Porcelain for the Emperor: Manufacture and Technocracy in Qing China
A new perspective for understanding the technology behind goods “made in China”

The exquisite ceramic ware produced at the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory at Jingdezhen in southern China functioned as a kind of visual propaganda for the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) court. Porcelain for the Emperor charts the career of bannerman Tang Ying, a technocrat in the porcelain industry, through the first half of the eighteenth century to uncover the wider role of specialist officials in producing the technological knowledge and distinctive artistic forms that were essential to cultural policies of the Chinese state. Through fiscal management, technical experimentation, and design, these imperial technocrats facilitated rationalized manufacturing in precapitalist and preindustrial society.

Drawing on museum collections and firsthand archaeological evidence, as well as the voluminous Archive of the Imperial Workshops, this book contributes new insights to scholarship on global empires and the history of science and technology in China. Readers will learn how the imperial state’s intervention in industry left a lingering imprint on modern China through its modes of labor-intensive production, the division of domestic and foreign markets, and, above all, a technocratic culture of centralization.

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Porcelain for the Emperor: Manufacture and Technocracy in Qing China
A new perspective for understanding the technology behind goods “made in China”

The exquisite ceramic ware produced at the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory at Jingdezhen in southern China functioned as a kind of visual propaganda for the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) court. Porcelain for the Emperor charts the career of bannerman Tang Ying, a technocrat in the porcelain industry, through the first half of the eighteenth century to uncover the wider role of specialist officials in producing the technological knowledge and distinctive artistic forms that were essential to cultural policies of the Chinese state. Through fiscal management, technical experimentation, and design, these imperial technocrats facilitated rationalized manufacturing in precapitalist and preindustrial society.

Drawing on museum collections and firsthand archaeological evidence, as well as the voluminous Archive of the Imperial Workshops, this book contributes new insights to scholarship on global empires and the history of science and technology in China. Readers will learn how the imperial state’s intervention in industry left a lingering imprint on modern China through its modes of labor-intensive production, the division of domestic and foreign markets, and, above all, a technocratic culture of centralization.

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Porcelain for the Emperor: Manufacture and Technocracy in Qing China

Porcelain for the Emperor: Manufacture and Technocracy in Qing China

by Kai Jun Chen
Porcelain for the Emperor: Manufacture and Technocracy in Qing China

Porcelain for the Emperor: Manufacture and Technocracy in Qing China

by Kai Jun Chen

Hardcover

$75.00 
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Overview

A new perspective for understanding the technology behind goods “made in China”

The exquisite ceramic ware produced at the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory at Jingdezhen in southern China functioned as a kind of visual propaganda for the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) court. Porcelain for the Emperor charts the career of bannerman Tang Ying, a technocrat in the porcelain industry, through the first half of the eighteenth century to uncover the wider role of specialist officials in producing the technological knowledge and distinctive artistic forms that were essential to cultural policies of the Chinese state. Through fiscal management, technical experimentation, and design, these imperial technocrats facilitated rationalized manufacturing in precapitalist and preindustrial society.

Drawing on museum collections and firsthand archaeological evidence, as well as the voluminous Archive of the Imperial Workshops, this book contributes new insights to scholarship on global empires and the history of science and technology in China. Readers will learn how the imperial state’s intervention in industry left a lingering imprint on modern China through its modes of labor-intensive production, the division of domestic and foreign markets, and, above all, a technocratic culture of centralization.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780295750828
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Publication date: 03/28/2023
Series: Porcelain for the Emperor
Pages: 248
Product dimensions: 7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.97(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Kai Jun Chen is assistant professor of East Asian studies at Brown University.

What People are Saying About This

Laura Hostetler

"A significant contribution to the study of Qing material culture and art history and to our understanding of the mechanisms of Qing rule itself."

Peter Purdue

This insightful study opens a window on a neglected group of Qing officials: the Manchu bannermen technocrats who supervised industrial production for the emperor. Following the career of one talented man—an industrial manager,  archivist, ethnographer, experimental innovator, and literary artist all in one—the author reveals fascinating details about the material base of the Qing empire. It is a fine contribution to the study of imperial knowledge production and Chinese technological development.

Peter Perdue

This insightful study opens a window on a neglected group of Qing officials: the Manchu bannermen technocrats who supervised industrial production for the emperor. Following the career of one talented man—an industrial manager,  archivist, ethnographer, experimental innovator, and literary artist all in one—the author reveals fascinating details about the material base of the Qing empire. It is a fine contribution to the study of imperial knowledge production and Chinese technological development.

Claudia Brown

"Careful, scholarly, and urbane, this study will contribute greatly to a new understanding of the work of Tang Ying and the production of porcelain under the Qing emperors."

Peter C. Perdue

"This insightful study opens a window on a neglected group of Qing officials: the Manchu bannermen technocrats who supervised industrial production for the emperor. Following the career of one talented man—an industrial manager, archivist, ethnographer, experimental innovator, and literary artist all in one—the author reveals fascinating details about the material base of the Qing empire. It is a fine contribution to the study of imperial knowledge production and Chinese technological development."

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