Depicting Glory

Depicting Glory is a digital project that presents a group of rare Chinese objects drawn from across the Brown University Library. Most of these items date from the late Qing dynasty in the 19th century, though one item is a set of maps published in Taiwan around 1960. Although the items were created in different times and places, they collectively reflect societal sentiments surrounding an issue central to China’s modernization process: the intersection of power, status, and collective identity. Each of these objects involves a public reckoning with a dramatic shift in a power that came with the great expansion of military might and regional status in the late 18th century, the cataclysmic erosion of power and order across the 19th century, and the ongoing quest to restore power and glory from the 20th century right through to the present.

Contributors to this project include Ashley Champagne (CDS Lead), Elli Mylonas