China's Hidden Century: 1796-1912

by Jessica Harrison-Hall (editor), Julia Lovell (Editor)

Cultural creativity in China between 1796 and 1912 demonstrated extraordinary resilience in a time of warfare, land shortages, famine, and uprisings. Innovation can be seen in material culture (including print, painting, calligraphy, textiles, jewelry, ceramics, lacquer, arms and armor, and photography) during a century in which China's art, literature, crafts, and technology faced unprecedented exposure to global influences.

Until recently the nineteenth century in China has been defined as an era of cultural stagnation. Built on new research, this book sets out a fresh understanding of this important period and creates a detailed visual account of responses to war, technology, urbanization, political transformations, and external influences.

The narratives are brought to life and individualized through illustrated biographical accounts that highlight the diversity of voices and experiences contributing to this fascinating, turbulent period in Chinese history.

Exhibition British Museum, May–October 2023

Genres: China, History

336 pages, Hardcover

Published July 4, 2023

Reviews

[Wing · Rating 5 out of 5]

This sumptuous and beautifully produced companion to the recent British Museum exhibition rectifies previous propagandist and distorted accounts of the Late Qing. Faced with conflicts and natural disasters, the Late Qing was neither isolationist nor blind to the need of soliciting technological advancement. With hundreds of exhibits that paint a picture of the material world of the Late Qing, and with several cogent essays by academic historians, this book is a truly immersive experience and an antidote to black and white caricatures.

[Angel Shan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's beautiful, instructive and relatively fair book that looks into China's "Century of Humiliation" from a completely different perspective, that goes beyond a simplistic view of the Late Qing as an outdated and arrogant bunch of rulers, that couldn't cope with the challenges and changes brought by the modern world of the 19th century.