Images of Chinese women in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European exotic knowledge books

Abstract

ABSTRACT All the European missionaries, merchants, and travelers to China in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were men. In their books introducing Chinese knowledge, they created idealized images of modest and courteous Chinese women, and idealized them as models for European women to emulate. However, this scrutiny from a perspective of exotic otherness did not reflect the real lives and inner worlds of Chinese women but instead reflected European value judgements. Contemporary chinoiserie art was mainly utilized to embellish women’s spaces with representations of carefree and romantic Chinese women. This research analyses the peculiarities of images of Chinese women as portrayed in male European observers’ books, and locates the distinctions between, and sources of, these images in diverse gender settings throughout Europe, thus analysing Europe’s historical perception of women.