@inbook{64427afaa41d4eacbdc345215bc51735,
title = "Between Adoption and Resistance: China{\textquoteright}s Efforts of {\textquoteleft}Understanding the West{\textquoteright}, the Challenges of Transforming Monarchical Legitimacy and the Rise of Oriental Exceptionalism, 1860–1910",
abstract = "Qing officials and intellectuals were interested in European concepts of law, statehood, society, and the individual after China{\textquoteright}s conflicting encounter with the {\textquoteleft}West{\textquoteright} in the two {\textquoteleft}Opium Wars{\textquoteright}. The Marxist narrative of the Qing decline and the new Belt and Road programme ideologically highlight the lost harmonious vision of a Chinese world order facing European imperialism. As both interpretations do not pay adequate attention to Chinese adoptions of the {\textquoteleft}West{\textquoteright}, this article argues that Chinese functional adoption of Western concepts served a Western-style {\textquoteleft}modernisation{\textquoteright} as long as it did not undermine the monarchical legitimacy of the Qing dynasty. Active Chinese import of {\textquoteleft}Western{\textquoteright} concepts to further modernise China only encountered official resilience when the concepts could undermine monarchical legitimacy and revolutionise the Empire.",
keywords = "Cultural transfer, Framing, Internationalism, New imperialism, Qing China",
author = "Christian M{\"u}ller",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020, The Author(s).",
year = "2020",
doi = "10.1007/978-981-15-3133-0_10",
language = "English",
series = "Palgrave Series in Asia and Pacific Studies",
publisher = "Springer",
pages = "219--252",
booktitle = "Palgrave Series in Asia and Pacific Studies",
}
