Objectifying China, imagining America : Chinese commodities in early America / Caroline Frank.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Frank, Caroline (Caroline Baer)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Relations--China.

United States.

Relations.

China.

United States--Commerce--China.

Commerce.

China--Relations--United States.

China--Commerce--United States.

Physical Description:

xiii, 257 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Summary:

With the ever expanding presence of China in the global economy, Americans more and more look east for goods and trade. But as Caroline Frank reveals, this is not a new development. China loomed as large in the minds-and account books -of eighteenth century American as it does today. Long before they had achieved independence from Britain and were able to sail to Asia themselves. America mariners, merchants, and consumers were aware of the Last Indies and preparing for voyages there. Focusing on the trade and consumption of porcelain, tea and chinoiserie. Frank shows that colonial Americans saw themselves as part of a world much larger than. Britain and the North Atlantic.

Frank not only recovers the widespread presence of Chinese commodities in early America and the impact of East Indies trade on the nature of American commerce but also explores the role of this trade in American State formation. She argues that to understand how Chinese conmmodities fueled, the opening acts of the Revolution, we must consider the power dynamics of the American quese for China-and China-during the colonial period Filled with fresh and surprising insights, this ambitions study adds new dimensions to the ongoing story of Americans relationship with China. Book jacket.

Contents:

Beyond the Atlantic in Anglo-America

The first American China trade

American mariners in the Indian Ocean, 1690-1700

Imagining China at home

Architectural Japanning in early Newport

Islands of illicit refinement

Bohia and Chaney for the northern plantations

The oriental aesthetic in old Yankee households

China in northern colonial homes

Manly tea parties

The idea of China in Boston's rebellion

Epilogue: an East Indies trade for North America.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226260273

0226260275

9780226260280

0226260283

OCLC:

711050886