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British Naturalists in Qing China: Science, Empire, and Cultural Encounter
Fa-Ti Fan
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Description for British Naturalists in Qing China: Science, Empire, and Cultural Encounter
Hardcover. This is a panoramic view of how British naturalists and the Chinese explored, studied and represented China's natural world in the social and cultural environment of Qing China. Num Pages: 268 pages, 10 halftones, 3 maps, 4 line illustrations. BIC Classification: 1FPC; 3JF; 3JH; HBT; PS. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 235 x 155 x 19. Weight in Grams: 567.
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.
Product Details
Publisher
Harvard University Press
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2004
Condition
New
Number of Pages
268
Place of Publication
Cambridge, Mass, United States
ISBN
9780674011434
SKU
V9780674011434
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-1
About Fa-Ti Fan
Fa-ti Fan is Assistant Professor of History at the State University of New York at Binghamton.
Reviews for British Naturalists in Qing China: Science, Empire, and Cultural Encounter
Fa-ti Fan pursues two mutually supporting goals in this meticulously researched, clearly written, and historiographically sophisticated examination of British naturalists' experiences in nineteenth-century China. The first is to reevaluate the broader formation of natural history. The second is to examine Britain's wider entanglement in China. By combining these objectives under the rubric of scientific imperialism, he injects life and wider relevance into his vivid exploration of the symbiotic, even integral, relationship between scientific and imperialist enterprises. The book has much to offer even to those with no particular interest in natural history...Fan's book bursts not only with big ideas, but with many small treats.
Richard Bellon Victorian Studies British Naturalists in Qing China makes excellent use of a vast array of archival and published material, including Chinese sources. It is clearly written and will be of interest to both academics and general readers concerned with the development of British science and natural history.
Randall Dodgen British Journal for the History of Science Fan has provided natural history devotees with a treasure trove of information, most of it new to the scholarly world...Perhaps even more importantly, Tan has provided us with a perspective on the reciprocal interaction between these naturalists and the indigenous culture that fascinated them and that was fascinated by them. This type of interpretive framework has been lacking from scholarly work in natural history and Tan should be commended for illustrating how and why this should be done.
Keith R. Benson History and Philosophy of Life Sciences 20070101 Both sections [of the book] are extremely interesting and well-researched. British Naturalists in Qing China offers fresh insights into the very many aspects of SinoBritish relations. It is particularly timely as China emerges as a world power.
Ruth Ginsberg SIDA
Richard Bellon Victorian Studies British Naturalists in Qing China makes excellent use of a vast array of archival and published material, including Chinese sources. It is clearly written and will be of interest to both academics and general readers concerned with the development of British science and natural history.
Randall Dodgen British Journal for the History of Science Fan has provided natural history devotees with a treasure trove of information, most of it new to the scholarly world...Perhaps even more importantly, Tan has provided us with a perspective on the reciprocal interaction between these naturalists and the indigenous culture that fascinated them and that was fascinated by them. This type of interpretive framework has been lacking from scholarly work in natural history and Tan should be commended for illustrating how and why this should be done.
Keith R. Benson History and Philosophy of Life Sciences 20070101 Both sections [of the book] are extremely interesting and well-researched. British Naturalists in Qing China offers fresh insights into the very many aspects of SinoBritish relations. It is particularly timely as China emerges as a world power.
Ruth Ginsberg SIDA