Thomas Burke's Dark Chinoiserie

Focusing on Thomas Burke's bestselling collection of short stories, Limehouse Nights (1916), Anne Witchard's interdisciplinary book contextualises the burgeoning cult of Chinatown in turn-of-the-century London. Witchard shows that Burke's immensely popular Chinatown stories destabilize social orthodoxies in highly complex ways, forcing us to rethink his influence on both sides of the Atlantic. She shows that China and chinoiserie served as mirrors that reveal the disquietudes of western art and culture.