Supervisor: Lei Lin, Assistant Professor of Chinese History
Student Researcher: Ziyu Qiu (Class of 2025)
About the Project:
This project explores the textile trade network between the Yangtze Delta and Xinjiang regions within the broader context on transregional material culture exchanges in early modern China, spanning from the Qing dynasty to the 20th century. Focusing on the records in official archives, we argue that textiles, as material media, was used by the central state to expand its power in the newly conquered borderland. Furthermore, the official-supervised textile trade, from Qing to the early modern era, broke down geographical boundaries at both institutional and local levels. To make the trade possible, the central state created a mechanism within this network to deal with potential incidents and quality crisis. On the local level, the “created” supply-and-demand relationship pushed the textile-making sectors in Jiangnan to respond and adjust following the demand from Xinjiang, the budget control of the state, and the challenges brought by the change of natural environment the transportation processes.
