Melville and the Chinese Junk: China–US Relations in 1840s American Popular Culture

Abstract When the Chinese junk Keying arrived in New York City in July 1847, it became an instant media sensation. This article examines several little-discussed sketches of the junk, later attributed to Herman Melville, that first appeared in the weekly magazine Yankee Doodle . Read alongside a broader archive of contemporary US reporting on China, these pieces reveal how Melville responded to the new Sino-US relations formalized by the Treaty of Wangxia (1844), the first treaty between the two nations, and to a rising popular print culture that shaped representations of China before large-scale Chinese immigration began at mid-century.