China as a shining example

Brightly coloured wooden chess pieces, all differently shaped, represent some typically Chinese figures. There are the well-known dragons, temples and old wise men with white beards. Exotic Chinese pictures and stories reached the Netherlands at the end of the sixteenth century through travel stories and they quickly became all the rage.

The Netherlands was one of the few European countries to have access to the vast Chinese empire in the seventeenth century. A limited number of traders and missionaries were allowed to enter the country. They informed the home front by means of letters and travel journals. The content and tone of these writings varied hugely though, since both groups were in China for different reasons.

Older than the Bible
The Dutch deeply admired the oldest civilisation on the other side of the world. Lawyer Hugo de Groot even called the Chinese the smartest of all nations. For this reason it was a shock when it was discovered that the Chinese calendar went further back in time than the Great Flood in the Bible. A debate broke out among scientists about whether or not to take the Bible text literally. The Netherlands was in the vanguard in this field of study and distributed information about Chinese culture and knowledge. In 1675, Confucius was translated for the first time, into Dutch. It would take several more years before it was translated into the widely read Latin and other European languages.

China and its culture were popular not only in scientific circles or among wealthy collectors. The Dutch people came into contact with exotic Chinese stories and pictures more and more in their day-to-day life. During its nearly two hundred years of existence, The Dutch East India Company (DEIC) imported millions of pieces of porcelain tableware, since there was a great demand for these items. Dutch artisans started to copy these porcelain artefacts and christened their products Delft Blue.

An exotic touch
Tableware, vases and wall tiles were decorated with typical Chinese images such as temples or little men with ponytails, both of which few porcelain producers had actually seen in real life. Travel journals and their accompanying drawings were therefore in high demand and they were soon illegally copied and used as an example. These examples were used throughout Europe, which is evidenced by the fact that certain errors can be found in copies everywhere.

This is the case of a temple depicted by Johan Nieuhof, who kept a travel log during an expedition with the Dutch East India Company. He added the illustrations to this journal himself. His publisher gave the temple an extra exotic look by adding another floor to it, making it an even number of floors. No such temples can be found in China. This misrepresented temple shows up in many other prints and paintings.

A Chinese visitor
Interest was mutual, and the Chinese were especially intrigued by the Dutch. It’s with good reason that the Chinese portrayed Europeans as big, red-haired ‘barbarians’, unlike the Portuguese, the people they had previously been trading with. The Chinese were not only fascinated by the peculiar appearance of the Dutch, though.

Although China was culturally a highly developed country, knowledge of astronomy and mathematics was less advanced. The Chinese greatly admired the clocks, telescopes and other optical and navigational instruments that they received from the Netherlands. The precise prediction of a solar eclipse also left them in awe. It is no coincidence that the first Chinese visitor to Europe disembarked in our country, around 1600. Archives show that this helmsman was baptised in the town of Middelburg.

Mutual interest is waning
In the eighteenth century, the exchange of knowledge and culture between China and the Netherlands came to an end. The Dutch were kept out of the Chinese court and were only allowed to trade through Formosa, now Taiwan. The tolerant attitude towards the missionaries disappeared as well, after they were recalled by the pope. They had adapted a little too well to the Chinese culture, which the Chinese emperor considered a gross insult.

Products from China remained popular, however, and they still are in this day and age. Nowadays, we don´t consider Chinese items exotic anymore, because what product hasn’t been ´Made in China’? Fortunately, this does not apply to the colourful Chinese chess set from the J.M. Glotzbach Collection. It was purchased in the 1970s and still has a trace of mystery surrounding it. The promise of a mysterious and beautiful place, somewhere far, far away…

By Marjolein Overmeer