British knowledge about China changed fundamentally in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Rather than treating these changes in British understanding as if Anglo-Sino relations were purely bilateral, this study looks at how British imperial networks in India and Southeast Asia were critical mediators in the British encounter of China.

ULRIKE HILLEMANN holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research interests include the history of ideas and cultural history of British imperial expansion in Asia and the development of universities in the context of European imperial expansion. She currently works at Imperial College London.