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18th Century Chinoiserie: the Orientalist Relationship between China and the West Shaped Through Art

Authors

Zhiyu Lin

Rubric:Study of art
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Annotation

This paper explores the early history surrounding chinoiserie artworks in the 18th century and earlier to argue that an Orientalist relationship exists between the East and West. I will first analyze how the reliability of chinoiserie artists’ sources affected how China is stereotyped. Then, the focus will turn to the role of patronage in chinoiserie and europeanerie and how the West and East developed a complicated power relationship through their artistic treatment of foreign culture. Throughout the paper, Said’s theory of Orientalism and Spivak’s theory of the subaltern will apply to visual art produced by Chinese and European artists. As part of the conclusion, I will discuss early chinoiserie’s legacies in the modern and contemporary world.

Keywords

sino-European relations
chinoiserie
Orientalism
history of art

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