Introduction: The Production and Distribution of Sino-European Intercultural Books in China (1582–c.1823)

A unique characteristic of the cultural contacts between China and Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is the intercultural circuit of books that was established: European books travelling to China, and in return Chinese books travelling to Europe. Within this circuit, a large number of intercultural books was translated and published in Chinese or in European languages, thus becoming the source material for new publications. This special issue of EAPS focuses on the Chinese pole of this cross-continental textual exchange, where the printing of Sino-European books was facilitated by the presence of a well-established print culture. By analysing a unique collection of these Sino-European books, the following two articles investigate their production and distribution from the late Ming until the mid-Qing period (1582–c.1823). As such, they provide insights into the emergence of an intercultural ‘book world’. The following introduction sets the scene for the two articles.