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Food and drink as negotiation sites: Sino-western encounters in Canton and Macao, ca.1700-1845
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Ni, Leiyun (2023) Food and drink as negotiation sites: Sino-western encounters in Canton and Macao, ca.1700-1845. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3985190~S1
Abstract
This thesis offers a fresh perspective on Canton trade and Sino-Western relations from the eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries by examining the role of food and drink. While previous studies have focused on commerce and politics, this research explores how food and drink served as crucial sites for foreign traders to negotiate their cultural, social, racial, gender, and political identities, as well as their relationships with local people in Canton and Macao. Drawing on a variety of sources, including travel accounts, diaries, letters, EIC records, vocabularies, gazetteers, and account books, this research sheds light on the different views of food, food culture, and food-related activities in foreign factories. The study proposes that foreigners' commercial and political activities in China were intimately tied to their eating and drinking experiences, which reveal power dynamics between different groups of people and were impacted by the changes in Sino-Western relations. In particular, this research shows that food is a crucial lens for understanding the roles of women and laborers in Canton trade, who have often been overlooked in traditional studies. By examining their involvement in food-related activities, this study reveals that they played essential roles in Sino-Western exchange. This research demonstrates how food and drink provided a space for negotiating power, and how it was central to the lives of foreigners in Canton and Macao. Ultimately, this thesis proposes that food and drink offer a new and fruitful way to understand the complexities of Sino-Western relations during this period.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Food -- China -- Economic aspects -- History, Food supply -- China -- Guangzhou -- History -- 18th century, Food -- China -- History -- 19th century., Food -- China -- History -- 18th century, Food habits -- Macau (China) -- History --18th century, Food habits -- China -- Guangzhou (China) -- History -- 19th century, Guangzhou (China) -- Commerce -- History -- 19th century, Guangzhou (China) -- Commerce -- History -- 18th century, Merchants -- China -- Guangzhou -- History -- 18th century, Macau (China) -- Commerce -- History -- 18th century, Macau (China) -- Commerce -- History -- 19th century, Beverages -- Guangzhou (China) -- History -- 18th century, Beverages -- Macau (China) -- History -- 18th century, Beverages -- Guangzhou (China) -- History -- 19th century, Beverages -- Macau (China) -- History -- 19th century | ||||
Official Date: | April 2023 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of History | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Gerritsen, Anne, Chen, Song-Chuan | ||||
Sponsors: | China Scholarship Council | ||||
Extent: | vii, 219 pages : illustrations (black and white) | ||||
Language: | eng |
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