Exotic, marginal, and 'invisible' aspects of Early Modern China and the Maritime Silk Road
Professor Dr Angela Schottenhammer (Professor of Chinese Middle Period & Early Modern World History, KU Leuven; Director of the Crossroads Research Centre; Selected Senior Researcher, School of Economics, Shanghai University; and research affiliate, Geography Department, UGent) will deliver a lecture on examples of her recent research. The lecture will be followed by a question and answer session.
Speaking of the Silk Road, one immediately thinks of silk, probably silver, copper cash, gold, ceramics, perhaps of Buddhism and other religions, of camels and ships, etc. Through investigating informal, accidental, and ‘invisible’ movements and exchanges of people, cargoes, knowledge and technologies, and the transmission of diseases, Professor Schottenhammer's current ERC AdG project TRANSPACIFIC aims to elucidate the nature and complexity of the early modern global interconnectivity in the wider Pacific region, between Spanish America, the Philippines, and (South-)East Asia, primarily, China. In the last 2.5 years, this research has brought to light some interesting exotic, marginal, and / or invisible goods, perceptions, knowledge, technologies, movements, and exchanges of China’s relation to the so-called ‘maritime Silk Road’. Professor Schottenhammer's lecture will introduce some of these marginal, exotic, or simply invisible and often rather neglected aspects that were part and parcel of early modern China’s interaction with the outside world.
Angela Schottenhammer (蕭婷) is full professor of Chinese Middle Period & Early Modern World History at KU Leuven, Belgium, Selected Senior Researcher at the School of Economics at Shanghai University (经济学院, 上海大学), and research affiliate at the Geography Department, UGent. From 2009 to 2020 she has also been research director and adjunct professor at the Indian Ocean World Centre (IOWC), McGill University, Canada.
Angela Schottenhammer obtained her Ph.D. in 1993 from Würzburg University with a thesis on “Song Period Tomb inscriptions” (M.A. 1989 on Liao Mosha and the Cultural Revolution) and her Habilitation degree 2000 from LMU Munich University, with a thesis on the port city of Quanzhou during the Song period (960–1279).
Professor Schottenhammer is director of the Crossroads Research Centre, chief editor of the academic journal Crossroads and PI of the ERC AdG TRANSPACIFIC (grant ID 833143). Her research focuses on Chinese history, archaeology, science & technology, and on China’s and Asia’s global interaction and interconnectivity, through both maritime and overland routes (with a main focus on the period between 650 to 1800).
This is one of the events in the on-going China Forum Seminar series, hosted by the China Forum, Jesus College. The seminars, given by eminent speakers, cover a broad range of topics and disciplines.
Booking
This is a virtual seminar. Attendance is free. Advance booking is required by emailing: china-forum@jesus.cam.ac.uk. Priority will be given to members of Jesus College and the University of Cambridge.
