Tributary Twilight: The Qing Dynasty in Late 19th Century Korea

Joshua Van Lieu is a historian of 20th century East Asian politics and international relations and an authority on the histories of Joseon Korea and Late Imperial China. 

In this conversation, Van Lieu discusses the diplomatic intrigue of the Qing-Korea relationship and explains how the pageantry of tributary practice successfully manipulated Western preconceptions of the “unknowable orient”. 

This episode was produced in collaboration with the University of Michigan’s Nam Center for Korean Studies. 

To see Joshua Van Lieu’s full lecture, find “The Act was Oriental between Orientals: The Persistence of Late Victorian Translations of the Twilight of Qing-Chosun Tributary Practice” on Youtube.