Xiaolin Duan, “Three Cities of the Early Modern Pacific”

The Carolina Asia Center is excited to welcome our colleague from NC State, Prof. Xiaolin Duan, to campus to speak on her research about Asian history.

Three Cities of the Early Modern Pacific: Connections and Conflicts between the Ming Dynasty and the Spanish Empire

This research explores the influence of Pacific trade on urban centers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, focusing on three port cities: Zhangzhou in China, Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco in colonial Mexico. These cities were linked by their simultaneous boom in the 1560s and 1570s following China’s lift of the maritime trade ban and Spain’s initiation of the Galleon trade. The study examines how this trans-Pacific globalization shaped daily life and urban development, while also causing conflicts on a state and imperial level.

The transformation of these cities, driven by the expansion of commerce and the influx of immigrants bringing new ideas and technologies, is reflected in the material changes to their urban landscapes. New fortifications such as castles, city walls, and watchtowers were built in all three cities, along with innovative market formats and businesses. Religious architecture and artifacts also displayed cross-cultural influences. Despite the strong commercial and cultural links between China and the Spanish empire, mutual suspicions persisted among officials. The history of city transformations revealed that early modern globalization could not be seen as a singular, uniform process; rather, it consisted of multiple “globes” that intersected with the urban residents and immigrants of varying port cities.

Prof. Xiaolin Duan is a Professor of Chinese history in the Department of History at North Carolina State University. Duan studies socio-cultural history in medieval and early modern China, particularly urban history, popular religion, and visual/material culture.

She is the author of articles and book chapters on topics ranging from the cultural geography and visual culture in premodern China to early modern China-New Spain silk trade. She also published journal articles on historical pedagogical research and translated various works in pre-modern and modern Chinese history and art history. She has also contributed to digital humanities and K-12 education projects, including History for 21st Century, OER World History project, Chinese Text, and the Getty Center project “Seattle Art Museum Online Catalog of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy.”