Antecedents of the "Century of Humiliation”: Shifting Western and Japanese Views of Mid-Qing China (1750–1850)

Abstract

This talk explores how Western and Japanese observers reconceptualized China and its people during the mid-Qing period (1750–1850). Drawing on the new monograph A Hardening Hierarchy, it examines the shift from early modern admiration for Qing cultural and economic prestige toward increasingly rigid racial and civilizational hierarchies. Analyzing Western and Tokugawa Japanese textual and visual sources, the talk shows how emerging racial theories, commercial frustrations, and geopolitical anxieties restructured foreign perceptions of the Sinocentric order. Ultimately, it illuminates the shared and distinct ideological frameworks that marginalized China on the eve of nineteenth-century conflicts, reshaping global diplomatic dynamics.

Biography

Prof. Rotem Kowner is a historian and currently serves as the Elman Family visiting professor of Jewish and Israeli studies in HUMA this semester.