From craftsmen to laborers: A history of carpet making in Republican China
Beijing and Tianjin hand-woven carpets were once a major export item of Republican China. These carpets were mainly bound for the Western markets, especially the United States. In the late Qing dynasty, Chinese carpets found their way into the collections of wealthy connoisseurs and then, increasing...
Kaydedildi:
| Yayımlandı: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/artefact, |
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| Yazar: | |
| Materyal Türü: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Dil: | Anglais |
| Baskı/Yayın Bilgisi: |
Artefact
2019
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| Konular: | |
| Online Erişim: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Özet: | Beijing and Tianjin hand-woven carpets were once a major export item of Republican China. These carpets were mainly bound for the Western markets, especially the United States. In the late Qing dynasty, Chinese carpets found their way into the collections of wealthy connoisseurs and then, increasingly throughout the 1920s, into the homes of America’s rising middle class. This paper shows that by pursuing a strategy of export maximization, the Republican Chinese carpet industry submitted itself to technical standards set by the American market, as well as to the shifting tastes of American homemakers. This resulted in the valorization of knowledge about foreign market and devalorization of traditional Chinese artisanal knowledge. Eventually, entrepreneurs with direct connections to the foreign market came to dominate the carpet production; weavers were reduced to manual laborers. |
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