In the 17th-18th centuries European countries experienced a spread of a new fashion for all Chinese due to expansion of European missionaries and diplomatic missions and establishment of trade relations between Europe and China. This Chinese trend inspired many Europeans resulting in the emergence of «chinoiserie» style in the West. The XVII century “chinoiserie” was marked by the merger of Western Baroque and Chinese artistic tradition, while in the 18th century it was a mix of the Rococo and elements of Chinese art. Artworks and crafts produced by European artists reflected the process of interaction between Chinese and Western cultures: European masters, who studied foreign art, were eagerly looking for different artistic methods and discovering ways of reading them. Thus, works of art, such as porcelain, can be read as a “text” or an “encoded message” constituted of different elements of language of art, the study of which is necessary in order to the understanding of the text and to provide reliable reading.
在17至18世纪,由于欧洲传教士和外交使团的扩大以及中欧之间的贸易关系的建立,欧洲国家对所有中国人都有了一种新的传播方式。中国的这一潮流启发了许多欧洲人,导致西方出现了“中国式”风格。十七世纪的“中国艺术”以西方巴洛克艺术与中国艺术传统的融合为标志,而在18世纪则是洛可可式和中国艺术元素的融合。欧洲艺术家生产的艺术品和手工艺品反映了中西文化之间的互动过程:研究外国艺术的欧洲大师们急切地寻找不同的艺术方法,并找到阅读它们的方式。因此,诸如瓷器之类的艺术品可以被理解为由艺术语言的不同元素构成的“文本”或“编码信息”,为了理解文本并提供对文本的理解,有必要对其进行研究可靠的阅读。