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Is there a special place for the Low Countries in art history’s current debates on global mobility? How should we conceive of the globalization of Netherlandish art in the early modern period, and in what ways does the distinctively worldly orientation of the Netherlands in this period contribute to early modern visual culture? This volume examines how artworks produced in the wake of European expansion—art produced in the Netherlands in reaction to the world outside of Europe and art made outside of Europe in reaction to encounters with the Netherlands—help us better understand the cultural impacts of globalization.
In: Crossroads

Abstract

Often mentioned only as a brief reference, the port town of Ende was a crucial player in a network connecting Arabic, Chinese, Indian, and Javanese merchants with the trade in valuable commodities from Eastern Indonesia. This article explores the cultural and economic exchanges at the heart of Endenese identity through archival research, historical ecology, oral histories, and ethnography. Known to the Dutch as a pirate and slaving centre, Ende was the most significant force in the Savu Sea until 1907. With the local economy reshaped to produce agricultural staples in the early twentieth century, Ende experienced a minor boom by exporting copra, or dried coconut husks. In this article, I reconstruct the complex commodity dynamics that silently shaped Ende. “Invisibilised” by colonial and Indonesian forces, I identify Ende’s peripheralisation as the deliberate consequence of the consolidation of governance power among outside elites and the disempowerment of local groups. I conclude by showing the value of ethnographic tools in retelling the stories of those who were once at the centre of the world.

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In: Crossroads
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In: Crossroads
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In: Crossroads
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In: Crossroads
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Abstract

Rediscovered in 2011 within the collection of the Library of Congress, the Fusheng quantu 福省全圖 (Complete Map of Fuzhou), a delicate nineteenth-century Chinese map, had lain unnoticed for over a century. Its anonymous creator and lack of dating impede a direct tracing of its origins, and it is only known to have arrived through a donation of manuscripts by the American businessman and diplomat Thomas Dunn. The map, with its artistic qualities, provides a window into the seascape of Fuzhou and the Qing dynasty’s coastal defences and maritime strategies. This study transcends the map’s physicality, delving into its associated life histories, including Dunn’s, and the broader context of China’s coerced entry into global trade and diplomacy during the age of high imperialism (c.1850–1900). More than a long-forgotten illustrative account, the map is a piece of evidence that reveals much about the times and places in which it was drawn and viewed.

Open Access
In: Crossroads

Abstract

The Göttingen State and University Library in Germany possesses the only surviving copy of a general map of the Qing empire, which until early 2014 was considered to be lost. The map is a middle-format hand-coloured block print. All the place names and other textual elements in the map are given exclusively in Chinese. The map is authored by a known Chinese scholar, Li Mingche 李明徹 (1751–1832), but is undated. Yet the time of its creation can be reliably approximated to the mid-1820s, most likely 1825–1826. The map exhibits a clear stamp of Western mapmaking, primarily that of French cartography of the eighteenth century, yet its fine fusion with the system of traditional Chinese cartographic conventions and aesthetic preferences makes it an interesting hybrid cartographic specimen. This article proposes an initial analysis of the map providing a basis for future more detailed study.

In: Crossroads