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Moving Up in the World : Japan’s Manipulation of Colonial Imagery at the 1910 Japan-British Exhibition

Hennessey, John LU (2018) In Museum History Journal 11(1). p.24-41
Abstract
This article uses 1910 Japan–British Exhibition as a case study for examining the strategies employed by Japanese leaders to win Western acceptance for Japan as a ‘great power’ in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Like other contemporaneous imperial powers, Japanese leaders employed colonial imagery and discourses of otherness at large expositions to raise their status compared to ostensibly inferior colonised peoples. This article argues that contrary to some previous assertions, Japan presented its history and traditional culture at Western expositions not as an intentional concession to Western Orientalism but rather in an attempt to show that an alternative path to modernity was possible. Though largely successful in... (More)
This article uses 1910 Japan–British Exhibition as a case study for examining the strategies employed by Japanese leaders to win Western acceptance for Japan as a ‘great power’ in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Like other contemporaneous imperial powers, Japanese leaders employed colonial imagery and discourses of otherness at large expositions to raise their status compared to ostensibly inferior colonised peoples. This article argues that contrary to some previous assertions, Japan presented its history and traditional culture at Western expositions not as an intentional concession to Western Orientalism but rather in an attempt to show that an alternative path to modernity was possible. Though largely successful in winning Western recognition as an important empire, Japanese leaders were nonetheless unable to fully escape becoming victim to the very colonial tools they sought to employ. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Japan-British Exhibition, expositions, human exhibits, colonial imagery, Orientalism, alternative modernity, National Identity, othering
in
Museum History Journal
volume
11
issue
1
pages
17 pages
publisher
Taylor & Francis
external identifiers
  • scopus:85082531625
ISSN
1936-9816
DOI
10.1080/19369816.2018.1415425
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
76966a5e-7e2c-48a0-812d-c7bd994f9e40
date added to LUP
2021-06-29 11:31:27
date last changed
2022-03-26 20:30:52
@article{76966a5e-7e2c-48a0-812d-c7bd994f9e40,
  abstract     = {{This article uses 1910 Japan–British Exhibition as a case study for examining the strategies employed by Japanese leaders to win Western acceptance for Japan as a ‘great power’ in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Like other contemporaneous imperial powers, Japanese leaders employed colonial imagery and discourses of otherness at large expositions to raise their status compared to ostensibly inferior colonised peoples. This article argues that contrary to some previous assertions, Japan presented its history and traditional culture at Western expositions not as an intentional concession to Western Orientalism but rather in an attempt to show that an alternative path to modernity was possible. Though largely successful in winning Western recognition as an important empire, Japanese leaders were nonetheless unable to fully escape becoming victim to the very colonial tools they sought to employ.}},
  author       = {{Hennessey, John}},
  issn         = {{1936-9816}},
  keywords     = {{Japan-British Exhibition; expositions; human exhibits; colonial imagery; Orientalism; alternative modernity; National Identity; othering}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{24--41}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor & Francis}},
  series       = {{Museum History Journal}},
  title        = {{Moving Up in the World : Japan’s Manipulation of Colonial Imagery at the 1910 Japan-British Exhibition}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19369816.2018.1415425}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/19369816.2018.1415425}},
  volume       = {{11}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}