XANADU Encounters with China

A NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA EXHIBITION

XANADU
Encounters with China

National Library of Australia

Canberra 2 0 0 4
Published by the National Library of Australia
Canberra ACT 2600 Australia
©National Library of Australia 2004

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Xanadu: encounters with China.

Bibliography.
Includes index.
ISBN 0 642 27612 9.

1. Australia—Relations—China—Exhibitions. 2. China—
Relations—Australia—Exhibitions. I. Terry, Martin.
II. Title.

327.94051

Publisher's editor: Leora Kirwan

Curatorial assistant: Irene Turpie
Designer: Kathy Jakupec
Printed by: Goanna Print

Front: Firing Crackers in Honour of the Kitchen God

in Juliet Bredon
Chinese New Year festivals: A Picturesque Monograph of the Rites,
Ceremonies and Observances Thereto
Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, 1930

Thanks to Geremie Barme and Andrew Gosling for their advice.

Every reasonable effort has been made to contact the copyright holders.
Where this has not been possible, the copyright holders are invited
to contact the publisher.
 FOREWORD

The creation of the National Library of Australia's major Asian Collection in the years following World
War 11 is one of the success stories of Australia's engagement with the Asia-Pacific region. From the 1950s,
the Library has built major research collections on East Asia and South-East Asia, and we also have
significant holdings on other countries of the region, such as India. Today, the National Library houses
the largest developing research resource on Asia in Australia, with holdings of over half a million volumes.
Xanadu: Encounters with China is a very special exhibition for the National Library of Australia, drawing
as it does on the Library's maps, pictures, rare books and, most notably, its Asian material. This is the first
time in many years that the Library has featured its Asian Collection in a significant exhibition.
Xanadu, of course, focuses only on our material relating to China, primarily by Westerners who either
imagined or visited the nation from the sixteenth century through to the mid-twentieth century. One of
the Library's treasures, a map of the eastern and western hemispheres of the world executed by the Jesuit
priest Ferdinand Verbiest in Peking around 1674, is on display, as are lithographs of Martin Frobisher and
J o h n Franklin. Hardy Wilson's expressive drawings of China and Stanley Gregory's photographs of
Shanghai in the 1930s are also included. Through this diverse material, covering some 4 5 0 years of
engagement, the exhibition reveals the way Western perceptions of China have evolved, moving from
stereotypes to a more expansive understanding of the culture, society and people of that nation. It also
demonstrates the important role of the National Library in collecting and maintaining a major cultural
resource that facilitates cross-cultural knowledge and intellectual engagement with our region.

J a n Fullerton
Director-General

3
 Johannes van Loon
(c.1611-1686)
Imperii Sinarvm nova
descriptio
col. map; 4 5 . 0 x 4 9 . 9 cm
Amsteladami: P. Schenck,
[c.1709]
 XANADU Encounters with China

In two lines of poetry, SamTuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) summarised China for a nineteenth-century
audience:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree

Xanadu is not an exhibition about the history of China. Rather, it is a tale of how the country has been perceived
by Western observers, viewed through the perspective of the Library's collections. The 150 or so items on display
are drawn from the Asian, Pictures, Manuscript and Map collections and relate mostly to the imperial era, with
a small selection of photographs reflecting Australia's re-engagement with China in the 1970s.
In 1959, the collections of the National Library of Australia, as it was later to be called, were scattered across
1
a number of buildings in Canberra, 'like shepherds huts on a station with no homestead'. The population of
the city numbered about 39 000. There was no Lake Burley Griffin. In these provincial circumstances, and after
lengthy negotiations, a startling acquisition was concluded—the purchase of the library of one of the world's
foremost scholars of Chinese art, Walter Perceval Yetts (1878-1957). Even today it seems bewildering; the titles
are mostly Chinese and the number of Australians then interested in Asian art must have been small. Professor
Yetts had wanted his books—numbering about 4000—to be acquired by 'a library in the British Empire',
but perhaps the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library was quietly looking ahead of him?
The strength of this collection was enhanced by another purchase, in 1961, of 700 books, tracts and
pamphlets that had belonged to the London Missionary Society (LMS). Founded in 1795, the Society had sent
the first foreign missionary to China, Robert Morrison (1782-1834), who arrived in Guangzhou (Canton) in
September 1807. For 100 years, mostly through a theological prism, the LMS was an almost unrivalled
observer of Chinese affairs. As well as publishing religious works in Chinese, it collected widely in that
language. Many of the translated Bibles, dictionaries and other items on China's history, language, literature
and culture acquired from the society are now rare and valuable and constitute a fascinating time capsule of
China in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.
Apart from its scholarly value, the London Missionary Society Collection also had symbolic significance.
It confirmed the Library's credentials in the field of Asian studies, but it was also politically interesting.
Australia has not always been as welcoming as it is now. The communist Chinese Government was then
unrecognised, and there was a general unease at the possibility of being overwhelmed by Asiatic hordes—the
'yellow peril'.
Written in 1798 but not published until 1816, Coleridge claimed that Xanadu was 'a sort of vision brought on
by two grains of opium taken to check a dysentery'. While appearing as part of a dream, Xanadu was a real place

5
 that Coleridge had read about in travel accounts. It was to Shangdu, north-east of
Beijing, that Venetian merchants Marco Polo ( 1 2 5 4 - 1 3 2 4 ) , his father Nicolo and his
uncle Maffeo c a m e in 1 2 7 5 , though it was only with t h e invention of moveable type
1 5 0 years later that a description of ' X a n a d u ' b e c a m e widely available. T h e first
account was published in Nuremberg in 1 4 7 7 ; t h e first attempt at Marco's biography
was m a d e by G i o v a n n i Ramusio ( 1 4 8 5 - 1 5 5 7 ) in his Delle naviagioni et viaggi ...
published between 1 5 5 4 and 1 6 0 6 .
From Roman times, intrepid merchants had made the journey along the 'Silk Road'
to trade with C h i n a . This long-standing trade had been ruined by Genghis Khan
( 1 1 6 2 - 1 2 2 7 ) whose pony-riding horde had sacked t h e beautiful cities upon w h o m
Ferdinand Verbiest t h e c o m m e r c e had depended. T h e road to t h e east had b e c a m e a lonely o n e , and t h e
(1623-1688) Polos had few predecessors.
[World M a p ] (detail) In Elizabethan times, t h e c o m p i l a t i o n o f encyclopedic travel accounts became, like
col. map, hand-painted t h e portrait miniature, a particularly English art form. T h e most important o f these
wood block prints on silk; accounts, Richard Hakluyt's Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of
2 hemispheres on the English Nation, published in 1 5 9 9 - 1 6 0 0 , c o n t a i n e d t h e 'rare and memorable
2 scrolls journals o f two friars, w h o were s o m e o f t h e first Christians that travelled furthest
[Beijing: s.n., C . 1 6 7 4 | that way' [east]. G i o v a n n i del Pian de Carpini's mission for I n n o c e n t IV to t h e
Mongols (1245-1247), thought Hakluyt,
'surpasses that o f Alexander t h e Great', while a
few years later ( 1 2 5 2 - 1 2 5 5 ) Willem of Rubruck,
travelling for Louis IX, suffered great privation
at t h e hands of Genghis Kahn's successor, and
reported on 'their bestial lives, their vicious
manners, their slavish subjection to their o w n
superiors, and their disdainful and brutish
i n h u m a n i t y u n t o strangers'.
In t h e sixteenth century, C h i n a began to
take g r a p h i c form as well, a p p e a r i n g for
e x a m p l e in Sebastian Munster's monumental
atlas o f t h e world, Cosmographiae universalis
( 1 5 5 0 ) and in t h e 1 5 8 4 map of China by
the Dutch geographer, Abraham Ortelius
(1527-1598. Encouraged by these maps,
Europeans began to seek t h e elusive north-west
passage as a way o f shortening t h e journey to
C h i n a . Martin Frobisher was t h e Elizabethan
m a r i n e r in t h e forefront o f this quest, w h i c h
c u l m i n a t e d 2 5 0 years later in t h e loss o f a n
1 8 4 5 - 1 8 4 8 expedition, led by Sir John Franklin
until his death in 1 8 4 7 .

6
 The s e v e n t e e n t h century is n o t a b l e for the p r e s e n c e in China of Jesuit View of the Labyrinth
missionaries. M a t t e o Ricci ( 1 5 5 2 - 1 6 1 0 ) had b e e n in t h e vanguard. Early in t h e plate 5
c e n t u r y h e wrote, with t h e assistance o f Li Zhicao, a description o f Western in Giuseppe Castiglione
a s t r o n o m y , and produced an influential world m a p . This in turn was a m e n d e d by (1688-1766)
his successor Giulio Aleni ( 1 5 8 2 - 1 6 4 9 ) in his Wanguo quantu ( C o m p l e t e M a p of Palaces, Pavillions and
All N a t i o n s ) . T h e r e was a subversive nature t o these maps for t h e y were a reminder, Gardens in the Imperial
perhaps a disagreeable o n e , that C h i n a was not a l o n e in t h e world, a n d not Grounds of Yuan Ming
particularly at its c e n t r e either. Yuan at the Summer
W i t h t h e o v e r t h r o w o f t h e M i n g dynasty in 1 6 4 4 by M a n c h u - l e d forces from t h e Palace in Peking
n o r t h , Jesuit influence really began t o flourish. T h e J e s u i t m i s s i o n at mid-century [Paris]: Jardin de Flore,

was an audacious a t t e m p t t o c o n v e r t t h e court, a n d t h r o u g h t h e court t h e empire, 1977

to Christianity. To C h i n a came architects, engineers, mathematicians and

a s t r o n o m e r s . A s t r o n o m y was particularly significant. T h e E m p e r o r was t h e m e d i u m
b e t w e e n Heaven and Earth, a n d t h e correct c a l c u l a t i n g o f eclipses, a n d other
celestial events, was i m p o r t a n t t o t h e stability o f t h e e m p i r e . T h e observatory built
inside t h e south-east c o r n e r o f t h e walled city o f Beijing was m o d e r n i s e d , but today
t h e a s t r o n o m i c a l i n s t r u m e n t s are all that r e m a i n o f a c e n t u r y o f Jesuit endeavour.
At t h e high p o i n t o f this m o d e r n i s i n g interest are world m a p s produced at t h e
direction o f Ferdinand Verbiest SJ (1623-1688. T i m e has treated t h e s e works o f art—
for that is what t h e y surely a r e — s o m e w h a t unkindly, a n d t o d a y t h e y possess

7
 a certain ruined beauty.
Yet along with the
incongruous appearance o f
a giraffe, a g h o s t - i m a g e o f
Australia as k n o w n from
Dutch d i s c o v e r i e s is still
discernible.
Among the remarkable
a c h i e v e m e n t s o f t h e Jesuits
was t h e e m b e l l i s h m e n t o f
t h e north-east c o r n e r o f t h e
Yuan Ming Yuan, the
'Garden of Perfect Brightness',
with an a s t o n i s h i n g group
of pavilions used as the
m a i n h o m e o f t h e imperial
court for m o s t o f t h e year.
Engravings published in
1720 after drawings by
Giuseppe C a s t i g l i o n e s h o w
A Double Trussed Bridge images o f a fantasy world—a strange hybrid land o f European b a r o q u e transported
in the Chinese Taste t o t h e East. T h e r e m a i n s o f t h e palace, north-east o f Beijing, c o n s t i t u t e t h e m o s t
plate 2 8 visible legacy o f t h a t e x t r a o r d i n a r y era.
in William Halfpenny Castiglione (1688-1766), a n o t h e r Jesuit, arrived in C h i n a in 1 7 1 5 , leaving soaring
(d.1755) angels and h o v e r i n g putti b e h i n d in Italy. Adopting t h e n a m e Lang S h i n i n g , his
Rural Architecture in the style in C h i n a b e c o m e s sleekly illustrative, his subjects are t h e here and now.
Chinese Taste: Being A l t h o u g h this was at variance w i t h t h e m o r e tranquil style o f t h e C h i n e s e scholar-
Designs Entirely New for artists, his work was appreciated in court a n d s o m e t i m e s e m u l a t e d by t h e court
the Decoration of Gardens, painters. C a s t i g l i o n e portrayed t h e Emperor's favourite horses, his birds o f prey,
Parks, Forrests, Insides of or n o w - u n k n o w n breeds from t h e imperial kennels.
Houses &c. on Sixty Copper T h e British East India C o m p a n y was granted its C h a r t e r b y Elizabeth I o n New
Plates with Full Instruction Year's Eve, 1 6 0 0 . Establishing itself in India, it began trading with C h i n a , w h i c h
for Workmen; also a Near p e r m i t t e d it a n d its n u m e r o u s c o m p e t i t o r s t o set up a small island c o m p o u n d at
Estimate of the Charge, G u a n g z h o u in t h e south o f t h e country. Luxury g o o d s such as silk a n d lacquerware
and Hints Where Proper to b e g a n t o flow t o Europe. Blue and w h i t e porcelain b e c a m e ubiquitous, with t h e
Be Erected trade d o m i n a t e d from t h e early 1 6 8 0 s b y t h e o n l y real rival to t h e British, t h e D u t c h
London: Printed for East India C o m p a n y . C h i n o i s e r i e b e c a m e a la mode, d o m i n a t i n g Western taste for
Rob't Sayer..., 1 7 5 5 over a century. Louis X I V built a trianon de porcelaine at Versailles, and a c e n t u r y later
t h e taste for C h i n e s e architecture c u l m i n a t e d with W i l l i a m C h a m b e r s building, at
Kew Gardens in 1 7 6 1 , a soaring pagoda—painted blue and red, with gilded dragons—
for Princess Augusta.

8
Europeans eventually solved t h e secret o f h o w t o m a k e ceramics, but there was o n e Mode of Carrying
product in w h i c h C h i n a continued to e n j o y a m o n o p o l y , and that was tea. Common Tea
2
Tea, ' b l a c k and green, lyson, gunpowder, pekoe, p o u c h i n g and s o u c h o n g ' , was in Robert Fortune
responsible for m o s t o f t h e profits o f t h e British East India C o m p a n y , a n d so (1813-1880)
i m p o r t a n t was it t o English c o n s u m e r s , t h e c o m p a n y had to keep a year's supply in A Journey to the Tea-
store in case there was a c a t a s t r o p h e . Countries of China, Including
The e i g h t e e n t h c e n t u r y c o n c l u d e s with t h e d i p l o m a t i c m i s s i o n led by Lord Sung-Lo and the Bohea Hills:
M a c a r t n e y . This was t o prove a t r i u m p h o f style over s u b s t a n c e . T h e British hated with a Short Notice of the
b e i n g c o n f i n e d to G u a n g z h o u with their c o m p e t i t o r s a n d w a n t e d their o w n base. East India Company's Tea
Similarly t h e y w a n t e d trade t o be liberalised a n d a m b a s s a d o r s t o b e e x c h a n g e d . Plantations in the Himalaya
All their requests were d e c l i n e d . ' T h e celestial Empire ... does n o t value i n g e n i o u s Mountains
articles, n o r do we have t h e slightest n e e d o f y o u r C o u n t r y ' s manufactures,' London: J. Murray, 1 8 5 2
decreed t h e Emperor. T h i s lofty dismissal
of t h e worldly M a c a r t n e y a n d his treasure
t r o v e o f beautiful presents effectively kept
foreign powers at bay for the next
5 0 years.
Trading or evangelising required the
r u d i m e n t s o f t h e language. T h e Reverend
Robert Morrison, Samuel Williams, and later
Sir Walter Hillier p r o m o t e d t h e learning of
Chinese by Europeans. The London
Missionary Society was also influential,
publishing h a n d y pocket-sized dictionaries
a n d phrasebooks. Inevitably however, out
of necessity, a Guangzhou jargon, or
pidgin, evolved from several European and
Asian languages. Gods were joss, markets
were bazaars, lunch was tiffin, workers
were coolies. A document was a chop,
an urgent o n e a chop-chop.
Certain cliches about the Chinese
developed that were t o prove remarkably
enduring. W h i l e , for e x a m p l e , t h e C h i n e s e
were ingenious and hard-working, they
were also imitative, crafty, servile and
casually violent.
T h e r e were t w o issues a b o v e all that
seemed to distinguish t h e C h i n e s e from
Western societies at t h e t i m e . T h e first was
t h e h o b b l i n g of w o m e n by foot b i n d i n g .

9
 [Chinese W o m a n —
with B o u n d Feet—
and M a n , S i t t i n g
b&w photograph;
13.9 x 10.0 c m
in Christopher P. Metcalfe
'Notes and Photographs,
1900-1905'

W h i l e n o t a M a n c h u practice, it was a C h i n e s e c u s t o m stretching back t o t h e Tang

dynasty in t h e t e n t h century. Apart from aesthetic and cultural effects, foot-binding
m a d e w o m e n m o r e h o u s e - b o u n d , a n d d e p e n d a n t u p o n their husbands. ' G o l d e n
lilies' were ideally t o b e three i n c h e s long, so t h e s h o e pattern that appears in t h e

10
L o n d o n M i s s i o n a r y Society's b o o k Mo bao jiao ge (Stop Foot B i n d i n g ) , is actual size. China Opium
Erotic glances also fell u p o n t h o s e crippled feet. Smokers
T h e difficulty with t h e tea trade was t h a t t h e r e was a trade i m b a l a n c e , and while in Thomas Allom
t h e Emperor m a y have t h o u g h t C h i n a w a n t e d for n o t h i n g , t h e r e was o n e t h i n g it (1804-1872)
n e e d e d a n d liked. In 1 9 7 7 , couturier Yves Saint Laurent l a u n c h e d what was to The Chinese Empire
b e c o m e his m o s t popular fragrance, Opium. W i t h its tassel a n d c r i m s o n - c o l o u r e d Illustrated with Historical
flask, it evokes M a n c h u decor and d e c a d e n c e ; but for t h e masses, o p i u m was a n and Descriptive Letter-Press
i n e x p e n s i v e , t h o u g h addictive, c a l m a t i v e . It c a m e from India a n d Turkey, but it was by the Rev. G.N. Wright:
British a t t e m p t s to industrialise C h i n a ' s d e p e n d e n c e u p o n t h e drug, that led to The History of China:
o p p o s i t i o n . T h e British East India C o m p a n y sheltered b e h i n d intermediaries in this A Narrative of British
trade, but by 1 8 2 5 it was a m o r e profitable import t h a n Indian c o t t o n . In 1 8 3 9 t h e Connexion with That
C h i n e s e b u r n t an o p i u m s h i p m e n t o n t h e G u a n g z h o u docks, t h e acrid s m o k e Nation, the Opium War of
b l o w i n g b a c k towards t h e foreign h o n g s . The O p i u m Wars—there was to be a s e c o n d 1840, and Full Details of
o n e as well—had begun. T h e t w o sides were u n e q u a l l y m a t c h e d from t h e start. the Causes and Events of
T h e C h i n e s e lost, and reparations were e x a c t i n g . H o n g K o n g was ceded t o Britain, the Present War, Vol. 3
w h i c h was also t o lease t h e n e i g h b o u r i n g New Territories for 9 9 years in 1 8 9 8 . London: London
W h i l e t h e O p i u m Wars did little for t h e addicted C h i n e s e , t h e c o u n t r y b e c a m e Printing and Pub. Co.,
m o r e o p e n to foreigners and from this period c o m e a n u m b e r of beautifully [c. 1858]

11
 Musical Instruments illustrated travel a c c o u n t s b y English and French authors, with the preferred
in Sir J o h n Barrow m e d i u m o f l i t h o g r a p h y s o o n surpassed b y t h e n e w o n e of photography. A luxurious
(1764-1848) a l b u m c o m p i l e d in 1 8 6 6 b y B e n j a m i n G r e e n e o f his 'Travels in C h i n a , J a p a n ,
Travels in China: Australia, New Zealand etc.' contains images, possibly by Felice Beato. J o h n
Containing Descriptions, T h o m s o n ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 9 2 1 ) was a n o t h e r p i o n e e r photographer, recording in 1 8 6 9 t h e
Observations and Comparisons first visit o f a m e m b e r o f t h e British Royal family to C h i n a — Q u e e n Victoria's son
Made and Collected in the Alfred, Duke o f Edinburgh.
Course of a Short Residence Festering in t h e background, in faraway provinces where Europeans never ventured,
at the Imperial Palace of a quasi-religious nationalist m o v e m e n t grew—the Taiping 'Great Peace' Rebellion—led
Yuen-min-yuen, by Hong X i u q u a n . Christian literature was in part responsible for his rising influence,
and on a Subsequent Journey as Hong was an avid reader o f translated tracts and, in t h e m i d - 1 8 5 0 s , Pilgrims Progress,
through the Country from by J o h n Bunyan. Being C h i n a , this was n o small-scale m o v e m e n t . At its zenith, it
Pekin to Canton, 2nd edn attracted millions o f adherents. T h e high point was t h e capture o f Nanjing in 1 8 5 3 by
London: T. Cadell and t h e Heavenly Army. H o n g died in 1 8 6 4 , and t h e rebellion was finally suppressed.
W. Davies, 1 8 0 6 The National Library holds s o m e extremely rare pamphlets and proclamations—
originally collected by the London
Missionary Society—from this period.
In early O c t o b e r 1 8 6 0 , at t h e c o n c l u s i o n
of t h e S e c o n d O p i u m War, t h e Yuan M i n g
Yuan, which contained the fantastical
Sino-European structures designed by t h e
Jesuits, fell to an Anglo-French force.
'All t h e big-wigs have fled', wrote Lord
Elgin, 'It is really a fine t h i n g , like an
English park—numberless buildings with
h a n d s o m e r o o m s , and filled with C h i n e s e
curios, and h a n d s o m e clocks, bronzes e t c .
But, alas! Such a scene o f desolation ...
T h e r e was n o t a r o o m that I saw in w h i c h
half t h e t h i n g s had not b e e n taken away or
broken to pieces ... Plundering and
devastating a place like this is bad e n o u g h ,
but w h a t is m u c h worse is t h e waste a n d
breakage ... War is a hateful business.
The m o r e o n e sees o f it, t h e m o r e o n e
3
detests it.' This m a y have been stated for
the record, for several days later Elgin
s a n c t i o n e d t h e razing o f t h e palace a n d
the numerous gardens a n d villas in the
area, o n e o f t h e worst cultural atrocities o f
t h e n i n e t e e n t h century.

12
While Britain was hard-
pressed by the Boers in
southern Africa at the time
of the 1897 Diamond
Jubilee, there was a
feeling that its imperial
destiny lay in China.
Francis Younghusband,
a crony of Lord Curzon,
Viceroy of India wrote,
for example: 'The earth is
too small ... to permit the
Chinese keeping China to
4
themselves.' However,
Lord Salisbury cautiously
advised an enthusiast
wishing to annex the
country, that faced by the
'defiance of the vast mass
of the Chinese and all the
European powers [it] would
be too exhausting a task
for England'.
As Westerners travelled
to China, the Chinese of
course travelled abroad.
Australia was part of this
diasporic movement, with
Chinese being prominent
on the goldfields, and later
in the pearling industry.
In India, China, Australia:
Trade and Society 1788-1850
James Broadbent and others
advanced a compelling case
for the Australian colonies
to be in the vanguard of
countries with an interest in
the East. Alison Broinowski,
in The Yellow Lady, by
contrast, offers a frequently

13
 Previous page:
The Giant of Yunnan
in George Ernest
Morrison ( 1 8 6 2 - 1 9 2 0 )
An Australian in China:
Being the Narrative of a
Quiet Journey across China
to Burma, 2nd edn
London: Horace Cox,
1895

Empress Dowager in
Pearl Fringed Royal
Robes
in Isaac Taylor Headland
(1859-1942)
Court Life in China: The
Capital, Its Officials and
People, 2nd edn
New York: Revell, 1 9 0 9

disheartening c h r o n i c l e o f h o w Australia discarded its early advantages in the areas o f

trade and d i p l o m a c y for a strident pro-Empire stance, that by 1 8 8 8 , t h e c e n t e n n i a l
year o f European settlement, h a d b e c o m e corrosively x e n o p h o b i c . Despite this m o o d ,

14
adventurous Australians did travel to the region. From 1883, ships of the China Sepulture de Tang
Navigation Company steamed between east coast ports and Hong Kong and Fuzhou Kao-tsong (+ 683 A.D.):
(Foochow). This route was taken over in 1912 by the Australian-Oriental Line, and Statue de lion assis
Darwin and Thursday Island were added to the itinerary. As tourists travelled north, planche VIII

Chinese emigrants, and tea, came on the return journey, although colonial in Victor Segalen

immigration acts were to become progressively more restrictive. (1878-1919)

The symbol of China abroad, and the focus of oriental difference, was Mission archeologique en

Chinatown. From San Francisco to Sydney, Chinatown became a place apart, Chine ( 1 9 1 4 )

in architecture and cuisine but also as the home of gambling and opium dens. Paris: Geuthner,

An influential observer in the 1890s and the first two decades of the twentieth 1923-1935

century was an Australian,

George Morrison, known as
'Chinese' Morrison. Bored with
Melbourne, he walked across
China to Rangoon in 1894. His
resulting book, An Australian in
China, was well-received,
although the tone is sardonic and
somewhat anti-missionary. Based
on its success, Morrison returned
to China in 1897 as a journalist
for the London Times, which,
because of its multiple
correspondents in different parts
of the world, was able to exert
inordinate influence upon British
foreign policy. Morrison was
advised by his predecessor,
Valentine Chirol, to forego local
colour. 'We are a very long way
off and only want to look
through the big end of the
5
telescope.' Morrison's frequent
scoops, however, were due in part
to living that 'local colour'
outside the foreign compound,
and dressing like the Chinese—
although he never really mastered
the language.
Morrison observed the Qing
(Manchu) dynasty, which had

15
 ruled C h i n a for 250 years, in its death-throes. T h e e v e n t w h i c h was t o symbolise t h e
demise o f t h e regime was t h e B o x e r Rebellion. Angry at C h i n a ' s lack o f sovereignty,
m o s t r e c e n t l y d e m o n s t r a t e d at t h e h a n d s o f t h e J a p a n e s e in 1 8 9 4 w h e n C h i n a was
forced t o give up Taiwan, t h e Boxers, or Yi h e q u a n (Righteous a n d Harmonious
Fists), founded a secret society o n t h e belief t h a t t h e y were bullet-proof. T h e r a n d o m
killing o f missionaries, such as t h e Australian W i l l i a m F l e m i n g o f t h e C h i n a I n l a n d
Mission, murdered in N o v e m b e r 1 8 9 8 , flared i n t o a broader rebellion that in J u n e
1 9 0 0 saw t h e foreign legations in Beijing a n d t h e Christian C h i n e s e in t h e city u n d e r
siege. Presiding over this was t h e Empress Dowager Cixi ( 1 8 3 5 - 1 9 0 8 ) , a ruthless
survivor w h o s e longevity rivalled t h a t o f Victoria, t h e Q u e e n Empress. For 5 0 years
Cixi was arguably o n e o f t h e m o s t powerful w o m e n in t h e world a n d in 1 8 9 8 she
placed h e r n e p h e w , E m p e r o r G u a n g x u , u n d e r h o u s e arrest in t h e Forbidden C i t y for
displaying dangerous signs o f m o d e r n i s m a n d p l o t t i n g t o reduce her influence.
Late in 1 9 0 0 an i n t e r n a t i o n a l rescue m i s s i o n was l a u n c h e d t o free t h e besieged
d i p l o m a t s . T h e Australian soldiers a n d sailors w h o t o o k part in this c o n f l i c t were t h e
first Australians t o see C h i n a proper in large n u m b e r s . After terrible hardships, t h e
siege was lifted in August 1 9 0 1 , leaving t h e d i p l o m a t i c quarter a n d s e c t i o n s o f t h e

Tombe de
Pao san-niang:
Pendant les travaux
de deblaiement:
Victor Segalen,
Gilbert de Voisins et
le sous-prefet de
Tchao-houa Men
planche LVII
in Victor Segalen
(1878-1919)
Mission archeologique en
Chine (1914)
Paris: Geuthner,
1923-1935

16
city in ruins. A number of survivors wrote accounts of their experiences. There was the Reverend Forsyth's
The China Martyrs of 1900, and Indiscreet Letters from Peking, a racy chronicle of events edited by B.L. Putnam
Weale. Returning Australians carried numerous trophies of war, such as the temple bell given to Scotch
College, Melbourne by Commander Frederick Tickell.
On the pretext of carrying out a tour of the western reaches of the empire (xi xun), the Empress Dowager
Cixi had absented herself from Beijing during the inevitable sack of the city but she returned in 1902. Oddly,
for someone who was deeply suspicious of modern technology—steam trains and telephones—she had an
intuitive grasp of the power of photographs. Her mask-like visage, sitting above magically endowed robes,
gazes at the reader of books such as Princess Der Ling's Two Years in the Forbidden City. Photography in that era
required a lengthy exposure, and she was used to sitting still. The Empress was persuaded to have her portrait
painted for the St Louis Exposition, and there were several other encouraging signs of a rapport with the
technological West. A courtier bought her a motor car—a Benz—but it was unusable as the chauffeur was not
allowed to sit in her presence. The Empress Dowager and the Emperor Guangxu finally died in the same year—
1908—and the hapless boy Puyi was made the heir, only to be overthrown in 1911 by the Nationalist leader,
Sun Zhongshan (Sun Yat-sen).
Around this time, Western scholars and art-lovers showed an increased interest in Chinese painting and
decorative art. Many beautiful publications started to appear, one example being W. Perceval Yetts's The Cull
Chinese Bronzes of 1925. The influence of these books was felt in Australia in the collecting of its most
important art museum at the time, the National Gallery of Victoria. In October 1921, its director, Bernard Hall,
travelled to Sydney and spent more than £800 on 42 pieces from the collection of a Captain Eady. 'The taste
for these things is growing', Hall wrote to his trustees, 'certainly in Sydney, and a good deal is coming to
6
Australia'. (In 1929, the quality of its Chinese collection was challenged, and the NGV sent a number of
pieces to R.L. Hobson at the British Museum for authentication, something that was largely forthcoming.)
The archaeological artefacts for which China is today renowned, terracotta warriors and jade princesses, are
comparatively recent discoveries. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the attention of Western
collectors was focused upon western China and the remains of the oasis cities of the Silk Road. It was a reprise
of the Great Game, where European powers had struggled for dominance in the mountainous regions between
India and southern Russia. Sir Aurel Stein (1862-1943) was perhaps the strangest and most tenacious of the
collectors. He worked for the Archaeological Survey of India, which had been revived by Lord Curzon
primarily as a cover for keeping an eye on the Russians. Like T.E. Lawrence, the Hungarian-born Stein was one
of those people who is at perfect ease in the desert, and appear quite resistant to discomfort. From 1900,
accompanied by his dog Dash, he led four expeditions across dangerous mountains to western China,
recovered lost cities from the sand, recorded Buddhist sanctuaries, and took everything he could find. He was
almost pathologically rapacious, returning from his 1913-1916 mission, for example, with 182 packing-cases
of loot. Once the archaeologists had made off with everything portable, attention swung to dinosaur hunting,
and then to hominids, culminating in the discovery in 1929 of the top of the skull of 'Peking' Man (Homo
erectus) near Zhoukoudian, which lies 40 kilometres south-west of Beijing.
With the fall of the Qing dynasty, Beijing became something of a backwater. Books documented its decline.
One of the most affecting is the Pageant of Peking of 1921, containing magnificent photographs by Donald
Mennie. He was working in the pictorialist or tonal tradition, reflected in such titles as Along the Sunlit Dusty
Street, and When the Evening Shadows Fall. One of the most attractive books of the period was The Calls, Sounds

17
 P U C C I N I ' S GRK.YI OI'KRA, " T U R A N D O T "
i J f
/ rr/t/ufitr tttc ft'rtit fintv in Si/i/m-t/ At/ , J. C*. maan C/t/.
(if Oier ~H•ij'-xf</s .//it-ntrr. Suttneu, tut Saturday, %ffi ^nuguxt, l*-)'2S
;

Hv.\fri>.- iBotnrtn'tiittt tttrv ffa*taito fJRavagnoil

Turandot
in Souvenir,
Grand Opera Season,
Her Majesty's Theatre
TURANDOT
G.PUCCINI
MUSICADI G . A D A M I i- R
LIRRETTO ra
SIMONI

Sydney 1928 « EDIZIONI RICORDI -

Presented by
J.C. Williamson Ltd &
Dame Nellie Melba
and Merchandise of the Peking Street Peddlers, privately published by an American student, Samuel Constant.
Mennie and Constant were to capture a Beijing that was disappearing. More cars were present and the streets
were being widened to accommodate them. A tramway system also led to changes, not least for the rickshaw
drivers who rioted in 1929 and were brutally put down.
A number of travel books were also published around this time, with titles such as Tramps in Dark Mongolia,
Camps and Trails in China, and, by Mrs Archibald Little, Round My Peking Garden. These were all inexpensive
editions, usually featuring a map and a handful of photographs. W. Somerset Maugham's work is a useful
antidote to these chatty volumes. He travelled to China in 1920 and through his cool, disengaged tone we meet
the bitter missionary, the washed-up expatriate; the mutual disaffection between the English and the Chinese is
palpable. A year later, Australian architect Hardy Wilson arrived in the country. Pre-dating the work of Australian
artist Ian Fairweather, his large drawings of China's imperial architecture are the most important Australian
studies of the East during this decade, although they are melancholy and largely free of the Chinese themselves.
Wilson was to return to Australia, one of the few to promote understanding of our Asian neighbours.
The opera Turandot, composed by Giacomo Puccini, had its Australian premiere in 1928 with seasons in
Melbourne and Sydney. While the introduction to the libretto advised that 'the China to which the composer
takes us is the China of legends and fantasy', it is really a more bloodthirsty Gilbert and Sullivan view of the
Orient. The Melba Williamson Company staged the production with Gaetano Bavagnoli conducting, and
Giannina Lombardi singing the lead. The critic for Sydney's The Sunday Times wrote, 'in the gorgeousness of
its scenic effects, the superb splendour of its gowning, and polychromatic orientalism of the staging, Turandot
7
is the most sumptuous and superb production ever staged hereabouts'.
Open to the West since the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, Shanghai was China's most cosmopolitan city until
it was attacked by Japan in 1937. In 1912 the Madrolle travel-guide described how Jing'ansi Lu (Bubbling Well
Road) 'with its fine houses on each side, is thronged by smart turn-outs, riders, and motor-cars (which] whiz
8
past taking elegant Chinese ladies, rouged and flower-decked to the tea-gardens in the neighbourhood'.
Later, with smart jazz-age buildings such as the Park Hotel (built in 1934) fronting Jing'ansi Lu and Wai Tan
(The Bund), it came to symbolise all that was decadent in China. The magazine Liang you (Young Companion)
captures this mood with an unnerving mixture of gossip about movie stars and news about armaments
production.
A mysterious Australian appeared on the scene during the 1930s. W.H. Donald, 'of China', was first of all
advisor to the Manchurian warlord Zhang Xueliang—a notorious drug addict, whose mistress was Countess
Ciano, Mussolini's daughter—and then to the Nationalist leader Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek). In 1938,
Donald met the English authors W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood: 'This morning we went to meet
Mr Donald ... a red-faced, serious man, with an Australian accent and a sensible nose ... We told him of our
proposed journey to the north. He looked dubious and shook his head: "Well, I wish you luck. But it's a hard
9
road. A hard road." He paused, then added, in a lower, dramatic tone: "You may have to eat Chinese food".'

The main part of the Xanadu exhibition concludes in 1937 when fierce fighting at the Lugou Qiao or Marco
Polo Bridge heralded the Japanese invasion of North China. In the same year, Hardy Wilson published his
Grecian and Chinese Architecture.

19
During t h e gestation o f t h e People's Republic o f C h i n a after World War II, a silence developed between t h e
West a n d C h i n a . It was n o t until 1 9 7 3 , a year after US President Richard N i x o n had paved t h e way, t h a t
Australia's o w n Prime Minister, G o u g h W h i t l a m , was able to officially visit and re-establish ties with Asia's
m o s t populous n a t i o n . Writing shortly after these events, S i m o n Leys, t h e n o t e d Canberra-based Sinologist,
speculated t h a t t h e new appeal o f C h i n a lay in its capacity t o provide 'a nostalgic escape i n t o t h e past: a world
10
before industrialisation, t h e ultimate r e t r o - u t o p i a ' .
Today, in its great cities, there is little t h a t seems 'retro' about C h i n a apart from t h e heritage buildings in
Beijing, S h a n g h a i , and Nanjing w h i c h so appeal to tourists. W h i l e for early travellers t h e Great Wall and t h e
i m p o s i n g gates and ramparts o f t h e Forbidden City symbolised all t h a t was inward-looking about t h e country,
today its cities are characterised by a b u c c a n e e r i n g capitalism and striking c o n t e m p o r a r y architecture.
Australia is c o n t r i b u t i n g t o this with increasing trade and cultural c o n t a c t s .
Water still occupies a n i m p o r t a n t role in C h i n e s e mythology, for t h a t is where t h e dragons dwell. Fittingly,
t h e Australian firm PTW, with Arup Australasia, has designed t h e aquatic c e n t r e for t h e 2 0 0 8 Beijing O l y m p i c
G a m e s . This s h i m m e r i n g water cube will help symbolise a m e e t i n g o f East and West, and serve as a reminder
of t h a t long-ago e n c o u n t e r b e t w e e n t h e Great K h a n and t h e Polos in fabulous Cathay.

Martin Terry
Curator

1
Peter Cochrane (ed.), Remarkable Occurrences: The National Library of Australia's First 100 Years, 1901-2001. Canberra:
National Library of Australia, 2001, p. 37.
2
James Broadbent, India, China, Australia: Trade and Society 1788-1850. Glebe, NSW: Historic Houses Trust of New South
Wales, 2003, p. 23.
3
Theodore Walrond (ed.), Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin. London: J. Murray, 1872, pp. 361-362.
4
Cyril Pearl, Morrison of Peking. [Sydney]: Angus and Robertson, 1967, p. 84.
5
ibid., p. 79.
6
Leonard Bell Cox, The National Gallery of Victoria 1861 to 1968: A Search for a Collection. [Melbourne]: National Gallery
of Victoria, [1970?], p. 96.
7
Alison Gyger, Opera for the Antipodes: Opera in Australia 1881-1939. Sydney: Currency Press and Pellinor, 1990, p. 273.
8
Claudius Madrolle, Shang-hai: And the Valley of the Blue River. Paris: Hachette, 1912, p. 18.
9
W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, Journey to a War. London: Faber, 1939, p. 55.
1 0
Simon Leys, Broken Images: Essays on Chinese Culture and Politics. London: Allison and Busby, 1979, p. 97.

20
Bibliography

Auden, W.H., and C. Isherwood, Journey to a War. London: Faber, 1939.

Boswell, James , Boswell's Life of Johnson, London: Oxford University Press, 1931.

Broadbent, James, India, China, Australia: Trade and Society 1788-1850. Glebe, NSW: Historic Houses Trust of
New South Wales, 2003.

Broinowski, Alison, The Yellow Lady: Australian Impressions of Asia, 2nd edn. Melbourne: Oxford University
Press, 1996.

Cochrane, Peter (ed.), Remarkable Occurrences: The National Library of Australia's First 100 Years 1901-2001.
Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2001.

Cox, Leonard Bell, The National Gallery of Victoria 1861 to 1968: A Search for a Collection. [Melbourne|: National
Gallery of Victoria, [1970?].

Gosling, Andrew, 'A Journey to Asia', in The People's Treasures: Collections in the National Library of Australia.
[Canberra]: National Library of Australia, 1993.

Gyger, Alison, Opera for the Antipodes: Opera in Australia 1881-1939. Sydney: Currency Press and Pellinor, 1990.

Leys, Simon, Broken Images: Essays on Chinese Culture and Politics. London: Allison and Busby, 1979.

Madrolle, Claudius, Shang-hai: And the Valley of the Blue River. Paris: Hachette, 1912.

Maugham, William Somerset, On a Chinese Screen. London: Heinemann, 1922.

National Library of Australia, Asian Art and Asian Books: Catalogue of an Exhibition Drawn by the National Library
th
from Australian Collections to Mark the 28 Congress of Orientalists in Canberra, 6-12 January 1971. [Canberra]:
The Library, 1971.

Pearl, Cyril, Morrison of Peking. [Sydney]: Angus and Robertson, 1967.

Preston, Diana, Besieged in Peking: The Story of the 1900 Boxer Rising. London: Constable, 1999.

Spence, Jonathan D., God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. New York:
W.W. Norton, 1996.

Sun, Ching and Wan Wong (comps), Catalogue of the London Missionary Society Collection held by the National
Library of Australia. Canberra: National Library of Australia, Asian Collections, 2 0 0 1 .

Walker, David, 'Studying theNeighbours,inRemarkableOccurrences:TheNationalLibraryofAustralia'sFirst100Years1901-2001.Canberra:Natio

Walrond, Theodore (ed.), Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin. London: J . Murray, 1872.

21
 Yung Ting Men,
Elevation of the Inner
Tower
fig. 4 7 in Osvald Siren
(1879-1966)
The Walls and Gates of Peking
London: Lane, [1924]
 EXHIBITION CHECKLIST
PICTURES
Rakesh Ahuja
[Gough and Margaret Whitlam
Accompanied by Vice Prime Minister
Deng Xiaoping on a Visit to the Long
Corridor at the Summer Palace in
Beijing, November 1973]
gelatin silver photograph; 20.0 x 14.0 cm
nla.pic-vn3068780
Rakesh Ahuja
[Gough and Margaret Whitlam
Attending a Reception with Chinese
Prime Minister Zhou Enlai, Beijing,
November 1973]
gelatin silver photograph; 20.1 x 12.7 cm
nla.pic-vn3069145
Rakesh Ahuja
[Gough and Margaret Whitlam on the
Stage with the Ballet Dancers after a
China Dance Troupe Performance of
Bai mao nu (The White-Haired Girl),
Beijing, November 1973]
gelatin silver photograph; 12.4 x 20.1 cm
nla.pic-vn3069053
Rakesh Ahuja
[Gough and Margaret Whitlam Visit
the Summer Palace in Beijing,
November 1973]
gelatin silver photograph; 19.8 x 14.6 cm
nla.pic-vn3068802
Rakesh Ahuja
[Gough and Margaret Whitlam Visit
the Temple of Heaven in Beijing,
1973]
gelatin silver photograph; 12.3 x 19.8 cm
nla.pic-vn3068835
Rakesh Ahuja
[Gough Whitlam Meets Chairman Mao
Zedong in Beijing, November 1973]
col. photograph; 15.0 x 19.0 cm
nla.pic-vn3069192
Rakesh Ahuja
[Gough Whitlam Welcomed by
Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai at
Beijing Airport, November 1973]
gelatin silver photograph; 18.2 x 14.8 cm
nla.pic-vn3069161
Rakesh Ahuja
[Margaret Whitlam Visits the Great
Wall in Beijing, 1973]
gelatin silver photograph; 19.7 x 14.1 cm
nla.pic-vn3068860
Herman J. Asmus
In That Old Potter's Shop c.1930
b&w photograph; 19.7 x 26.3 cm
nla.pic-vn3080800
Herman J. Asmus
A Lotus Pond & a Pagoda on the Outskirts of
Kianfu City, Kiangsi Province, China 1920
b&w photograph; 20.0 x 26.3 cm
nla.pic-vn3080091
Herman J. Asmus
Poor Chinese Woman 'Winnowing'
Grain Dropped from Bags during Loading
into Ships at Nanking [1920s]
sepia-toned photograph; 20.1 x 25.4 cm
nla.pic-vn3080737
Herman J. Asmus
A Priest at Worship in a Temple at
Kanchowfu 1921
sepia-toned photograph; 26.4 x 21.2 cm
nla.pic-vn3080633
Herman J. Asmus
[A Snapshot along the 'Bund' or
Waterfront at Kianfu, Kiangsi Province,
China, Taken about the End of July
1920]
b&w photograph; 19.8 x 26.3 cm
nla.pic-vn3080805
Herman J. Asmus
A Street in Nanking 1926 or 1927
sepia-toned photograph; 26.4 x 34.6 cm
nla.pic-vn3080645
Herman J. Asmus
Two Men Sawing a Plank of Wood
[1920s]
sepia-toned photograph; 20.2 x 25.4 cm
nla.pic-vn3080785
Herman J. Asmus
A Young Coolie near Changsha, 850
Miles from Shanghai 1925
sepia-toned photograph; 30.3 x 22.3 cm
nla.pic-vn3080704
George Chinnery (1774-1852)
Praya Grande, Macao Kay
hand-col. lithograph; 22.8 x 43.5 cm
London: Published by Smith, Elder & Co.,
[1830s]
nla.pic-anlOl30988
George Chinnery (1774-1852)
[The Redoubt of St. Peter, Praia
Grande, Macao] [c.1830]
pen and ink and pencil drawing;
22.1 x 32.3 cm
Braga Collection
nla.pic-an7096083
Stanley O. Gregory
[Bamboo Fence Construction, China]
23
c.1930 Louis Haghe (1806-1885)
digital print; 29.5 x 21.0 cm Portrait of Sir John Franklin
nla.pic-vn3095531 lithograph; 34.6 x 25.4 cm
[London?: s.n., 1840s]
Stanley O. Gregory Rex Nan Kivell Collection
[Basket Making, China] c.1930 nla.pic-an9579248
digital print; 29.5 x 21.0 cm
nla.pic-vn3095503 Barthelemy Lauvergne (1805-1875)
New-China Street a Canton
Stanley O. Gregory lithograph; 19.2 x 29.3 cm
[Bubbling Well Road, Showing Park Paris: Arthus Bertrand; London:
Hotel, Shanghai, China] Ackermann, [1840s|
c.1930 Plate no. 66 in: Voyage autour du monde
digital print; 29.5 x 21.0 cm execute pendant les annees 1836 et 1837
nla.pic-vn3095540 sur la corvette La Bonite commandee par
M. Vaillant, by Auguste Nicolas Vaillant
Stanley O. Gregory nla.pic-anl0395029
[Buddhist Temple between Shanghai
and Soochow, China] c.1930 Barthelemy Lauvergne (1805-1875)
digital print; 29.5 x 21.0 cm Procession chinoise a Macao
nla.pic-vn3095544 hand-col. aquatint; 28.8 x 37.7 cm
[Paris]: Finot imp., [1835]
Stanley O. Gregory Plate. no. 44 in: Voyage autour du
[Fortune Telling, China] c.1930 monde par les mers de I'Inde et de la
digital print; 21.0 x 29.5 cm Chine de la corvette de sa Majeste La
nla.pic-vn3095493 Favorite. Album historique
nla.pic-an9351478
Stanley O. Gregory
[Great Wall, China] c.1930 Don McMurdo (1930-2001)
digital print; 21.0 x 29.5 cm Images from various Australian
nla.pic-vn3095528 productions of the opera, Turandot
10 x A3 size digital prints made in 2004
Stanley O. Gregory Don McMurdo Performing Arts Collection
[Junks, China] c.1930 nla.pic-an23501910
digital print; 29.5 x 21.0 cm
nla.pic-vn3095510 Donald Mennie
China North and South: A Series of
Stanley O. Gregory Vandyck Photogravures Illustrating the
[Shop with Fans, China] c.1930 Picturesque Aspect of Chinese Life and
digital print; 29.5 x 21.0 cm Surroundings 2nd rev. edn
nla.pic-vn3063985 Shanghai, China: A.S. Watson & Co.,
[1920s]
Stanley O. Gregory PIC Album 544
[Still Picture Show, China] c.1930
digital print; 21.0 x 29.5 cm Donald Mennie
nla.pic-vn3064001 The Pageant of Peking 2nd edn
Shanghai, China: A.S. Watson & Co.,
Stanley O. Gregory [1920s]
[Summer Palace Bridge, Peking, China| PIC Album 554
c.1930
digital print; 29.5 x 21.0 cm Vicente Pacia (1880-1940)
nla.pic-vn3095562 Macau, 1937
24
watercolour; 31.8 x 153.0 cm
Braga Collection
nla.pic-an9897765
Baron von Reichenau
Entrance to the Pearl River on the Way to
Canton 1940
perspective drawing; 58.0 x 58.4 cm
Braga Collection
nla.map-brscl48
Unknown artist
Gambling House, Canton
watercolour; 25.3 x 26.1 cm
in 'Travels in China, Japan, Australia,
New Zealand, etc' [assembled] by
Benjamin Greene (1866)
nla.pic-vn3081495
Unknown artist
[Navigator's Flag Chart] [1830s]
watercolour and ink drawing;
54.4 x 73.7 cm
Braga Collection
nla.pic-anl0153918
Unknown artist
Sr. Martin Frobisher, Knight
engraving; 19.1 x 12.1 cm
[London?: s.n., 18th century]
Rex Nan Kivell Collection
nla.pic-an9548264
Unknown photographer
[Photographs of Japan and China]
[1881-1918]
nla.pic-anl0939759
George Robert West
Macao Passage, Canton [i.e. Pearl] River
1847
hand-col. lithograph; 25.2 x 39.6 cm
London: Maclure, Macdonald &
Macgregor, [18471
Braga Collection
nla.pic-anl0131034
Thomas Whitcombe (1763-1824)
The East India Company's Ship Cabalva,
1257 Tons, CaptainJamesDalrymple
Lost in Cargados Shoal, near Mauritius,
7th July, 1818, on a Voyage to China 1820
oil on canvas; 91.0 x 139.0 cm
Rex Nan Kivell Collection
nla.pic-an2253087
Hardy Wilson (1881-1955)
Dragon on the Winter Palace Screen at
Peking [c.l925]
pencil drawing; 45.8 x 35.6 cm
nla.pic-an2772609
Hardy Wilson (1881-1955)
The Great Wall of China [c.1925]
pencil drawing; 52.9 x 39.7 cm
nla.pic-an2791834
Hardy Wilson (1881-1955)
Lion at the Italian Legation in Peking
[c.1925]
pencil drawing; 45.7 x 35.5 cm
nla.pic-an2772585
Hardy Wilson (1881-1955)
Meeting of East and West 1948
pencil drawing; 47.3 x 36.0 cm
nla.pic-an2438443
Hardy Wilson (1881-1955)
Phoenix and Cedar at Peking [c.1925]
pencil drawing; 45.8 x 35.6 cm
nla.pic-an2772622
Hardy Wilson (1881-1955)
The Potter's Workshop [c.1925]
pencil drawing; 45.9 x 35.5 cm
nla.pic-an2791903
Hardy Wilson (1881-1955)
The Temple of GreenJadeClouds [c.1925]
pencil drawing; 53.0 x 39.6 cm
nla.pic-an2791850
Hardy Wilson (1881-1955)
The Temple of Heaven at Peking [c.1925]
pencil drawing; 45.9 x 35.6 cm
nla.pic-an2770349
MAPS
Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville
Nouvel atlas de la Chine, de la Tartaric
chinoise, et du Thibet
Amsterdam: chez Barthelemy Vlam, 1785
MAP Ra 282
Asiae nova discriptio
hand-coloured map; 41.6 x 52.1 cm
Amstelodami: Apud Carolum Allard, 1679
MAP T 42
Chinese Plan of the City of Peking
map; 89.5 x 114.5 cm
London: Lithographed & Printed under
the Direction of Major T.B. Jervis, 1843
London Missionary Society Collection
MAP LMS 630
Fangli Dong
Huang chao yi tong yu di quan tu
(General Atlas of China)
map of China on separate sheets each
33.0 x 44.0 cm
Yanghu: Zhi shu shu, Daoguang 12
[1832]
London Missionary Society Collection
LMS 640
Johannes van Loon (c.1611-1686)
Imperii Sinarvm nova descriptio
col. map; 45.0 x 49.9 cm
Amsteladami: P. Schenck, [C.1709]
MAP RM 288
Sebastian Munster
Cosmographiae universalis lib. vi
Basileae: apud Henrichum Petri, 1550
MAP Ra 4
Sebastian Munster (1489-1552)
La table de la region orientale comprenant
les dernieres terres & royaumes d'Asie
col. map; 25.5 x 34.5 cm
[Basel: s.n., 1552-1568]
MAP RM 2541
Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598) et al.
[Collection of Sixteenth-Century Maps
with Latin Texts]
[Italy?]: s.n., 1560-1608
MAP Ra 9
Postal Map of Shanghai Showing
Sectional Divisions
map; 23.0 x 30.6 cm
[Shanghai: s.n., 1940s]
Braga Collection
MAP Braga Special Col./7
Scythia et Tartaria, Asiatica [showing
the Great Wall of China]
map; 19.5 x 24.2 cm
[Venduntur Amstelaedami: Apud
Joannem Wolters, Bibliopolam op't
Water, 1697]
MAP RM 1782
John Speed (c.1552-1629)
The Kingdome of China
col. map; 35.0 x 43.3 cm
[London: G. Humble, 1631]
MAP RM 272
Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688)
[World Map]
col. map, hand-painted wood block
prints on silk; 2 hemispheres 141.5 cm
and 143.0 cm in diam. on 2 scrolls
[Beijing: s.n., c.l674]
MAP RM 3499/1-2
Rev. D. Vrooman
Map of the City and the Entire Suburbs of
Canton
col. map; 73.7 x 126.0 cm
[China: s.n.], 1860
London Missionary Society Collection
MAP LMS 636
Zui xin Beijing xiang xi quan tu
(Street Plan of the City of Beijing)
map; 51.1 x 50.3
[China: s.n., 20th century]
London Missionary Society Collection
MAP LMS 635
LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY ITEMS
The English titles given for the items
in this section were taken from the
catalogue card records kept by the
London Missionary Society.
Young John Allen (1836-1907) and
Yin Pao-Lu
25
Quan di wu da zhou nu su tong kao
Shanghai (Women in All Lands or
China's Place among the Nations)
Shanghai: Guang xue hui, 1903
LMS 204
John Bunyan (1628-1688)
Tian lu li cheng: Tu hua (Pilgrim's
Progress from This World to That Which Is
to Come), translated by George Piercy
Canton: Liang Yue Jidu jiao shu hui, 1921
LMS 115
Collection of Calligraphical Copybooks
[s.l.: s.n., 19th century?]
LMS 408
Augustus De Morgan (1806-1871)
Dai shu xue Dimegan zhuan (De Morgan's
Algebra)
Shanghai: Mo Hai, Xianfeng ji wei [1859]
LMS 1
John Frederick William Herschel
(1792-1871)
Tan tian Houshile yuan ben (Herschel's
Outlines of Astronomy) 2nd edn
Shanghai: Tongzhi jia xu [1874]
LMS 4
Gai zheng hui tu zi xue liang zhi (Primer
of Reading), illus. Liang Qiutian
Yancheng: Tong yi ju, Guangxu jia
chen [1904]
LMS 231
Mo bao jiao ge (Stop Footbinding)
Hanzhen: Ying Han shu guan, 1898
LMS 378
Qi ya chu jie (Book for Teaching the
Chinese Deaf)
[s.l.: s.n., 20th century]
LMS 386
Quan jie shi ya pian yan (Quitting the
Opium Habit)
[s.l.: s.n., 19th century]
LMS 293
Shen jiang ming sheng tu shuo (Drawing
on the Beautiful Scenery of Shanghai)
26
Vol. 2 Robert Coventry Forsyth (ed.)
[s.l.:] Guan ke shou zhai, Guangxu 10 The China Martyrs of 1900: A Complete
[1884] Roll of the Christian Heroes Martyred in
LMS 233 China in 1900 with Narratives of
Survivors
Song zhu sheng shi (Hymn Book) London: Religious Tract Society, 1904
Hankou: Sheng jiao shu ju, Guangxu Braga Collection
jia wu, [1894] BRA 2517
LMS 104
Dian shi zhai hua bao (Dianshizhai
'Tian wen tu shou' [19th century?] Pictorial)
[Manuscript about Astronomy] Taibei: Tian yi chu ban she, Minguo 67
LMS 576 [1978]
A lithographic magazine originally
Alexander Williamson (1829-1890) published in Shanghai, 1884-1896 by
Ge wu tan yuan (Natural Theology and Dianshizhai Books
the Method of Divine Government) Vol. 1 OCS 9200 6310
Shanghai: Presbyterian Mission Press,
1876 Liang you (Young Companion), nos 70
LMS 335 and 92
OCS 9200 3400A
Yesu zhi lai li: you fu yin ze chu
(Hikayet Isa: kaluar deri dalam Indjil; Mortimer Menpes (1855-1938)
History of Jesus: Extracted from the China, text by Sir Henry Arthur Blake
Gospels) Vol. 1 London: Adam and Charles Black,
Batavia [Jakarta]: s.n., 1839 1909
LMS 411 Braga Collection
BRA 4478
Zhen tian ming Tai ping tian guo ... wei
gao yu si min ge an chang ye shi... (The
cingdom of Heavenly Peace, with a BOOKS
True Heavenly Mandate, Proclaims to
the People about the Mission to Thomas Allom (1804-1872)
Banish Evil and Save the World ... ) The Chinese Empire, illus. Rev. G.N. Wright
sheet; 96.0 x 204.0 cm Vols 1-2
[Nanjing?]: Tai ping tian guo gui hao London: London Printing and Pub.
3 nian 5 yue chu 1 ri [1 May 1853] Co., [c.l858|
Original wall poster from the Taiping q 915.1 ALL
Rebellion
LMS 629 Fred Henry Andrews
Wall Paintings from Ancient Shrines in
Central Asia
ASIAN COLLECTION BOOKS London: Oxford University Press,
1948
William Roberts Beach
Visit of His Royal Highness the Duke of ef 751.73 AND
Edinburgh, K.G., K.T., G.C.M.G., to
Hongkong in 1869, photographed by Juliet Bredon
John Thomson Chinese New Year Festivals: A Picturesque
Hongkong: Govt. Printer, 1869 Monograph of the Rites, Ceremonies and
Braga Collection Observances Thereto
BRAq 3095 Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, 1930
q 394.20951 B831
Juliet Bredon
Peking: A Historical and Intimate
Description of Its Chief Places of Interest
Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh, 1922
915.11 BRE
Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766)
Palaces, Pavillions and Gardens in the
Imperial Grounds of Yuan Ming Yuan at
the Summer Palace in Peking ...
[Paris]: Jardin de Flore, 1977
RBef 722.1 C351
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
The Poems of S.T. Coleridge
London: William Pickering, 1844
RB DNS 655
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and
Other Poems, wood engravings by Hans
Alexander Mueller
[Mt. Vernon, N.Y.]: Peter Pauper Press,
[1950s]
N 821.7 C693
Samuel Victor Constant (b.1894)
Calls, Sounds and Merchandise of the
Peking Street Peddlers
Peking: The Camel Bell, [c.l936|
658.850951156 C757
Princess Der Ling
Two Years in The Forbidden City by the
First Lady in Waiting to the Empress
Dowager
New York: Moffat, Yard and Company,
1911
915.1156 DER
Field Museum of Natural History
Archaic Chinese Jades Collected in China
by A.W. Bahr
New York: Priv. Printed for A.W. Bahr,
1927
736.24 FIE
Roger Fry (1866-1934) et al.
Chinese Art: An Introductory Review of
Painting, Ceramics, Textiles, Bronzes,
Sculpture, Jade, etc.
London: Published for the Burlington
Magazine by B.T Batsford, 1925
q 709.51 C539
Richard Hakluyt (c.1552-1616)
The Principal Navigations, Voyages,
Traffiqves and Discoveries of the
English Nation, Made by Sea or
Ouerland, to the Remote and Farthest
Distant Quarters of the Earth, at Any
Time within the Compasse of These
1600 Yeres ... Vol. 1
London: Imprinted by George
Bishop, Ralph Newberie, and Robert
Barker, 1599-1600
RBq 910.8 H156
Jean43aptiste Du Halde (1674-1743)
Description geographique, historique,
chronologique, politique, et physique de
I'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie
chinoise Vols 2-4
A La Haye: chez Henri Scheurleer,
1736
RB 951 DU
William Halfpenny (d.1755)
Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste:
Being Designs Entirely New for the
Decoration of Gardens, Parks, Forrests,
Insides of Houses &c. ... 3rd edn
London: Printed for Rob't Sayer, 1755
RB CLI 5914
Isaac Taylor Headland (1859-1942)
Court Life in China: The Capital, Its
Officials and People 2nd edn
New York: Revell, 1909
951 HEA
Robert Lockhart Hobson (1872-1941)
A Catalogue of Chinese Pottery and
Porcelain in the Collection of Sir Percival
David, bt
London: The Stourton Press, 1934
RBef 738 D249
Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston
(1874-1938)
Twilight in the Forbidden City, Preface by
The Emperor
New York: Appleton, 1934
951 JOH
Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680)
La Chine d'Athanase Kirchere de la
Compagnie de Jesus ...
A Amsterdam: ches Jean Jansson a
Weesberge, & les herititiers d'Elizee
Weyerstract, 1670
RBq MISC 43
Berthold Laufer (1874-1934)
Chinese Baskets
Chicago: Field Museum of Natural
History, 1925
q 745.58 LAU
George Henry Mason
The Punishments of China
London: Printed for W. Miller, 1801
RBf 364.60951 MAS
Donald Mennie
The Grandeur of the Gorges: Fifty
Photographic Studies with Descriptive
Notes, of China's Great Waterway,
the Yangtze Kiang
Shanghai: A.S. Watson, 1926
RB MISCf 82
Arnoldus Montanus (c.1625-1683)
Atlas Chinensis: Being a Second Part of a
Relation of Remarkable Passages in Two
Embassies from the East-India Company
of the United Provinces, to the Vice-Roy
Singlamong and General Taising Lipovi
and to Konchi, Emperor of China and
East-Tartary ... translated and
illustrated by John Ogilby
London: Printed by Tho. Johnson for
the Author, 1671
RBf 915.1 MON
George Ernest Morrison (1862-1920)
An Australian in China: Being the
Narrative of a QuietJourneyacross China
to Burma 2nd edn
London: Horace Cox, 1895
915.1 MOR
Robert Morrison (1782-1834)
A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, in
Three Parts (Zi dian wu che yun fu). Vol. 1
Macao: Printed at the Honorable East
India Company's Press by P.P. Thoms,
27
1815-1823
RBq ALS 1322
Johannes Nieuhof (1618-1672)
An Embassy from the East-India
Company of the United Provinces, to the
Grand Tartar Cham Emperour of China,
translated by John Ogilby
London: Printed by John Macock for
the Author, 1669
RBq 915.1 NIE
Marco Polo (1254-C.1323)
The Most Noble and Famous Travels of
Marco Polo, Together with The Travels of
Nicolo de' Conti, edited from the
Elizabethan translation of John
Frampton
London: Argonaut Press, 1929
RB 915 POL
Samuel Purchas (c.1577-1626) et al.
Haklvytvs Posthumus or Purchas His
Pilgrimes: Contayning a History of the
World, in Sea Voyages, & Lande-trauells,
by Englishmen and Others ...
London: Imprinted for Henry
Fetherston 1625
RBf CLI 4124-8
Giovanni Battista Ramusio
(1485-1557)
Delle naviagioni et viaggi in molti Ivoghi
corretta ... 2nd edn Vol. 2
Venetia: Nella Stamperia de Givnti,
1554-1606
RBq 910.4 R184
Victor Segalen (1878-1919)
Mission archeologique en Chine (1914)
2 vols
Paris: Geuthner, 1923-1935
f913.31 SEG
Osvald Siren (1879-1966)
Les palais imperiaux de Pekin 3 vols
Paris: Librairie nationale d'art et
28
d'histoire, 1926
q 725.17 SIR
Osvald Siren (1879-1966)
The Walls and Gates of Peking
London: Lane, [1924]
No. 37 of a limited edition
q 951.156 S619
P. de Tanner (comp.)
Chinese fade, Ancient and Modern
Vol. 1
Berlin: D. Reimer [etc.], 1925
q 736.24 TAN
Arthur Waley
An Introduction to the Study of Chinese
Painting
London: Ernest Benn, 1923
q 750.951 WAL
Hardy Wilson (1881-1955)
Grecian and Chinese Architecture
Melbourne: H. Wilson, 1937
SRf 722 WIL
Walter Perceval Yetts (1878-1957)
The Cull Chinese Bronzes
London: University of London
Courtauld Institute of Art, 1939
RBq MOD 258
MANUSCRIPTS
[Chinese Woman—with Bound Feet—
and Man, Sitting]
b&w photograph; 13.9 x 10.0 cm
in Christopher P. Metcalfe
'Notes and Photographs, 1900-1905'
Manuscript Collection MS 2577
Chiang Kuo Chang (Book of River
Maps)
in Christopher P. Metcalfe
'Notes and Photographs, 1900-1905'
Manuscript Collection MS 2577
[Christmas Day at Chunking] 1903
in Christopher P. Metcalfe
'Notes and Photographs, 1900-1905'
Manuscript Collection MS 2577
Kinga—Japan, June 26th 1874
in Charles James Norcock
'Diaries 1863-1875: Private Journal
24.4.1874-14.3.1875'
Manuscript Collection MS 5897
Sketch in the North Wantung Island,
Canton River March 20th 1873. The
Boque Forts Destroyed by the English
1842-1857
in Charles James Norcock
'Diaries 1863-1875: Private Journal
20.7.1870-24.4.1874'
Manuscript Collection MS 5897
EPHEMERA
Burns, Philp & Co. Ltd.
China by Way of the South Sea Islands &
Manila: Time Table, 1936
Burns, Philp & Co. Ltd.
China, Salamaua, Rabaul, Cebu, Manila,
Hongkong, Saigon, Sandakan
Elizabethan Trust Opera Company
Grand Opera 1967
J.C. Williamson Ltd & Dame Nellie Melba
Souvenir, Grand Opera Season,
Her Majesty's Theatre Sydney 1928
J.C. Williamson Ltd & Dame Nellie Melba
Souvenir, Grand Opera Season,
His Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, 1928
A-0 Line: The Connecting Link between
Australia & China
Sydney: Designed and Printed by
Bloxham & Chambers Ltd., [1930s]
Xanadu: Encounters with China is a very special exhibition
for the National Library of Australia, drawing as it does
on the Library's maps, pictures, rare books and, most
notably, its Asian material.

Two of the Library's treasures, a map of the eastern and

western hemispheres of the world executed by the Jesuit
priest Ferdinand Verbiest in Peking around 1674, and a
1550 atlas by Sebastian Munster are on display, as are
expedition accounts from John Cabot, Martin Frobisher
and John Franklin. Hardy Wilson's delicate drawings of
Chinese architecture and Stanley Gregory's photographs
of Shanghai in the 1930s are also included.

Through this diverse material, covering some 450 years of

engagement, the exhibition reveals the way Western
perceptions of China have evolved, moving from
stereotypes to a more expansive understanding of the
culture, society and people of that great nation.