Trading rights were the main reason Western powers initiated conflicts in East Asia during the 19th century. Due to trade imbalances stemming from the 18th century, Western countries were eager to renegotiate terms of trade with East Asian countries. When China was forced to sign the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, following the first Opium War, trade again favored the West. This was the first of several unequal trade treaties imposed on China in the mid-to-late 19th century. Five treaty ports opened, first to English trade and then to other Western nations. Eager to also gain a trading partner in the East, America sent Admiral Perry to Japan in 1853 to forge a similar agreement.
These unequal trade treaties were catalysts for the exchange of physical objects, ideas, people and cultural practices that had previously circulated in networks within East Asia. With this new influx of foreign materials, Western audiences rekindled their fascination with East Asian aesthetics, particularly porcelain and prints. The great demand for Asian artworks and material culture in Western markets led to the exchange of a wide selection of so-called “oriental” goods. Western artists appropriated motifs, techniques and ideas from East Asia, and vice versa, resulting in many hybridized styles. These materials and conceptual interactions can be seen most clearly in the porcelain, photography and prints produced in the East and the West at this time.
