text by Maria Szafrańska-Chmielarz
This year the annual British Association of Chinese Studies (BACS) Conference was held from September 3rd until September 5th in Leicester and was hosted by the University of Leicester. With around 300 participants and a variety of scholars from different fields – from economics to history to culture – it was impossible to decide which panel to attend and which topic to prioritize. However, out of all these, there is one concept that seems to be especially fitting QAQV’s interests, and that is chinoiserie.
Chinoiserie (from French), refers to the trend of importing paintings, porcelain, clothes and trinkets from China to display them as luxury items, which started in the 18th century and carried on well into the 20th century. Interestingly, since Chinese and “Chinese-looking” items were so popular, they started to be produced specifically to be shipped into the West and even reproduced in Europe, putting the authenticity of these works into question. The term itself evolved as well:
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the meaning of the word chinoiserie broadened to include not only objects but also other creative products that were marked by fantasy, playfulness, and bizarrerie, especially musical compositions (Chu and Milam 9).
Queen Victoria herself had a Chinese Dining Room at Buckingham Palace, with China-inspired panels created by Robert Jones; there were other rooms decorated with Chinese elements in other royal residences.
The authenticity of chinoiserie is the subject of research of Yitao Qian from University of London, who investigated the collection of William Anderson, donated to the British Museum in 1880 and including 105 Chinese (or, supposedly Chinese) paintings. As noted by Qian, Anderson seemed to suggest that Chinese art was inferior to Japanese art, showcasing an interesting distinction between Victorian approaches to Japan (a new trading partner) and China (a defeated, sickly country) that coloured the 19th century understanding of Asian art.
While the history of chinoiserie on the British Isles is still being discussed and researched, a new, rather unexpected localisation joins the ranks of proud chinoiserie admirers: Cyprus.
Although Cyprus used to be under British rule (1878-1960), Charlotte Steffen and her co-writer Varvara Stivarou from Limassol Patticheion Municipal Museum, Historical Archive and Research Centre, found out that interest in furniture from China started way before that, during the Ottoman Empire’s reign over Cyprus (1570-1878) and steadily grew in strength during the era of the British Cyprus, with the influx of British administrators coming to the island and the trade with China rising in frequency.
Steffen herself, although delivering a presentation about contemporary Chinese culture and the transnational character of the wuxia (martial arts) genre, used chinoiserie as a cultural term, to explain the source of the Western interest in the genre. The politics-free, ancient China-esque stories full of beautiful men and women are “east made accessible for the west”, for wuxia at its core was born out of Western influences (such as Robin Hood or The Three Musketeers) mixed with Chinese culture. It seems to show that the conclusion from Alberto – “As a result, chinoiserie items produced by market demands became a hybridized product of both European and Chinese imaginations, created in pursuit of economic profit and aesthetic pleasure.” (156) – holds true not only for the material culture of the past, but also for the current tensions. The subject of chinoiserie is undoubtedly tied to the imperialistic past and thus also to post-colonial analysis of culture, but at the same time, the term keeps on evolving, gaining new meanings and carrying on into the future as part of the Victorian legacy.
Works Cited:
Alberto, Maria K. “Interlude I. An Interview with K, Fan Translator at Exiled Rebel Scanlations.” Catching Chen Qing Ling. The Untamed and Adaptation, edited by Yue (Cathy) Wang and Maria K Alberto, Peter Lang, 2024, pp. 131–138.
Chu, Petra Ten-Doesschate, and Jennifer Dawn Milam. “Introduction: Beyond Chinoiserie.” Beyond Chinoiserie: Artistic Exchange between China and the West during the Late Qing Dynasty (1796-1911), edited by Petra ten-Doesschate Chu and Jennifer Milam, Brill, 2019, pp. 1-15.
Qian, Yitao. “Specimens or Fakes? Constructing Authenticity of Chinese paintings at the British Museum 1880 – 1910”. BACS Annual Conference, 3rd September 2025, University of Leicester, UK. Conference Presentation.
