Collecting Objects / Excluding People Chinese Subjects and American Visual Culture, 1830–1900 Lenore Metrick-Chen COLLECTING OBJECTS/ EXCLUDING PEOPLE COLLECTING OBJECTS/ EXCLUDING PEOPLE Chinese Subjects and American Visual Culture, 1830–1900 LENORE METRICK-CHEN State University of New York Press cover art: Phillip Chen, “Flower Water,” 2002, relief etching, 21" 3 32" Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2012 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu Production, Laurie D. Searl Marketing, Michael Campochiaro Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Metrick-Chen, Lenore. Collecting objects/excluding people : Chinese subjects and American visual culture, 1830–1900 / Lenore Metrick-Chen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4384-4325-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Art, Chinese—Collectors and collecting—United States. 2. Art museums—Social aspects—United States 3. Art and race. 4. China—Foreign public opinion, American— History—19th century. 5. China—Foreign public opinion, American—History—20th century. I. Title. II. Title: Chinese subjects and American visual culture, 1830–1900. N7340.M47 2012 709.51'0973—dc23 2011037741 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS Illustrations and Credits ix Acknowledgments xv Introduction 1 Chapter One. The Politics of Chinoiserie: The Disappearance of Chinese Objects 13 Section I. The Early Nineteenth Century 15 1. The Presence of Chinese Objects in the United States 15 2. Opium, Politics, and American Perceptions of the Chinese 19 3. The Chinese in the United States 24 4. Americans Assess China’s Artistic Ability 27 5. The Influence of the Chinese Aesthetic on American Art 35 Section II. The Late Nineteenth Century 37 1. Regarding “Oriental”: Whose Aesthetic Is It? 37 2. American Confusion of Japanese and Chinese Objects 46 3. Politicized Perceptions of the Chinese 55 4. Politics Become Aesthetic Criteria 63 Chapter Two. The Power of Inaction: Chinese Objects and the Transformation of the American Definition of Art 73 Section I. Chinese Objects and the Aesthetics of Museums 75 1. Aesthetic Morality and Nationalism, America’s Ruskin-Based Art 75 2. The Educational Premise: Inaugurating Two American Art Museums 80 3. Expanding the Canon of Art; Plaster Casts as an Art Form 87 vi CONTENTS Section II. Chinese Objects and the Business of Museums 93 1. Art Museums Founders and the Issue of the Public 93 2. Museums, Art, and Commodities 101 3. Merchandising Art 104 4. The Change of Paradigm 110 Chapter Three. From Class to Race: The New York Times Reconstructs “Chinese” 121 Section I. A Brief Historical Contextualization 121 1. Introduction 121 2. Newspaper History and The New York Times 125 3. A Glance at History of Labor, Politicians, and Anti-Chinese Agitation 127 Section II. Creating a “Them”: The Strategies of Demonization 128 1. Part Becomes the Whole: Turning Chinese into Coolies 128 2. Hordes 131 3. Heathen 134 4. Barbarity and Contamination 136 5. Sex and Drugs 138 6. Ignorance 142 7. Effeminizing the Chinese Man 144 8. Chinese into Coolies into Demonized Race 146 Section III. Defining the “Us”: The Exclusion Debate: Four Voices Struggle Over Imaging Chinese 150 1. The Exclusion Debate: Four Voices Struggle Over Imaging Chinese 150 2. The Opposing Race Arguments from the Congressional Debates 151 3. The Times Doublespeak: Blame California, Profess Fatigue 158 4. The Chinese View through Word and Action 163 Chapter Four. The Chinese of the American Imagination: Nineteenth-Century Trade Card Images 169 Section I. Trade Card Images 179 CONTENTS vii Section II. The Politics of Chromolithography 179 1. Power Struggles Over Definitions of Art 179 2. Between Two Worlds: The Dual Role of Trade Cards 183 3. An Addition to Visual Language: Floating Signifiers 184 Section III. The Chinese Figure as Outsider 194 1. Dislodged Objects as a New Art 194 2. Paper Nations 195 3. The Safety of Exotic Distance 199 Section IV. The Chinese Figure and American Self-Definition 204 1. American, Un-American 204 2. Disjunctions, and Collisions: The Iconography of Displacement 207 3. Hybridity, Cultural Margins, and Incorporation 215 Conclusion 223 Notes 225 Name Index 265 Subject Index 269 ILLUSTRaTIONS aND CREDITS CHaPTER ONE Fig. 1.1. New York Times, December 8, 1854, CHINA TEA STORE. 18 Fig. 1.2. Soup plate from the Society of Cincinnati china set, used by George Washington. Courtesy of Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. 29 Fig. 1.3. Nathan Dunn Catalog: Ten Thousand Chinese Things: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Chinese Collection, in Philadelphia . . . (1839). 30 Fig. 1.4. John R. Peters Catalog: Miscellaneous Remarks upon the Government, History, Religions, Literature, Agriculture, Arts, Trades, Manners and Customs of the Chinese: As Suggested by an Examination of the Articles Comprising the Chinese Museum, in the Marlboro’ Chapel, Boston (1845). 32 Fig. 1.5. Harper’s Weekly 1870, back page, Thomas Nast Chinese shoemaker cartoon. 40 Fig. 1.6. Thomas Nast cartoon, “The Comet of Chinese Labor,” Harper’s Magazine, 1870. 41 Fig. 1.7. Geisha, cast metal doorknob, Russell & Erwin Co. 42 Fig. 1.8. Clear glass bottle shaped as Chinese man. The base is embossed. C. F. Knapp, Philadelphia. 43 Fig. 1.9. Nineteenth-century mold for barley candies. The figures shown here are molded in wax. 44 ix