Eugenio Menegon

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eugenio Menegon (* 1966 ) is a historian and sinologist and Associate Professor of Chinese History at Boston University . His research focuses on the Chinese history of the 17th and 18th centuries, in Sino-European exchange and the history of Christianity in China and Christian mission history in China. Menegon pursued microhistorical and global historical approaches. He has published several books and numerous articles in English, Chinese and Italian to date.

Career

Menegon studied Oriental Linguistics and Literature (Chinese) at the University of Venice (Università Ca 'Foscari Venezia) until 1991. At the University of California in Berkeley he continued with the Asian studies until 1994 and was able to do a Ph.D. in the Department of History. append until 2002. After two years of work as a researcher at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, he was an assistant professor in the Department of History at Boston University from 2004 to 2010 and has been an associate professor there since 2010. From 2012 to 2015 he was also director of the Boston University Center for Study of Asia (BUCSA).

Create

Research priorities

Eugenio Menegon deals with the history of the Sino-European exchange with a temporal focus on the 17th – 18th centuries. Century, with some studies also covering a longer period from the 16th to 19th centuries. Century and the present. Menegon works thematically on the religious history of China, especially Christianity and Christian mission history in China, both in the provinces and in Beijing . Here, the Jesuit mission and its protagonists form a common thread, but at the same time it is a concern of Menegon, sources from and about other missionary orders, which in his view are repeatedly overlooked in the dispute with the China mission, such as Dominicans and Franciscans , or Organizations like the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (short: Propaganda Fide ) to take into account. In addition, Menegon has published and worked on topics that tend to focus on material issues and thereby bring new perspectives on familiar topics. Examples are questions about networks, questions about the choice of Jesuit clothing and the delivery of gifts at the imperial court in Beijing, or travel strains and travel expenses for missionaries and private travelers.

Publication Ancestors, Virgins and Friars

Eugenio Menegon is mentioned again and again with his monograph Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars. Christianity as a Local Religion in Late Imperial China (2009). Menegon had written his doctoral thesis on this subject ("Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars. The Localization of Christianity in Late Imperial Mindong (Fujian, China), 1632-1863", Ph.D. diss., University of California at Berkeley, 2002 ) and in 2003 Menegon published an article entitled "Christian Loyalists, Spanish Friars, and Holy Virgins in Fujian During the Ming-Qing Transition" (in: Monumenta Serica , Volume 51, pp. 335-365).

Menegons microhistorical study was praised by the critics for the most part. The book highlights the role of both Spanish Dominican missionaries and Chinese lay converts in Fujian Province during the Ming and Qing Dynasties in the process of how Christianity became a local religion and coexisted with other religions despite opposition from above . Menegon's study also shows how women were offered new opportunities for action and emancipation by forming lay orders. Menegon thus sheds light on a development that is now attracting increased research interest, but which up until now has often been overshadowed by Jesuit missionary history in historiography . In a review, Hubert Seiwert regarded the book as a “milestone in research into the indigenization of Christianity in China” and as a “masterpiece of local religious and social history of the late imperial era”. Some criticisms, for example by Isabelle Landry-Deron and David E. Mungello , that it is not clear to what extent this local example is representative of other examples, but it is also noted that further research is required. For his source work, he used Chinese and European sources.

Method: micro history and global history

In addition to published sources, Menegon uses a large number of archival primary sources from European and Chinese archives for his studies , as is clear in his forewords and footnotes. Some recurring source types in Menegon are, for example, letters and missionary sources. Microhistorian Hans Medick sees Menegon's work in terms of both his book Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars. Christianity as a Local Religion in Late Imperial China as well as generally related to his work approaches as a particularly interesting attempt to combine microhistory and global history in the area of ​​China and Asia. Eugenio Menegon himself occasionally uses the term “micro-historical” in his articles and lectures. In his article Desire, Truth, and Propaganda (2018), for example, he sees the value of a multitude of travel letters by Serafino da San Giovanni Battista OAD (1692–1742) and a six-volume work by Gemelli, probably the only early modern traveler who traveled for sheer pleasure Careri (1648–1724), as sources which would illuminate the “micro-historical study” of the materiality of travel in the 18th century in great detail and thus reveal the travel experiences of the early modern period . With his lectures, too, Menegon repeatedly moves at the interface between micro-history and global history. In a series of lectures on “Global China. New Approaches ”(June 11, 2015) Menegon's lecture was entitled“ A Micro-historical Approach to Global China. The Daily Life of Europeans in Beijing in the Long 18th Century ”and at a conference of the AHRC Global Microhistory Network (September 13-14, 2018) he gave a lecture entitled“ Invisible City. European Missionaries and Catholic Community in Qing Beijing ” .

Awards

For his monograph Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars. Christianity as a Local Religion in Late Imperial China (2009) Menegon received the 2011 Joseph Levenson Book Prize of the Association for Asian Studies in the category "China before 1900".

Publications (selection)

Books

  • Li Madou - Shuxin ji - 利玛 窦书信 集 . Chinese translation of Matteo Ricci SJ's Italian works, volume 2, “Letters,” in collaboration with Wen Zheng 文 铮, Beijing: Commercial Press, 2018.
  • Li Madou - Yesuhui yu Tianzhujiao jinru Zhongguo shi - 利玛窦 - 耶稣 会 与 天主教 进入 中国 史 - Della entrata della Compagnia di Giesù e della Christianità nella Cina . Chinese translation of Matteo Ricci SJ's Italian works, volume 1, in collaboration with Wen Zheng 文 铮, Beijing: Commercial Press, 2014 .
  • Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars. Christianity as a Local Religion in Late Imperial China (Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series No. 69), Harvard: Harvard University Asia Center and Harvard University Press, 2009.
  • Un solo Cielo. Giulio Aleni SJ (1582-1649). Geografia, arte, scienza, religione dall'Europa alla Cina (One Heaven. Giulio Aleni SJ (1582–1649). Geography, art, science, religion from Europe to China), Brescia: Grafo Edizioni, 1994.

items

  • Telescope and microscope. A Micro-historical Approach to Global China in the Eighteentch Century , in: Modern Asian Studies, forthcoming.
  • The Habit that Hides the Monk. Missionary Fashion Strategies at the Imperial Court in Early Modern China , in: Christian Windler et al. (Ed.): Native or Remaining Foreign? Catholic Missionaries as Local Agents in Asia (17th to 18th Centuries), London: Routledge, 2019, forthcoming.
  • Desire, Truth, and Propaganda. Lay and Ecclesiastical Travelers from Europe to China in the Long Eighteenth Century , in Roberta Micallef (Ed.): Illusions and Disillusionment. Travel Writing in the Modern Age , Boston and Cambridge Massachusetts: Ilex Series & Harvard University Press, 2018, pp. 11–41.
  • Interlopers at the Fringes of Empire. The Procurators of the Propaganda Fide Papal Congregation in Canton and Macao, and their Maritime Network, 1700–1823 , in Eugenio Menegon, Philip Thai and Xing Hang (guest ed.): Special edition “Binding Maritime China: Control, Evasion and Interloping, " Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture 25, 2017, pp. 26-62.
  • Yongzheng's Conundrum. The Emperor on Christianity, Religions, and Heterodoxy , in Zbigniew Wesolowski, Barbara Hoster and Dirk Kuhlman (Eds.): Rooted in Hope. China - Religion - Christianity / Rooted in Hope. China - Religion - Christianity. Festschrift in Honor of Dr. Prof. Roman Malek SVD (Monumenta Serica Monograph Series LXVIII / vol. 1–2), London: Routledge, 2017, pp. 311–335, p. 430 (picture).
  • Religious Change in East Asia, 1400-1800 (section on China, pp. 387-403), in Jerry Bentley, Sanjay Subrahmanyam and Merry Wiesner-Hanks (eds.): The Cambridge History of the World , vol. 6. The Construction of a Global World, 1400--1800. Part 2. Patterns of Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 387-422.
  • La Cina, l'Italia e Milano: connessioni globali nella prima età moderna [China, Italy and Milan: Global Connections in the Early Modern Period], in Michela Catto and Gianvittorio Signorotto (eds.): Milano, l'Ambrosiana e la conoscenza dei nuovi mondi (secoli XVII-XVIII) [Milan, the Ambrosiana Library and Knowledge of New Worlds, 17th-18th Centuries] (Studia Borromaica. Saggi e documenti di storia religiosa e civile della prima età moderna), Milan: Biblioteca & Accademia Ambrosiana , Classe di Studi Borromaici, 2015, pp. 267-280.
  • Amicitia Palatina. The Jesuits and the Politics of Gift-Giving at the Qing Court , in Magda Abbiati and Federico Greselin (eds.): Il liuto ei libri. Studi in onore di Mario Sabattini (Sinica Venetiana 1), Venice: Edizioni Ca 'Foscari, 2014, pp. 547-561.
  • A Clash of Court Cultures. Papal Envoys in Early Eighteenth Century Beijing , in: Luis Filipe Barreto (Ed.): Europe-China. Intercultural Encounters (16th-18th Centuries), Lisbon: Centro Cientifico e Cultural de Macau, 2012, pp. 139–178.
  • European and Chinese Controversies over Rituals: A Seventeenth-Century Genealogy of Chinese Religion , in Bruno Boute and Thomas Smålberg (Eds.): Devising Order. Socio-religious Models, Rituals, and the Performativity of Practice , Leiden: Brill, 2012, pp. 193–222.
  • Ubi Dux, Ibi Curia. Kangxi's Imperial Hunts and the Jesuits as Courtiers , in Artur K. Wardega SJ and António Vasconcelos de Saldanha (eds.): In the Light and Shadow of an Emperor. Tomás Pereira, SJ (1645-1708), the Kangxi Emperor, and the Jesuit Mission in China, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012, pp. 275-294.
  • Memento Mori . Preparing for Death in China and Europe during the Early Modern Era, in Roman Malek and Gianni Criveller (eds.): Light a Candle. Encounters and Friendship with China. Festschrift in Honor of Angelo S. Lazzarotto PIME (Collectanea Serica), Sankt Augustin / Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 2010, pp. 131–157.
  • Responses and Reflections: Ritual Agency and Interpretive Paradigms of Rituality in the Japanese and Chinese Missions , in M. Antoni and J. Üçerler (eds.): Christianity and Cultures. Japan & China in Comparison, 1543-1644 (Bibliotheca Instituti Historici SI Volume 68), Rome: Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 2009, pp. 143-47.
  • Immagini religose ed emblematica nella missione cinese (Religious images and emblematica in the China mission) , in: Exhibition catalog Ai Crinali della storia. Padre Matteo Ricci fra Roma e Pechino (On the Ridges of History. Father Matteo Ricci between Rome and Beijing), Torino: Allemandi & Co., 2009, pp. 57-62.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Eugenio Menegon: Eugenio Menegon CV (as of March 2019). (PDF) In: Boston University, Blog Eugenio Menegon. Retrieved August 4, 2019 .
  2. ↑ From Urban History to Digital Humanities: Fall Conferences for Professor Menegon. www.bu.edu, accessed on August 31, 2019 .
  3. ^ Eugenio Menegon: Christian Loyalists, Spanish Friars, and Holy Virgins in Fujian during the Ming-Qing Transition . In: Monumenta Serica . tape 51 , 2003, ISSN  0254-9948 , p. 335-365 , JSTOR : 40727375 .
  4. ^ Eugenio Menegon: Interlopers at the Fringes of Empire. The Procurators of the Propaganda Fide Papal Congregation in Canton and Macao, 1700-1823 . In: Cross-currents. East Asian History and Culture Review . tape 7 , no. 1 , 2018, p. 30-69 ( bu.edu [PDF]).
  5. ^ Samuel Weber, Philipp Zwyssig: Going Native or Remaining Foreign? Catholic Missionaries as Local Agents in Asia (17th to 18th Centuries). In: HSozKult. August 31, 2019, accessed August 31, 2019 .
  6. ^ Eugenio Menegon: Amicitia Palatina. The Jesuits and the Politics of Gift-Giving at the Qing Court . In: Magda Abbiati, Federico Greselin (ed.): Il liuto ei libri. Studi in onore di Mario Sabattini (Sinica Venetiana 1) . Edizioni Ca'Foscari, Venice 2014, p. 547-561 ( bu.edu [PDF]).
  7. ↑ Eugenio Menegon: Desire, Truth, and Propaganda. Lay and Ecclesiastical Travelers from Europe to China in the Long Eighteenth Century . In: Roberta Micallef (Ed.): Illusion and Disillusionment. Travel Writing in the Modern Age . Ilex Foundation, Harvard University Press, Boston, Cambridge 2018, pp. 11–41 ( bu.edu [PDF]).
  8. ↑ Eugenio Menegon had written his doctoral thesis on this subject: “Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars. The Localization of Christianity in Late Imperial Mindong (Fujian, China), 1632-1863 ”, Ph.D. diss., University of California at Berkeley, 2002. In 2003 Menegon published an article entitled "Christian Loyalists, Spanish Friars, and Holy Virgins in Fujian During the Ming-Qing Transition" (in: Monumenta Serica, Volume 51, p. 335-365).
  9. ↑ Isabelle Landry-Deron: Review to: Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars. Christianity as a Local Religion in Late Imperial China by Eugenio Menegon . In: Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales . tape 66 , no. 4 , 2011, p. 1118 .
  10. ↑ Hubert Seiwert: Review of: Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars. Christianity as a Local Religion in Late Imperial China . In: Monumenta Serica . tape 59 , 2011, p. 568 .
  11. ↑ Hubert Seiwert: Review of: Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars. Christianity as a Local Religion in Late Imperial China . In: Monumenta Serica . tape 59 , 2011, p. 568 .
  12. ↑ Isabelle Landry-Deron: Review of: Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars. Christianity as a Local Religion in Late Imperial China by Eugenio Menegon . In: Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales . tape 66 , no. 4 , 2011, p. 1120 .
  13. ↑ David E. Mungello: Review of: Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars. Christianity as a Local Religion in Late Imperial China by Eugenio Menegon . In: The Journal of Interdisciplinary History . tape 41 , no. 4 , 2011, p. 677 .
  14. ^ Hans Medick: Debate. Turning Global? Microhistory in extension . In: Historical Anthropology . tape 24 , no. 2 , 2016, p. 247 .
  15. ↑ Eugenio Menegon: Desire, Truth, and Propaganda. Lay and Ecclesiastical Travelers from Europe to China in the Long Eighteenth Century . In: Roberta Micallef (Ed.): Illusion and Disillusionment. Travel Writing in the Modern Age . Ilex Foundation, Harvard University Press, Boston, Cambridge 2018, pp. 33, 36 ( bu.edu [PDF]).
  16. ↑ Organized by the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, the Department of History at the University of Birmingham and the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge (see http://lubswww.leeds.ac.uk/uploads/media/ Global_China_Lectures_Cambridge.pdf , as of August 31, 2019).
  17. ^ Hans Medick: Turning Global? Microhistory in extension . In: Historical Anthropology . tape 24 , no. 2 , 2016, p. 241-252 .
  18. ↑ Global Empires, Global Courts? Explorations in Politics and Religion. Program of the 2nd conference of the AHRC Global Microhistory Network on September 13-14, 2019. In: University of Warwick, Global History and Culture Center. Accessed August 31, 2019 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Menegon, Eugenio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American historian and sinologist and Associate Professor of Chinese History at Boston University
DATE OF BIRTH 1966