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In Honor of the Lunar New Year

January 28, 2017

In honor of the lunar new year celebration today, and inspired by a New York Times piece about Shanghai, we show this illustration of steamer baskets (dumplings?) from Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences, les arts, les moeurs, les usages, &c. des Chinois, par les missionaires de Pe-kin [sic], tome 5e (Paris: Chez Nyon l’aîné, 1780), call number DS708 M53:

Plate III, opposite p. 74, of tome 5 of Memoires concernant l'histoire ... des chinois (1780). Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Plate III, opposite p. 74, of tome 5 (1780). Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The illustration figured in the exhibit case on technologies in our exhibit “Jesuits and the Construction of Knowledge, 1540–1773” (2011), co-curated by Florence Hsia, James Lattis, Robin Rider, and Meridith Beck Sayre.

Thanks to Prof. Hsia for the link to the New York Times article and its photograph of what appear to be steamer baskets containing various dessert items (including Peep-like ducks).