The Chinese Display that Never Was
As I’m working on my romantic fantasy novel series (Fae of the Crystal Palace) set around the Great Exhibition, I wanted to share some interesting stories I’ve uncovered during my research. Here is the story of Britain’s failed bid for a Chinese Display.
The Great Exhibition of 1851 aimed to showcase the world’s industrial and cultural achievements. Yet, one notable absence spoke volumes about the period’s strained international relations particularly with China. Despite British administrators’ efforts, their inability to secure an official Chinese display revealed the deep-seated tensions between Britain and China in the years between the Opium Wars.
Negotiations to include China in the Exhibition were fraught with difficulties. British representatives tried to engage Chinese elites and merchants to contribute, hoping to promote the virtues of free trade. However, their efforts failed. The strained commercial and political relations of the era, exacerbated by the memory of the First Opium War and the looming Second, left little room for collaboration. Without the active support of Chinese authorities, the task of representing China fell to British and American importers.
The result was a collection of Chinese artefacts that did not genuinely represent the country’s culture. Instead, these displays reflected the Western traders’ perspective – ivory balls, porcelain plates and other curiosities. Prominent figures like Charles Dickens did not hold back in their criticism published in the newspapers and journals of the time. In his writings, Dickens expressed disdain for the exhibition’s Chinese section, deriding it as a showcase of stagnation and despotism compared to Britain’s progressive industrial might. Dickens and his counterparts naturally failed to point out that the exhibit was created by the British.
Dickens’s disappointment at the Chinese display was palpable. He saw the exhibit as static and outdated, contrasting sharply with Britain’s dynamic and innovative spirit. In ‘The Great Exhibition and the Little One‘ he and his subeditor R.H. Horne drew a stark comparison between the two nations. They mocked the intricate yet functionless ivory carvings and porcelain items, juxtaposing them against Britain’s steamships and cotton mills.
The narrative painted China as a nation that had ceased to advance, encapsulated in its ‘laboriously-carved ivory balls’, which they’d have readers believe were beautiful yet useless. This perspective reinforced the Victorian belief in British superiority and the notion that China was a land of despotism and backwardness. The cultural productions of China were not merely foreign; they were seen as inferior and emblematic of a civilisation that had fallen behind.
Dickens’s critique extended beyond mere artefacts. He saw the Chinese displays as a microcosm of the Great Exhibition’s broader challenge: representing a rapidly changing world. In In Dickens’ view, the Chinese artefacts became symbols of an empire that was being outpaced by Western progress.
The failed bid to include China in the Great Exhibition highlights a period of complex and often contentious international relations. It offers a glimpse into the global origins of the Exhibition and the intricate dynamics of cultural representation.
The Chinese display features in my Fae of the Crystal Palace book The Entangled.
You can also read more about this topic in Ivory Balls and Porcelain Plates:
Exhibiting China in Mid-Victorian London by Elizabeth Chang.
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Image credit: The China exhibit – Dickinson’s comprehensive pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
