Chinese Porcelain in Colonial Mexico: The Material Worlds of an Early Modern Trade

by Meha Priyadarshini

Overview

This book follows Chinese porcelain through the commodity chain, from its production in China to trade with Spanish Merchants in Manila, and to its eventual adoption by colonial society in Mexico. As trade connections increased in the early modern period, porcelain became an immensely popular and global product. This study focuses on one of the most exported objects, the guan. It shows how this porcelain jar was produced, made accessible across vast distances and how designs were borrowed and transformed into new creations within different artistic cultures. While people had increased access to global markets and products, this book argues that this new connectivity could engender more local outlooks and even heightened isolation in some places. It looks beyond the guan to the broader context of transpacific trade during this period, highlighting the importance and impact of Asian commodities in Spanish America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319882680
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	06/04/2019
Series:	Palgrave Studies in Pacific History
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2018
Pages:	198
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Meha Priyadarshini is Fellow at the Sciences Po Europe-Asia Programme in Le Havre, France. Her research and teaching interests include global history, material culture studies, colonial Latin American history and art history. She earned her PhD from Columbia University and has held fellowships at the Getty Research Institute, the European University Institute and the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction: A Global Commodity in the Transpacific Trade.- 2 Crafting a Global Brand: Jingdezhen in the Early Modern World.- 3 From Junk to Galleon: Commercial Activity in Manila.- 4 A Parián in the Plaza Mayor: Making Space for Asia in Colonial Mexico.- 5 Blue-and-White Chocolateros: Crafting a Local Aesthetic in a Colonial Context.- 6 Conclusion: Themes from a Connected World.-

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This book about Chinese porcelain in Colonial Mexico does far more than situate a Chinese commodity in a Latin American context: it takes us on a global journey. Jingdezhen, Manila, Acapulco and Puebla—sites that are connected through the trade in porcelain—each allow very different local stories to be told: about artisanal skills and crab-like bodies, about packaging and over-loaded ships, about race and chocolate and Aztec legends. Accompanied by richly varied illustrations, these stories tell an impressive global history that makes an important argument not only about the centrality of the Pacific Ocean and Latin America in global history, but also about the key role of Asian goods in the formation of colonial Mexican identity. Insightful, wide-ranging, and a joy to read.” (Anne Gerritsen, University of Warwick, UK)

“Priyadarshini’s’ compelling book offers a unique perspective on the transpacific exchange during the sterling age of the Manila Galleon through the ‘first global brand’ of the Modern Era. Connecting Jingdezhen with Puebla through consumer demand in the New World (i.e., how the guan became the chocolatero), Chinese Porcelain in Colonial Mexico is an impactful contribution to scholarship on the Spanish empire and its multi-faceted relations across the Pacific Ocean.” (Edward R. Slack, Jr., Eastern Washington University, USA)

Editorial Reviews

Meha Priyadarshini’s Chinese Porcelain in Colonial Mexico is structured as a spatial-commercial journey, presenting a ‘typical biography’ … of the world’s first ‘global brand’ (to use Craig Clunas’s oft-cited phrase). … Priyadarshini offers a number of microhistorical anecdotes and interpretations, which are one of the book’s great pleasures.” (Byron Ellsworth Hamann, caareviews.org, October 28, 2020)

“This compact, beautifully written study addresses that neglect, examining every aspect of the trade in a way that makes it essential reading for those interested in art history, material culture, global trade, and the Spanish settlement of the Philippines and Mexico. … An important aspect of this book is that, while it delves into the local—clearly illustrating its incorporation into the global, it also highlights disconnects in the chain of production, transportation, and consumption.” (Heather Dalton, Parergon, Vol. 37 (2), 2020)

From the Publisher