Museum as a Proper Noun
Representations of the Museum in East Asian Travel Writings in the Late Nineteenth Century
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11282809 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sang Wook Lee (0009-0002-6925-6496, Yonsei University, corresponding author), Samuel Guex (0009-0007-0728-1799, University of Geneva) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 139-155 |
| Publication date | 2025-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Itinerario (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0165-1153 • E-ISSN: 2041-2827 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0165115325000117 |
| OpenAlex | W4409648914 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 17 |
This study explores the first East Asian encounters with Western museums by travelers in the nineteenth century. In contrast with our contemporary familiarity with this institution, these travelers had to translate their new discovery into their own meaningful categories. In translating the word “museum,” East Asian travelers composed several words using Chinese character compounds that reveal much about their understanding of the concept in terms of their own culture and language. Moreover, the underlying conceptual categories they invoked shaped their perception of the displays they saw in the various museums they encountered. We see their struggle to settle on a shared term for “museum” so that Kume Kunitake (1839-1931), for example, differentiated the British Museum, the Mauritshuis Museum, and the Swedish Nationalmuseum by employing different common nouns. However, their insights, bewilderment, and even their “misunderstandings” offer us an opportunity to reconsider the modern museum from an external perspective
Archaeology · China · East Asia · Linguistics · Noun · History · Japanese History and Culture · Philosophy · Religious Tourism and Spaces · Travel Writing and Literature
The Confusions of Pleasure
Putting Science in Its Place
Neo-Confucianism in History (review)
From Philosophy to Philology
Empire of Great Brightness
Translating Science
Chu Hsi and the “Ta Hsueh”
On Their Own Terms
The Knowledge of Nature and the Nature of Knowledge in Early Modern Japan
The Satsuma Students in Britain
Japan Encounters the Barbarian
The Japanese Discovery of Victorian Britain
The birth of the museum
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |