Table of Contents

0. Introduction: 1583–1840, from cultural diplomacy to gunboat diplomacy, 1. Where the tale of the two empires began, 2. The Tributary System and the first Anglo-British encounters, 3. The earliest Chinese travellers to the Far West, 4. Chinoiserie vs. Euroiserie: Mutual reflections of material culture and perception gaps, 5. When the lion meets the dragon: Lost in translation or beyond translation?, 6. The Amherst Embassy to China, an insurmountable generation gap between the two empires, 7. From the Tea War to the Opium War, 8. Conclusion: The two great reversals – Historical implications on the modern-day interactions between a post-Brexit UK and a globalising China

About the Author

Xin Liu is a Senior Lecturer and Chair of the China Research Center at the University of Central Lancashire. She received her PhD and MBA from the same university. Her other monograph, China’s Cultural Diplomacy: A Great Leap Outward?, was published by Routledge in 2020.