How do Westerners XIXe century did they construct racial stereotypes about the Chinese ? And what do they reveal about power dynamics and tensions between Western perceptions and Chinese realities? ?
“ Observe the body from body observers »: this is how Clément Fabre summarizes his work dedicated to production, by Westerners in XIXe century, practical knowledge on breed Chinese (p. 35). This reflexive investigation mobilizes exceptionally rich documentation, bringing together travel stories, diplomatic dispatches, medical reports and literary writings.
In the shadow of race adopts a resolutely socio-historical approach. Claiming the critical race theory (p. 10), the author makes the historical account a real field of observation, attentive to the role of “ agents of influence » French and Anglo-Saxons – missionaries, doctors, diplomats – in the processes of constructing racial knowledge. The Chinese would be indifferent to the noise and the stench ; with underdeveloped nerves, they would feel less pain ; they would all be impassive and would never betray their emotions… For C. Fabre, the notion of Chinese breedfruit of the accumulation of these racist stereotypes, arises from an invention largely independent of the physical anthropology of XIXe century, where it did not constitute an established category of analysis (p. 9).
The author’s story places the production of this racial knowledge in “ the sensitive experience of the Chinese environment » (p. 111), revealing the discomforts and discrepancies experienced by Westerners in contact with the daily life of the Celestial Empire. In this regard, he highlights a strong presence of noises and odors in public spaces, the use of bedding considered rudimentary (bricks as pillows, hard beds, etc.), uncomfortable clothing practices, and a supposed lack of sensitivity to colors (chap. 1). The author also discusses the complexity of Chinese etiquette as well as the vain efforts made by Europeans to adapt to it (chap. 4), the conflicts between Western medicine and the Chinese perception of medical practices, such as the reluctance to amputation despite the risk of death (chap. 5). According to the testimonies of these observers of the XIXe century, the Chinese body would be more resistant to sensory disturbances (chap. 1), infections (chap. 4) and pain (chap. 5).
The production of this knowledge was not, however, the result of a simple intuitive observation. The author rather places it in little-known power dynamics within English- and French-speaking circles. It resulted, first of all, from attempts to establish relationships of trust with local populations (p. 110). Foreign doctors, in particular, sought to defuse Chinese xenophobia – a major obstacle to the country’s opening – in order to better serve the interests of their evangelical congregations or the state administrations on which they depended (chap. 2).
Then, the exposure of these alleged Chinese particularities, observed on the ground through a “ intimate knowledge of China » (p. 113), notably reflected the interest of agents of influence in increasing their own authority (chaps. 2 and 3). Missionaries, doctors and diplomats engaged in a form of editorial emulation, sometimes in violation of the rules of their respective services (p. 132). This search forprivacyunderstood as the desire to penetrate the deepest layers of Chinese society, thus constituted a central lever of their scholarly production. This explains an increased interest in medical reports reflecting the physical configuration of the Chinese body, in the bound feet of women, as well as in the personal life of the Emperor of China. It is in this light that the literary works of Victor Segalen and George Soulié de Morant are examined, as symptomatic of a desire to penetrate deep into the intimate life of the Imperial Palace, to the alcove secrets of the celestial sovereigns (chap. 3).
The work also constitutes a history of the theorization of racial knowledge. The investment of agents of influence in the sinological field indeed pushes them to hazard explanations for the Sino-Western differences that they observe (p. 328). These generalizing statements require consistency between the different registers of knowledge produced, which in turn gives rise to theoretical reflections. This is how the theory of “ nervous specificity » of the Chinese: long forced to repress their emotions, they would become structurally impassive, while remaining susceptible to suddenly exploding – as evidenced, in the eyes of these observers, by the Boxer movement (chap. 5).
Should we include testimonials in Chinese? ?
Certainly, the almost total absence of Chinese sources in the work has already been the subject of criticism in previous reviews. P. Fuller is alarmed, for his part, by the lack of resources left to readers to “ check the validity of these expert claims » (“ test the validity of these claims to expertise “) Or “ distinguish knowledge and stereotypes » (“ distinguish between knowledge and stereotype “). Mr. Bouchez, for his part, also emphasizes that taking into account the voices of Chinese doctors, for example, “ would have made it possible to illustrate how the “gap” is reduced through contact with Chinese practitioners “. Nevertheless, one could wonder what place the author could have given to Chinese testimonies in a research where the veracity of the racist remarks made by the Europeans of the XIXe century can only be put on hold, its object of study being, ultimately, the evolution of a racializing discursive system rather than any empirical content.
Obviously, the author does not wish to engage in an analysis which would risk diverting his work towards a very different, even problematic, direction, given the concern expressed by P. Fuller himself regarding the risk of “ bring to life perspectives specific to the colonial era » (“ it also runs the risk of reviving colonial-era perspectives “) and silence the Chinese. An approach consisting of distinguishing truth from falsehood in the knowledge produced by these agents of influence would indeed lead to evaluating the factual dimension of these discourses, which would precisely amount to reactivating debates on races.
However, the addition of Chinese voices would have been desirable in the passages devoted to diplomatic practices. Given the opaque nature of political affairs, such integration would have made it possible to better reflect the real circumstances and to qualify the comments made officially. In the passage devoted to “ hand gestures », the author thus returns to an imperial official who ended audiences granted to British and French diplomats, in order to protest against the fact that the latter had knocked on the table, a gesture perceived as insulting (p. 202-204). However, the official in question, “ His Excellency Zhang », was none other than Zhang Peilun (1848-1903), a politician who built his career on warmongering and xenophobic positions. Who would think of attributing a decisive importance, in the colonization of Algeria by France, to the incident of April 30, 1827, during which the dey of Algiers, during a conversation, struck the French consul with a fan, an episode subsequently erected as a pretext for French intervention? ?
Knowledge production as a career strategy
C. Fabre also makes a major contribution to the study of the socio-psychological mechanisms at work in the construction of knowledge about elsewhere. He nuances the figure of the “ agent of influence » in the service of the nation, going beyond the framework of Franco-British rivalries to analyze these productions, in the words of P. Tenne, “ as close as possible to individual practices “.
In Chapter 3, an examination of scholarly publications reveals career strategies aimed at establishing the authority of agents. By emphasizing the spontaneous, even random, nature of exchanges between China and the metropolis, the author calls into question the validity of “ computing centers » proposed by Bruno Latour (p. 120-121). This analysis, attentive to internal dynamics and the rationality of individuals, deserves increased attention in the field of diplomatic history, where the study of the production of knowledge on the Orient and the Far East is still largely dominated by macro-historical approaches favoring global interests and decision-makers of the central administration.
China and the West: a meeting on an equal footing ?
Nevertheless, the attention that C. Fabre pays to individual initiatives and “ interpersonal interactions » (p. 110) Sino-Western approaches tend to attenuate the reality of power relations between the dominant and the dominated. His analysis sometimes places Chinese and European actors on the same level, thus omitting the structural asymmetry of trade. This is especially the case in chapter 4, where the author depicts the efforts of sincere Westerners to acquire, not without clumsiness, Chinese etiquette.
The question arises as to whether recourse to Pierre Bourdieu’s paradigm of incorporation, which supposes the unconscious acquisition of a habitus by the body in practice, is relevant as a guiding principle of the work. Two limitations can be highlighted. First, to what extent were these foreigners, most often focused on concessions, really in direct contact with ordinary Chinese for these differences in habits to become a real issue for them? ? Second, even within the framework of limited contacts, to what extent did Europeans – including those born in China – sincerely take seriously the need to acquire Chinese etiquette, and not the other way around? ?
The author himself also expresses doubts about the relevance of the incorporation paradigm when he emphasizes the reflexive nature of this learning process, which implies that foreigners deliberately adapt their bodies to Chinese forms of greeting (p. 206). In the Chinese metropolises of XIXe century, the balance of power between the two labels was obviously not determined solely by the numerical superiority of one or the other group. This illusion Bourdieusian (p. 212) seems, on the other hand, to better account for the identity crises suffered by the Chinese abroad than those of Westerners in China.
Despite these reservations, C. Fabre’s work has undeniable value: it offers a systematic and theorized analysis of the mechanisms of production of racial knowledge in China over more than a century, covering almost all Western actors and offering a complete overview of their daily lives. As such, it fully deserves to be considered as a reference work on the daily lives of Westerners in China. Fine observer of the “ corps of body watchers “, the author thus asserts himself as a true scholar of “ getting to know » knowledge.