{"product_id":"imperial-stewards-k-ian-shin-9781503643178","title":"Imperial Stewards: Chinese Art and the Making of America's Pacific Century","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the Gilded Age to World War II, elite collectors and museums in the United States transformed from owning a smattering of Chinese porcelain as curios, to possessing some of the world's largest and most sophisticated collections of Chinese art. \u003ci\u003eImperial Stewards\u003c\/i\u003e argues that, beyond aesthetic taste and economics, geopolitics were critical to this transformation. Collecting and studying Chinese art and antiquities honed Americans' belief that they should dominate Asia and the Pacific Ocean through the ideology of imperial stewardship: a view that encompassed both genuine curiosity and care for Chinese art, and the enduring structures of domination and othering that underpinned the burgeoning transpacific art market. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTracing networks across both the Pacific and the Atlantic, K. Ian Shin uncovers a diverse cast of historical actors that both contributed to U.S. imperial stewardship and also challenged it, including Protestant missionaries, German diplomats, Chinese-Hawaiian merchants, Chinese overseas students, among others. By examining the development of Chinese art collecting and scholarship in the United States around the turn of the twentieth century, \u003ci\u003eImperial Stewards\u003c\/i\u003e reveals both the cultural impetus behind Americans' long-standing aspirations for a Pacific Century, and a way to understand--and critique--the duality of U.S. imperial power around the globe.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e K. Ian Shin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1503643174\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781503643178\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Stanford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/22\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 328\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback","brand":"K. Ian Shin","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46372270309631,"sku":"9781503643178","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_cec9c428-ff58-4caa-a9bf-e3781e948f98.jpg?v=1732725486","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/imperial-stewards-k-ian-shin-9781503643178","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}