The Romance of China: Excursions to China in U.S. Culture, 1776-1876. By John Rogers Haddad. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. xxii, 321 pp. $60.00, ISBN 978-0-231-13094-3.)

Abstract

In The Romance of China, John Rogers Haddad explores the ways China was perceived during the first century of America's existence. It was a time of major change for both the young nation and for the Middle Kingdom, and internal events—as well as international developments—played a significant role in the way Americans came to understand China. For China, the onset of the nineteenth century was marked by the end of Emperor Qianlong's reign. Chinese diplomatic and cultural efforts to circumscribe interactions with the West fell into disarray as British opium undermined Qing rule in the southern area around Canton. The Opium War of 1839–1842 significantly changed the way China came to be understood in the United States. To capitalize on British military success, the John Tyler administration decided to send to China a delegation headed by Peter Cushing to negotiate the same trade concessions the British has wrested through military force. Joining Cushing were John Peters and George West. Politically well-connected through his father, Peters was an accomplished engineer who brought models of the latest American technology—including steamboats, locomotives, and advanced cannons—to impress the Chinese emperor. West came to sketch the Chinese countryside.