Thesis abstract:

This object-centred research project examines the hybrid imagery of embroidered silk shawls exported via the Manilla Galleon (ca 1665) trade route in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While their circulations and functions as commodities sold alongside other exotic products such as porcelain, muslin, tea, spices, and lacquer for the Spanish and Spanish-American markets have been well documented, less studied are their Chinese origins and subsequent roles in stimulating new developments in garments and aesthetics across the Western world. This research project uses the “Manila Shawl” as it was popularly known, as a case-study to present a material and gendered history of in-between hybridity shaped by makers in early modern Canton (Guangzhou).