| Book Review | Journal of World History, 17.2

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the Journal of World History online. About 207 words from this article are provided below; about 560 words remain.

If you are a subscriber to the Journal of World History, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a subscriber to the Journal of World History, you can:: • subscribe here.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of World History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to the journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | Journal of World History, 17.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

British Naturalists in Qing China: Science, Empire, and Cultural Encounter. By FA-TI FAN. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004. 272 pp. $52.00 (cloth).

This book is a study of the history of science as a global enterprise involving China and the British Empire. Based on extensive archival and meticulous original research, this excellent work addresses important issues in the study of natural history and the cross-cultural encounter between Britain and China. Fa-ti Fan draws upon theoretical insights from many fields: empire study, colonial studies, visual culture, and the history of science. The result is a rich, multifaceted, vigorous, and theoretically sophisticated work on the formative stage in the development of natural history as a modern discipline in a global network of communication. Natural history is examined as a site where various discourses—natural history, horticulture, visual art, Chinese folk knowledge, and Sinology—intersect. Fan situates his subject in a "sociocultural continuum" tracing the change in practices of the British naturalists in multiple contexts: the China trade centered in Canton, British imperialism in China, the information network of the British empire, the cultural encounter of the British and the Chinese at the micro-level of daily operation, as well as the intersection of science and Sinology.

. . .

There are about 560 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.