvard University Asia Center, Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London, 2004
ISBN 10: 0674014510
ISBN 13: 9780674014510
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Jorge Welsh Books, Lisboa, Portugal
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Included. 1st Edition. English text.; Hardcover (with dust jacket).; 16 x 23.5 cm; 0.7 kg; 370 pages with a few illustrations.; Used with minor signs of wear. The dust jacket is now protected with a clearcover.; Harvard East Asian Monographs 230.; Until 350 years ago, the Chinese considered Taiwan a "savage island" beyond the pale of Chinese civilization. When the Qing conquered the island in 1683, the court debated the value of colonizing this "ball of mud". Yet, two centuries later, in 1895, Chinese writers lamented the island's cession to Japan as a loss of sacred national territory. Taiwan's trajectory from "savage island" to China's "sovereign territory" is the subject of this book. The author argues that colonial travel writing, ethnographic illustrations, and maps were central to this transformation and that traveler's representations of Taiwan played a vital role in expressing and producing Chinese ideologies of imperial expansion and race. At the same time, travel writing and images of the frontiers transformed the imagined geography of the Chinese empire itself, as the Qing doubled the empire's territory. By representing distant lands and frontier peoples to audiences in China proper, these works converted places once considered non-Chinese into familiar parts or the empire. They dramatically changed the idea of the geographic and ethnic boundaries of "China" - creating the imagined geography behind PRC conceptions of China's "sovereign territory" and its claims to places like Taiwan and Tibet. This book challenges prevailing preconceptions of the "colonizer" and "colonized" by examining a non-Western imperial power and its representations of colonial "others" and suggests the possibility of meeting points between Western and Chinese colonial discourses. This work further debunks the notion that Taiwan has been a part of China since antiquity by showing how the Taiwan-China relation emerged from the history of Qing colonialism. Seller Inventory # 750B
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