Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Fan, Fa-ti, 1964-

Title British naturalists in Qing China : science, empire, and cultural encounter / Fa-ti Fan
Published Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2004

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xi, 238 pages) : illustrations
Contents Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- I The Port -- 1 Natural History in a Chinese EntrepĂ´t -- 2 Art, Commerce, and Natural History -- II THE LAND -- 3 Science and Informal Empire -- 4 Sinology and Natural History -- 5 Travel and Fieldwork in the Interior -- Epilogue -- Appendix: Selected Biographical Notes -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Index
Summary Annotation In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Western scientific interest in China focused primarily on natural history. Prominent scholars in Europe as well as Westerners in China, including missionaries, merchants, consular officers, and visiting plant hunters, eagerly investigated the flora and fauna of China. Yet despite the importance and extent of this scientific activity, it has been entirely neglected by historians of science. This book is the first comprehensive study on this topic. In a series of vivid chapters, Fa-ti Fan examines the research of British naturalists in China in relation to the history of natural history, of empire, and of Sino-Western relations. The author gives a panoramic view of how the British naturalists and the Chinese explored, studied, and represented China's natural world in the social and cultural environment of Qing China. Using the example of British naturalists in China, the author argues for reinterpreting the history of natural history, by including neglected historical actors, intellectual traditions, and cultural practices. His approach moves beyond viewing the history of science and empire within European history and considers the exchange of ideas, aesthetic tastes, material culture, and plants and animals in local and global contexts. This compelling book provides an innovative framework for understanding the formation of scientific practice and knowledge in cultural encounters
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 163-165) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Natural history -- Research -- China -- History -- Qing dynasty, 1644-1912
British -- China -- History -- Qing dynasty, 1644-1912
Research.
Natural History -- history
Research
research (function)
NATURE -- Essays.
NATURE -- Reference.
TRAVEL -- Special Interest -- Ecotourism.
HISTORY -- Asia -- China.
Research
British
Natural history -- Research
Qing Dynasty (China)
SUBJECT China -- History -- Qing dynasty, 1644-1912. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85024078
China
Subject China
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780674036680
0674036689
9780674011434
0674011430