Collecting and Displaying China's "Summer Palace" in the West The Yuanmingyuan in Britain and France

Abstract

The history of modern Sino-European relations is still insufficiently known, yet it is of such vital importance to an understanding of China's place and self-positioning in the world today. This volume of essays on Yuanmingyuan by leading and pioneering authors on the topic expertly guide readers through controversial terrain. They often unpublished new materials and original perspectives that will generate new scholarship in a lively field of inquiry." -Ting Chang, University of Nottingham The fate of the objects from Beijings Summer Palace-including their roles in shaping Western views of China and ongoing debates about repatriation-is an immensely interesting and important subject.