Author: Erik Ringmar

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 2013-09

ISBN: 9781137268907

     The author sets out to explain the 1860 destruction of Yuanmingyuan by British and French armies. The intellectual puzzle which the book addresses concerns why the Europeans, bent on “civilizing” the Chinese, engaged in this act of barbarism. The answer is provided through an analysis of the performative aspect of the confrontation between Europe and China, focusing on the differences in the way their respective international systems were conceptualized. Ringmar reveals that the destruction of Yuanmingyuan represented the Europeans' campaign to “shock and awe” the Chinese, thereby forcing them to give up their way of organizing international relations. Professor Ned Lebow reviewed that “Ringmar teases out the motives behind the Europeans’ barbaric behavior and some of its longer-term effects on China.”