- Title
- Perceptions of China and Russian chinoiserie under Empress Elisabeth Petrovna
- Creator
- Heath, Ekaterina; Milam, Jennifer
- Relation
- Russian Orientalism in a global context: Hybridity, encounter, and representation, 1740-940 p. 50-74
- Publisher
- Manchester University Press
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2023
- Description
- This chapter proposes that the Russian Empire’s attitude towards China remained ambiguous throughout the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, with the empress oscillating between critiquing China and seeking good relations with the Chinese emperor. Russian Orientalism served this ambiguity. More specifically, the cultural malleability of chinoiserie as a form of representation made the style particularly appealing in Russia—it was increasingly used to mediate the changing meanings of the East. Yet as with the deployment of the style in Europe, Russian chinoiserie often reveals more about Russian court culture and politics than it does about Russia’s complex relationship with China. The distinction with Russian chinoiserie is that, as a style, it was neither Chinese nor European, which allowed the imperial court to define and promote the values and interests of the empress and the Russian state. Chinoiserie objects produced during Elisabeth Petrovna’s reign also bring to light the hidden operations of gender in material culture of that period. In particular, many objects were deployed to facilitate the idea of gender plasticity.
- Subject
- Chinese emperor; Russian empire’s; Russian orientalism; chinoiserie
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1500496
- Identifier
- uon:54943
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781526166234
- Language
- eng
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