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

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.