This project reinterprets the Qing court through the perspective of Greater Canton, a maritime contact zone where migrant artisans, Hong merchants, missionaries, supercargoes, and expatriate communities converged. Rather than asking how Europe influenced the Qing court, it examines how Canton mediated the objects, skills, visual forms, and concepts later understood as Haixi 海西. By situating the court within Canton’s commercial, diplomatic, and Southeast Asian networks, the project rethinks Qing global knowledge as a product of maritime mediation.