The Chinese Taste in Eighteenth-Century England

by David Porter

Eighteenth-century consumers in Britain, living in an increasingly globalized world, were infatuated with exotic Chinese and Chinese-styled goods, art and decorative objects. However, they were also often troubled by the alien aesthetic sensibility these goods embodied. This ambivalence figures centrally in the period's experience of China and of contact with foreign countries and cultures more generally. David Porter analyzes the processes by which Chinese aesthetic ideas were assimilated within English culture. Through case studies of individual figures, including William Hogarth and Horace Walpole, and broader reflections on cross-cultural interaction, Porter's readings develop new interpretations of eighteenth-century ideas of luxury, consumption, gender, taste and aesthetic nationalism. Illustrated with many examples of Chinese and Chinese-inspired objects and art, this is a major contribution to eighteenth-century cultural history and to the history of contact and exchange between China and the West.

242 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2010

About the author

David Porter was born and raised in Tuscola, Illinois, and has been writing professionally since 1984. He is owner/publisher of three newspapers: The Tuscola Review, Arcola Record-Herald and Lebanon Advertiser.

He previously worked as Director of Communications for the Illinois Press Association and served as president of the Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

His book, The Make-out Room & Other Stories, is a compilation of 123 newspaper columns with a wide variety of subjects. Light reading.

His wife, Jennie, is a Kindergarten teacher in Tuscola. The two were classmates having first met in Kindergarten.

Note: Goodreads links all books written be people of the same name. The only book from me as of Nov. 29, 2020, is The Make-Out Room & Other Stories.