“Book review: Silk Thread: China and the Netherlands from 1600 by Tristan Mostert and Jan van Campen”, The Oriental Ceramic Society Newsletter 24 (2016), pp. 36-37. (original) (raw)
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Twelve chapters, organized chronologically, examine the entangled histories resulting from cultural encounters between the Dutch and the Chinese from the 1590s until 1800, with the intention of writing global cultural history. The authors seek to acknowledge evenhandedly the role of European and Asian individuals in establishing collaboration, and they focus on the material culture, intellectual culture, and the images produced during these encounters. While the role of the Dutch East India Company (voc) and the Dutch intellectual elite in establishing global cultural networks is one of the prominent and recurring themes, half the contributions also zoom in on the cultural and intellectual networks of the Society of Jesus. A 2016 "Dialogue Seminar" at Fudan University, attended by a group of Chinese and (mostly) Dutch scholars, culminated into the chapters of this volume. In an effort to emphasize the cultural and intellectual fruits of cross-cultural collaboration rather than filter these encounters through a "clash of