China’s Image Across the Seas: The Chinese Government Collection and the New Orleans World’s Fair
We are excited to introduce a new web exhibition, China’s Image Across the Seas: The Chinese Government Collection and the New Orleans World’s Fair, highlighting one of the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology's founding collections. Written by recent U-M graduate Frank Zijie Wang, this exhibition frames this large historic collection through China’s Qing Government and the fair’s host city of New Orleans. Frank has recently joined the Master’s program of East Asian Regional Studies at Columbia University.
The World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, also known as the 1884 World’s Fair in New Orleans, was held from December 1884 to May 1885. The Exposition was largely organized by post-Confederate Southerners, who wanted to rebuild the reputation of the American South, retain the connections with Latin American nations, and reestablish the political, economic, and cultural importance of the South within the United States after the Reconstruction era. Their ambitions displayed in the Cotton Centennial Exposition gave many non-Euro-American countries an opportunity to present themselves, attract international investment, and demonstrate their value to great powers dominating the world order.
China under the Qing dynasty participated in and stood out at the Exposition through its exhibit area. Prepared by the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, an imperial agency led by a foreigner, Sir Robert Hart, the Chinese exhibit in New Orleans offered a multidimensional perspective on China under Qing governance. These dimensions reflected different views of China and indicated various participants and interests that shaped both the Chinese exhibit and the Cotton Centennial Exposition in general. Through these different layers, Qing China in the late 19th century was distinctly different from the country we know today. The interactions between domestic traditions and foreign powers, between American Southerners and the cotton-and-corn economy, and between the Unit, ed States and China were all represented through the image of China presented at the Exposition.
