The conférencier in the purple robe: Chen Jitong and Qing cultural diplomacy in late nineteenth-century Paris

Abstract

ABSTRACT The establishment of Chinese legations abroad in the late Qing coincided with the emergence of a number of learned societies and transnational knowledge communities in the late nineteenth century. To what extent did the Chinese diplomats residing in Europe engage with these organizations in their interactions with the West? This paper examines an understudied aspect of late Qing foreign relations by tracing the activities of the diplomat-writer Chen Jitong (1852–1907) in several learned societies in Paris during the 1880s and 1890s. While serving as a secretary at the Qing legation in Paris, Chen also became a member of several Parisian learned societies (sociétés savantes). By enthusiastically participating in the meetings of these societies, contributing to their official journals, and delivering speeches at international congresses organized by these groups during the 1889 World’s Fair, Chen established a presence for Qing China in several nongovernmental international organizations. While the intellectual foci of these learned societies ranged from folklore studies, to architectural preservation, to ethnography, Chen contributed his own unique perspective and sensitivity as a Qing literatus in his representation of Chinese society and culture, which he also successfully fused in his writings about China for a French audience. I argue that Chen’s participation in the French and international learned societies should be understood as a form of late Qing cultural diplomacy, where what was at stake was not political sovereignty but the right of Chinese self-representation and contending notions of civilization.