博览会与近代中国物质文化变迁——以南洋劝业会、西湖博览会为中心

Expositions and the Changes of Material Culture in Modern China:A Study Focusing on the Nanyang Exposition and the West Lake Exposition

本文从物质文化史视角出发,以1910年南洋劝业会和1929年西湖博览会为中心,探讨近代中国博览会所反映的物质文化变迁及其广泛社会影响。主要涉及三个方面:一是博览会会场、展馆与近代新型城市公共空间的兴起;二是博览会展品征集、分类与陈列所展示的近代中国物品概貌;三是通过博览会上的展品研究探讨近代中国物品的改良、进化情况。本文认为,形形色色的博览会与物质文化变迁之间有着极为密切的关联,博览会的诸要素:展馆、展品、分类、陈列、研究、评奖和推广,在物质世界的自然状态和有用状态之间架设了一座桥梁,促成了“物”之转化与“物”之升华,也促进了近代中国知识体系的整体转型。

From the perspective of material cultural history,this research focuses on the Nanyang Exposition in 1910 and the West Lake Exposition in 1929 to examine the changes of material culture reflected in Chinese modern expositions and their broad social impacts.This article investigates the following aspects:first,the spatial layout of expositions and the rise of new modern urban public space;second,the collection,categorization,and display of Chinese modern commodities shown in the expositions;third,the improvement and evolution of Chinese modern commodities illustrated by the items displayed in the expositions.This article argues that Chinese modern expositions linked the material existence of commodities to their functions,so as to facilitate the transformation of“things”from material entities to social/cultural ones,and also facilitate the overall transformation of the Chinese modern knowledge system.