Preface; Diagrams, Tables and Illustrations; Introduction; Chapter One Facing the Seas; Chapter Two "The Inconsistency of the Seas"; Chapter Three Feeding China; Chapter Four Cette Merveilleuse Machine; Chapter Five Les Palais Européens; Chapter Six "Wind of the West"; Chapter Seven Pattern and Variation: Indigenisation; Chapter Eight "Race for Oriental Opulence"; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index
Summary
This volume challenges the "Walled Kingdom" perspective. China reached out to the seas far more actively than historians have allowed, while the maritime world shaped China, Qing China in particular, much more than the continental world. It gave birth to and defined Chinese modernity
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-352) and index
