Spaces of circulation: Knowledge Production Between China and the West

This special issue explores the multifaceted processes of knowledge production between China and the West from the late 19th to mid-20th century, a period often overlooked in traditional historiography. Drawing on newly accessible primary sources—such as archival documents, personal memoirs, and rare books—the volume applies innovative methodologies from the history of knowledge, particularly Christian Jacob's "Sites of Knowledge" and Kapil Raj’s "Spaces of Circulation". These frameworks highlight how knowledge emerged not merely through diffusion but via dynamic social and spatial interactions involving both people and texts. The issue foregrounds intermediaries—missionaries, translators, scientists, and texts themselves—as agents in the bidirectional creation and transformation of knowledge. Articles cover the agency of mobile actors, the crucial role of translation as a creative and discursive act, and the shaping of epistemic communities and terminologies, especially in sinology. The contributions reflect a translingual, transnational understanding of intellectual exchange, challenging linear narratives of knowledge transfer. Rooted in a trilateral international research project, this issue broadens the analytical lens on Sino-Western scholarly interaction and highlights the entangled, co-productive nature of knowledge formation across linguistic, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries.