scholarly journals Learned Societies, Cultural Encounter, and Social Distinction: The Royal Asiatic Society and Pre-War Western Relations with Korea, Japan, and China

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-93
Author(s):  
Loughlin Sweeney
Keyword(s):  
Asiatic Society ◽  
Social Distinction ◽  
Cultural Encounter ◽  
Learned Societies ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society ◽  
Japan And China

Anniversary General Meeting, President's Address, 13th May 2010

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 581-583
Author(s):  
Gordon Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
General Meeting ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Asiatic Society ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Learned Societies ◽  
Royal Charter ◽  
Support Research ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

Like a number of other learned societies founded in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the Royal Asiatic Society was established to support research and to disseminate knowledge to the public. It depends for its charitable status and the privileges attached to its Royal Charter on upholding these objectives. The Society has a good record in this respect, extending now over 186 years. To some degree, the work of the learned societies was first intruded on, and then taken over by, the universities as they grew in number, expanded their curricula, and went in for research as well as teaching. This was particularly true of the twentieth century where, in our field of interest, Asian studies in the humanities and social sciences became firmly lodged in several universities in the United Kingdom. But there always remained a place, particularly one where professional academics and the wider public could meet, for Society's such as ours to flourish; and, looking ahead, as university budgets come under greater pressure, I foresee a growing role for the Royal Asiatic Society in the future in ensuring that the interest and importance of understanding Asian societies and cultures remains in the forefront of the public mind.

scholarly journals Learned Societies, Cultural Encounter, and Social Distinction: The Royal Asiatic Society and Pre-War Western Relations with Korea, Japan, and China

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-93
Author(s):  
Loughlin J. Sweeney
Keyword(s):  
Northeast Asia ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Military Officers ◽  
World War ◽  
Asiatic Society ◽  
Social Distinction ◽  
The Social ◽  
Second World ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

The Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), a British learned society for the antiquarian study of Asian civilizations, established a number of branches in East Asia between 1865 and 1900 and quickly became a central location for the socialization of elite westerners within these states. This paper examines the social function of three RAS branches by analyzing their membership characteristics between 1865 and 1934, and draws out the role of Western associational culture in pre-war interactions between Western states and Northeast Asia. The activities of the RAS presented an opportunity for prominent personalities to demonstrate social distinction and reinforce their status as leading members of their communities, and to make claims to local expertise through the study and discussion of East Asian societies. RAS branches attracted a diverse mixture of diplomats, customs officials, military officers, missionaries, educators, merchants and medical professionals. Through a comparative analysis of the membership characteristics of RAS branches in Seoul, Tokyo, and Shanghai (the branches covering Korea, Japan, and North China respectively), the different social structures of the Western communities in these three states can be discerned. These reflect particular aspects of international relations between Northeast Asia and the West before the Second World War.

scholarly journals An Illustrated Shiʿi Pilgrimage Scroll in the Collections of the Royal Asiatic Society

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
ULRICH MARZOLPH ◽  
MATHILDE RENAULD
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Visual Narrative ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Asiatic Society ◽  
Material Condition ◽  
Visual Dimension ◽  
History Of ◽  
Initial Survey ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

Abstract The collections of the Royal Asiatic Society hold an illustrated pilgrimage scroll apparently dating from the first half of the nineteenth century. The scroll's hand painted images relate to the journey that a pious Shiʿi Muslim would have undertaken after the performance of the pilgrimage to Mecca. Its visual narrative continues, first to Medina and then to the Shiʿi sanctuaries in present-day Iraq, concluding in the Iranian city of Mashhad at the sanctuary of the eighth imam of the Twelver-Shiʿi creed, imam Riḍā (d. 818). The scroll was likely prepared in the early nineteenth century and acquired by the Royal Asiatic Society from its unknown previous owner sometime after 1857. In terms of chronology the pilgrimage scroll fits neatly into the period between the Niebuhr scroll, bought in Karbala in 1765, and a lithographed item most likely dating from the latter half of the nineteenth century, both of which depict a corresponding journey. The present essay's initial survey of the scroll's visual dimension, by Ulrich Marzolph, adds hitherto unknown details to the history of similar objects. The concluding report, by Mathilde Renauld, sheds light on the scroll's material condition and the difficulties encountered during the object's conservation and their solution.

The (Mis)Representation of Reality: ‘Knowledge’ and Image-Making in Glass Lantern Slides of China

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
AMY MATHEWSON
Keyword(s):  
Political Systems ◽  
Asiatic Society ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Magic Lantern ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

Abstract The Royal Asiatic Society in London houses a collection of magic lantern slides of China dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By investigating a selection of lantern slides, this article explores their epistemological nature and their wider relations to socio-cultural and political systems of power. These lantern slides highlight the complexity of our ways of seeing and representing that are embedded into particular historical and ideological systems in which meaning is both shaped and negotiated. This article argues that images are powerful conduits in disseminating and, if unchallenged, maintaining particular notions and ideas.

scholarly journals Art. XIV.—History of Tennasserim

1835 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 248-275
Author(s):  
James Low
Keyword(s):  
Asiatic Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

The following abstract is taken from Captain Low's history of the provinces wrested from the Burmese during the late war, which, through his friend in this country, was presented to the Royal Asiatic Society. Several portions of it have already been read at the general meetings of the society, and it is intended to continue to give abstracts from it in the successive numbers of this journal, in the confident hope that the British public will speedily call for the entire publication of a work containing the most authentic information respecting a country, our relations with which are daily increasing in value and importance.

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