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UID:20260531T171844EDT-3462K3AxGZ@132.216.98.100
DTSTAMP:20260531T211844Z
DESCRIPTION:Yuan Yi (Concordia University)\n	\n	My project explores the rise 
 and fall of nankeen\, a fabric handwoven out of cotton varieties known to 
 be native to Nanjing\, China. Characterized by a yellow tint and sturdy te
 xture\, nankeen was a major export item to Europe and America in the eight
 eenth and nineteenth centuries. A popular material for men’s breeches and 
 trousers\, it fueled the rise of the dandy look\, which preferred somber s
 hades over lavish details. While eagerly importing nankeen from China\, th
 e global consumers including the Founding Fathers of the United States str
 ove to reproduce it by dyeing cotton “nankeen” or growing “nankeen” variet
 ies. All these efforts to produce and reproduce a natural hue no longer ap
 preciated today formed a critical part of the 'preindustrial' global trade
 . By reconstructing a bygone industry in which Chinese farmers grew now-en
 dangered cotton varieties and spun and wove them by hand for faraway marke
 ts that coveted the sturdy yellowish fabric\, my project illuminates how g
 lobal capitalism worked without machines. One distinctive feature of the n
 ankeen industry was that it allowed different cotton species and varieties
  to thrive. The demise of nankeen coincided with the emergence of machine 
 spinning\, which ushered in the monoculture of select cotton varieties wit
 h long and white fibers suitable for the new production system. The histor
 y of nankeen thus challenges our fundamental assumption that cotton is whi
 te\, forcing us to ask how and why it has become predominantly white.\n	\n	L
 ight refreshments served.\n
DTSTART:20260408T190000Z
DTEND:20260408T210000Z
LOCATION:Room 116\, Peterson Hall\, CA\, QC\, Montreal\, H3A 0E6\, 3460 rue
  McTavish
SUMMARY:IOWC Speaker Series: Yuan Yi\, 'China at the Center of the Global C
 otton Trade: When Cotton Was Yellow'
URL:/history/channels/event/iowc-speaker-series-yuan-y
 i-china-center-global-cotton-trade-when-cotton-was-yellow-372197
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