An Intercultural Book World: The Production and Distribution of Sino-European Books in China (1582-c.1823), with Nicolas Standaert (April 11, 2023)
The BU Center for Global Christianity and Mission, the Ricci Institute at Boston College, and the BU Center for the Study of Asia invite you to attend
An Intercultural Book World: The Production and Distribution
of Sino-European Books in China (1582-c.1823)
Nicolas Standaert
(Professor of Chinese Studies, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium)
Tuesday April 11, 2023, 4:00 – 6:00 pm
Riverside Room, Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University, 121 Bay State Road, Boston
Abstract:
A unique characteristic of the cultural contacts between China and Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is the intercultural circuit of books that was established: European books traveling to China, and in return Chinese books traveling to Europe. This talk focuses on the Chinese pole of this cross-continental textual exchange, where the printing of translated Sino-European books was facilitated by the presence of a well-established print culture. By analyzing a unique collection of these Sino-European books, this presentation investigates their production and distribution from the late Ming until the mid-Qing period (1582-c.1823). As such, it provides insights into the emergence of an intercultural ‘book world’.
About the Speaker:
Professor Nicolas Standaert received his doctorate at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, and has taught Chinese studies at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium since 1993. His major research interest is the cultural contacts between China and Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In this field he has led multiple research projects on rituality, visual culture, materiality, historiography and print culture. He is the author of eight monographs and over 160 articles and chapters on Sino-Western history; editor of the monumental Handbook of Christianity in China (2001); co-editor of four Chinese primary source collections in 77 volumes from libraries and archives in China, Taiwan, France and Italy; co-editor of eight edited volumes; and co-editor of the online Chinese Christian Texts CCT-database.