China in the German Enlightenment

"Brandt and Purdy assemble in this volume a collection of original and incisive essays that wrestle with the complexities of German thinkers' engagement with philosophical, ethnographic, and material manifestations of 'China' over the long eighteenth century. The essays at once complicate and re-invigorate our understanding of China's pivotal role in the emergent project of European cultural self-fashioning that continues to shape the legacies of Enlightenment." -- David Porter, Departments of English and Comparative Literature, University of Michigan "In my opinion, this collection is a major research contribution. Every chapter is a work of original research and original interpretation solidly based on the analysis of primary texts and relevant secondary sources." -- Peter K.J. Park, School of Arts and Humanities, University of Texas - Dallas

China in the German Enlightenment examines the connections between eighteenth-century philosophy, German Orientalism, and the origins of modern race theory.

Over the course of the eighteenth century, European intellectuals shifted from admiring China as a utopian place of wonder to despising it as a backwards and despotic state. That transformation had little to do with changes in China itself, and everything to do with Enlightenment conceptions of political identity and Europe’s own burgeoning global power.

China in the German Enlightenment considers the place of German philosophy, particularly the work of Leibniz, Goethe, Herder, and Hegel, in this development. Beginning with the first English translation of Walter Demel’s classic essay “How the Chinese Became Yellow,” the collection’s essays examine the connections between eighteenth-century philosophy, German Orientalism, and the origins of modern race theory.