German Sinology in the Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century: Colonialism, Neo-Imperialism, and Orientalism

Author

Zhonghan Xu, Bard CollegeFollow

Date of Submission

Fall 2022

Academic Program

Historical Studies

Project Advisor 1

Robert Culp

Project Advisor 2

Gregory Moynahan

Abstract/Artist's Statement

This senior project will focus on the Chinese cultural relics in the National Ethnography Museum in Berlin, Germany and in American Museum of Nature History in New York, and the Field Museum in Chicago. These collections of Chinese artifacts are owed to two distinguished Orientalists, Berthold Laufer and Friedrich W. K. Müller. Both traveled in China to acquire artifacts in a natural history manner, and finally won a reputation for German scholars and intellectuals in the field of museums. In this project, I wish to explore how the academic pursuits of two scholars, the development of Asian collections in the Western world, and the political connections between the West and the East at the turn of the 20^th century are connected and influenced by each other.

Open Access Agreement

On-Campus only

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Xu, Zhonghan, "German Sinology in the Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century: Colonialism, Neo-Imperialism, and Orientalism" (2022). Senior Projects Fall 2022. 17.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_f2022/17