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To date, research on the collecting of East Asian objects in the Euro-American region has focused primarily on larger collections and collectors. The stories from the periphery, however, deserve to be told. They point to important departures from the dominant discourses and practices of East Asian collecting, thus raising questions about established taxonomies and knowledge systems.
With contributions by Tina Berdajs, Chou Wei-Chiang, Györgyi Fajcsák, Jin Han, Sarah Laursen, Beatrix Mecsi, Motoh Helena, Stacey Pierson, Maria Sobotka, Filip Suchomel, Barbara Trnovec, Nataša Vampelj Suhadolnik, Brigid Vance, Maja Veselič, Nataša Visočnik Gerželj, Bettina Zorn.
To date, research on the collecting of East Asian objects in the Euro-American region has focused primarily on larger collections and collectors. The stories from the periphery, however, deserve to be told. They point to important departures from the dominant discourses and practices of East Asian collecting, thus raising questions about established taxonomies and knowledge systems.
With contributions by Tina Berdajs, Chou Wei-Chiang, Györgyi Fajcsák, Jin Han, Sarah Laursen, Beatrix Mecsi, Motoh Helena, Stacey Pierson, Maria Sobotka, Filip Suchomel, Barbara Trnovec, Nataša Vampelj Suhadolnik, Brigid Vance, Maja Veselič, Nataša Visočnik Gerželj, Bettina Zorn.
Abstract
This article addresses the practices of collecting Chinese objects that were brought to the territory of present-day Slovenia by sailors, missionaries, travellers, and others who travelled to China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At the time, this territory was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; we will, therefore, begin with the brief historical context of the Empire and its contact with China, followed by a discussion on the nature of collecting Chinese objects in Slovenian territories at that time. We will further examine the status of the individuals who travelled to China and the nature and extent of the objects they brought back. The article will also highlight the specific position of the Slovenian territory within the history of Euro-Asian cultural connections, and address the relevant issues—locally and globally—of the relationship between the centres and peripheries with regard to collecting practices.