Agenda

27 Nov 2025 09:30

Chinese Assistants, Collaborators and Cultural Intermediaries

Sala delle Trifore, San Sebastiano, Dorsoduro 1686, Campo San Sebastiano, Venezia

The conference Chinese Assistants, Collaborators and Cultural Intermediaries: Working with Westerners in Sino-Western Exchanges, 16th–20th Centuries, will be held 26–28 November 2025 at the Sala delle Trifore, San Sebastiano (Venice).

This international event brings together leading scholars to examine the essential yet understudied roles of Chinese intermediaries in shaping religious, cultural, and intellectual exchanges with the West. Through panels devoted to Catholic and Protestant translations, Chinese converts, and diverse categories of local collaborators—from catechists and clergy to artisans, managers, informants, and benefactors—the conference highlights their decisive contributions to missionary activity, knowledge transmission, and cross-cultural communication from the Ming dynasty to the twentieth century.

The conference aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and promote a more balanced understanding of Sino-Western encounters by foregrounding the agency and expertise of Chinese historical actors.

The detailed programme is attached.

Organized by

Department of Asian and North African Studies (Sebastian Eicher); Marco Polo Centre for Global Europe-Asia Connections (MaP)

Downloads

Poster - Programme 713 KB

Search in the agenda