Chinese and Brazilian Diasporic Cultural Convergences

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Since the sixteenth century, the imaginary of Brazil and China have occupied a shared space in Portuguese imperial discourse. Indeed, Portuguese explorers and fortune seekers who first arrived in Brazil were in search of the riches of China and India. Over the past five hundred years, the routes that connected Brazil to China via Portuguese carracks that circulated on the Carreira da Índia created a steady flow of cultural and trade exchange along with the movement of people and ideas. While the imaginary of Asia is often examined from a European and western hemispheric perspective, this panel puts into conversation the way that knowledge production from China has also produced an imaginary of Brazil that has been tied to larger geopolitical, economic and urbanization schemes that concern the relationship between China and Brazil. The papers on this panel offer different approaches to examining the interplay among diaspora, settlement, cultural production and power.

Sub Track

• Migration, Borders and Diasporas

Chair

• Ana Paulina Lee, Columbia University

Individual Presentations

• Travel Writing and the Transformation of Qing China’s Perceptions of Brazil during the late Nineteenth Century - Eric Vanden Bussche, Stanford University

• Vernacular Architecture & its relevance in today’s urban built environment: an analysis of the traditional dwellings in the Amazon region (Brazil) and Zhejiang region (China): ‘Palafitas and Tulous - Rosangela M Tenorio, University of Nottingham

• Gilberto Freyre’s Tropical China - Ana Paulina Lee, Columbia University