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Distributed for National University of Singapore Press

Asian Port Cities, 1600-1800

Local and Foreign Cultural Interactions

Asian port cities in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were the site of intensive cultural contact involving a broad spectrum of participants from across the world. These interactions raised questions of communication for merchants who conducted business in the port cities and of regulation and control for the officials who governed them. By drawing comparisons among the port cities of East, Southeast and South Asia where European East India Companies maintained trading centers, this volume goes beyond national histories to examine cultural interactions on a regional basis. The authors draw on the rich literature relating to cross-cultural interactions between the Dutch and the Japanese in Nagasaki in discussing issues that range from architecture, mercantile and artistic communication, business transactions and dispute settlement to family issues, clothing, housing, and social relations associated with food. Their work yields intriguing new interpretations of the Asian maritime world that will interest historians concerned with Europe or Asia during the early modern period, as well as students of material culture.

252 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2009

Asian Studies: General Asian Studies

History: Asian History, European History


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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
 
Introduction: Framework and Methods of Comparative Studies on Asian Port Cities in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
 
1.         Canton, Nagasaki and the Port Cities of the Indian Ocean: A Comparison
            Haneda Masashi
 
2.         The Legal Position of Foreigners in Nagasaki during the Edo Period
            Matsui Yoko
 
3.         The Commercial Culture of the VOC in Canton in the Eighteenth Century
            Liu Yong
 
4.         Western and Chinese Influences on Japanese Paintings in the Eighteenth Century
            Ito Shiori
 
5.         Jingdezhen and imari: Communication and Competition between Chinese and Japanese Porcelains in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
            Liu Zhaohui
 
6.         On the Waterfront: Life and Labour Around the Batavian Roadstead
            Leonard Blussé
 
7.         Dutch Interaction with Siamese Law and the City Rules of Ayutthaya in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
            Bhawan Ruangsilp
 
8.         Cultural Interaction between the British Diaspora in Madras and the Host Community, 1650-1790
            Søren Mentz
 
9.         The Hindu Courtier and the French Governor: Pondicherry, 1744-60
            Philippe Haudrère
 
10.       The Factories and Facilities of the East India Companies in Surat: Locations, Building Characteristics and Ownership
            Nagashima Hiromu
 
Contributors
Index
 

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