Lives Between Cultures From the beginning of contacts between China and the West, there were on both sides of this uneasy encounter people who – whether only briefly or for the duration of their lives – “crossed over” to the other side. This lecture course is concerned with their history and the analysis of the cultural framework, within which they acted. Among cases we shall discuss will be, on the one hand, Chinese commercial intermediaries (compradores) in foreign employ in the port cities of China, those who converted to Christianity and worked to spread it in China, and Chinese intellectuals who became speakers for foreign cultures in their country. On the other hand, we shall address Western travellers to China (beginning with Marco Polo), Orientalists in the late colonial period and thinkers who placed China at the centre of their writing.