Julia C. Schneider (Göttingen): A Non-Western Colonial Power in Early Modernity? The Qing Empire in Post-Colonial Discourse
Abstract
This lecture analyses a thesis which has regained strength in historical works on Chinese history, particularly Qing history in the 1990s: “The Qing Empire of China was a colonial empire” (Peter Perdue, 1998), it has been claimed by various China scholars, and the Qing Empire can thus be compared to and analysed along the same parameters as Western colonial empires.
The lecture will trace perspectives of colonialism and postcolonial theories used by historians arguing in this way and to shed light on the justified attempt by historians to break open the dichotomy of West/colonizing actor versus Rest/colonized victim, as well as ask, if and how this dichotomy can indeed be smashed by conceptualizing the Qing Empire as a colonial empire.
Time and Place
Dienstag, 24. April 2018, 18.30-20.00 Uhr
Japan-Zentrum, Oettingenstr. 67, Raum 161