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Crafting a nation, fishing for power: The Universal Exposition of 1906 and fisheries governance in Late Qing China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2023

Ronald C. Po*
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom

Abstract

The 1906 Universal Exposition hosted in Milan was a defining moment for the late Qing in terms of its fisheries development. The exhibition not only allowed China to portray its strategic focus on its fisheries but also its determination to be seen as a modernized and progressive sea power in Asia. China’s involvement in this world’s fair also paralleled the process of political and economic consolidation of some of the country’s intellectuals at the turn of the nineteenth century. These intellectuals’ accumulated experience, common goals, and international consciousness made it possible to assemble a group of professional experts I refer to as the ‘new fisheries elites’, who were able to construct the image of China as a modern fisheries power, if not a sea power, at various levels. The first part of this article will situate this exposition within the final two decades of the Qing Empire in the context of the political, social, and cultural transformation that was taking place around the world at the time. China’s presence at the world’s fair during this period displayed the adjustments of a changing and dynamic national image in terms of both its national circumstances and its international situation. The second part will then move on to discuss in what ways the Milan exposition was conceived by elites such as Zhang Jian, Luo Cheng, and Guo Fengming as a paradigmatic setting in which to showcase China’s drive toward modernity and becoming a sea power. Although China had participated in several other universal expositions, the Qing court had clearer and more pragmatic objectives in its participation in Milan in 1906. This was to demonstrate its recent progress and to change the common impression of China as an insecure, inexperienced, and incompetent country in terms of its fisheries governance and maritime vision. To produce this image, Zhang Jian and his team undertook a sensible and impressive approach towards presenting to the world China’s maritime awareness and the long historical continuity between this country and the sea. This was a conscious effort to produce an ideal of what a modern, progressive maritime China should look like.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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References

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30 An edict issued by the Grand Council, dated on Guangxu sanshiyi nian liu yue shisiri (14 July 1905), in Qingmo choubei lixian dang’an shiliao 清末籌備立憲檔案史料 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1979), vol. 1, p. 1.

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49 Ibid., pp. 18–20. Muscolino has rightly directed our attention to the environmental side of the story when it comes to the enforcement of official fishery restrictions. This is a promising angle and perspective that we have overlooked for a long period of time. Although Muscolino’s book was released in 2009, I think there is still room for us to further complicate the environmental history of maritime China throughout the long eighteenth century. Fisheries is one of the meaningful topics, while sea salt harvesting and the search for coral in the high sea, for example, are also relevant subject matters for further discussion.

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74 Qingzhu Yidali Dachen Huang Gao wei chaosong suiyuan Li Hongbin bao Milan saihui gejie zhi waiwubu zicheng: Fujian sui yuan Li Hongbin wei Milan saihui shi bingwen (Guangxu sanshier nian shi yue ershijiu ri [29 September 1906]) 清駐意大利大臣黃誥爲抄送隨員李鴻賓報米蘭賽會各節致外務部諮呈: 附件 隨員李鴻賓爲米蘭賽會事稟文 (光緒三十二年十月二十九日), collected in ‘Guangxu sanshier nian Zhongguo canjia Yidali Milan saihui shiliao (xia)’, (ed.) Guo Hui, pp. 15–16.

75 Ibid., p. 16.

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81 ‘Yiguo yuye saihui shi’, pp. 5–6.

82 ‘Shangbu wei Yiguo yuye saihui zi gesheng dufu wen’, p. 4.

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This paper was first presented at the Conference on ‘Maritime Asia: Securitization of the China Seas’ jointly organized by the University of Cambridge and the University of California, Berkeley on 9–11 August 2021. It was prepared with support from the STICERD Grant offered by the Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines and the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. I am grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments for revision, and to Catherine Yeh, Robert Murowchick, Eugenio Menegon, Wen-hsin Yeh, Kun-Chin Lin, Ryo Ikeda, and Ryosuke Maeda for their most valuable suggestions on the first draft of the paper. The views expressed and errors that remain are entirely my own responsibility.