You are watching Dr Sunny Xin Liu in conversation with broadcaster Michael Wood on the topic of Anglo-Chinese encounters before the Opium War. This virtual talk was organised by the Manchester China Institute at John Rylands Research Institute and Library on Thursday, 23 February 2023.
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𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀
Dr. Sunny Xin Liu and Professor of Public History and broadcaster, Michael Wood unite for this intimate discussion about Dr. Liu's latest book, "Anglo-Chinese Encounters Before the Opium War, A Tale Of Two Empires Over Two Centuries" (Routledge, 2022).
Starting with Queen Elizabeth I’s letter to the Ming Emperor Wanli and ending with the letter from Lord Palmerston to the Minister of China just before the Opium War, this talk narrates the fascinating encounters between the two historic empires and explores the long journey from cultural diplomacy to gunboat diplomacy.
In this special talk, the speakers adopt a novel ‘mirror’ approach by pairing and comparing people, texts, gifts, commodities, artworks, architecture, ideologies, operating systems and world views of the two empires. While interweaving the most known diplomatic efforts at the official level with the much unknown intellectual interactions at the people-to-people level, this approach allows an analysis of how the two empires created frameworks for understanding “Self and Other” from both Sino-centric and Anglo-centric points of departure, telling stories that have been understudied in the grand narratives, and reflecting on their implications on today’s bilateral relations.
The event also marked the opening of the new China Culture Gallery at the Manchester Museum, where various narratives on historical Anglo-Chinese encounters will also be exhibited.
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𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Xin Liu graduated with two BA degrees from China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing and a MBA in Change Management from the University of Central Lancashire in 2002. She received her PhD in China’s Cultural Diplomacy at the same university, where she has been teaching as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Language and Global Studies since 2008. Her research interest lies in the multidisciplinary area covering public diplomacy, cultural studies, media and communication, and China’s relations with the West. Apart from nine translated books, Dr Liu’s major publications include multiple research papers in top-rated journals such as Journal of Contemporary China, Asia Studies Review, and two monographs: China’s Cultural Diplomacy: A Great Leap Outward? (Routledge, 2019), and Anglo-Chinese Encounters Before the Opium War, A Tale of Two Empires Over Two Centuries (Routledge, 2022). She is now working on her new book provisionally titled A Historical Tempest in a Teapot, the Story of Cha and China.
Michael Wood is an English historian, broadcaster, and Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester. From exploring international history with undergraduates to being a patron of the Manchester Histories Festival, leading historical field trips and giving public lectures, Prof Wood has become an emblematic figure at the University of Manchester. Outside academia, he has presented numerous well-known television documentary series from the late 1970s to the present day. Prof Wood has also written a number of books on English and Chinese history, including The Story of England, The Story of China, In Search of the Dark Ages, The Domesday Quest, and In Search of Shakespeare.
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𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗲 | 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀
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