Narratives entwined: framing the transcultural displays of Chinese tea at the 1851 Great Exhibition

Focusing on the 1851 Great Exhibition – the Britishorchestrated inaugural world’s fair, held in the absence of official Chinese participation – this article investigates the material construction of transcultural narratives surrounding Chinese tea. It contends that these narratives, rather than being imposed through a unified top-down design, arose organically from the juxtaposition of exhibits by a diverse array of British commercial and scientific actors. Through close analysis of three key exhibit categories – tea exhibits, “counterfeit” tea and adulterants, and “traditional” crafts set against “scientific” botanical specimens – the study reveals how “Chinese tea” was framed as a multivalent object. It was simultaneously celebrated for its artisanal and commercial value, yet disparaged as “unprogressive” and subjected to scientific domestication. Ultimately, these transcultural display practices entwined a distinct international image for Chinese tea, demonstrating the World Exhibition’s role in assimilating nonWestern material culture into Western narratives of modernity through the potent, contested practice of public display.