Lydia Liu, professor of comparative literature and Helmut F. Stern Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan, will discuss women and sovereignty in 19th-century China at 7 p.m. Monday, April 1, in Room G50 of Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road The public is invited to attend free of charge, and a reception will follow in Room Go4 of Pettengill.<\/p>\n
The Empress Dowager of China celebrated her 60th birthday in November 1894. For that occasion, representatives of Christian missionaries and Chinese converts presented her with a Chinese Bible. Known as the Presentation New Testament, the legendary book was printed on the finest paper available at the time and in the largest metallic type by a mission press in Shanghai. Had the presentation of the Bible on a royal occasion like this occurred 50 years earlier, it would have been construed as a challenge to the authority of the Chinese emperor. The fact that the Empress Dowager not only tolerated the act but also reciprocated it says a great deal about the changing relations between China and the West.<\/p>\n
Drawing on her recent archival research into circumstances surrounding the making of the Presentation New Testament, Liu’s talk will raise new questions about gender, empire and gift exchange.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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