Canton Days offers the first comprehensive history of the British community in China from the mid-1700s to the end of the Opium War in 1842. During that period, Britons and other Westerners in China were restricted to trading and living in a tiny section of the city of Canton and the small Portuguese territory of Macao. At Canton, trade between China and the West was conducted through a group of Chinese merchant houses specially licensed by the Qing government. British encounters with China in this period have been seen mainly as a prelude to war, and Britons in China usually have been characterized as single-minded traders determined to open the Middle Kingdom by any means or missionaries bent on converting the Chinese "heathen" to Christianity. John M. Carroll challenges common assumptions about the British presence in China as he traces the lives and times of the expatriates at the heart of this vital center of trade and exchange. The author draws on a rich trove of archival sources to bring Canton and its leading figures to life, concluding with the deaths of three Britons, each revealing British concerns and anxieties about being in China. Written in a clear and lively style, his book will appeal to all readers interested in British imperial history, early modern Chinese history, and the worlds of expatriate and sojourning communities.
Autorentext
John M. Carroll is professor of history at the University of Hong Kong. He is the author of Edge of Empires: Chinese Elites and British Colonials in Hong Kong and A Concise History of Hong Kong .
Inhalt
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Notes
Chapter 1 The Place, the System, and the People
The "Entrance of Pandemonium"
A "Perfect System"
Coping with the "Intolerable Restrictions"
"Various Petty Collisions"
Accommodation and Collaboration in the Contact Zone
"An Extraordinary Jargon"
"Two Living Streams or Tides of Human Beings"
Notes
Chapter 2 Communities and Personalities
Through American Eyes
Remaining in Canton
George Thomas Staunton's Life in China
"Some Real Geniuses in Wit, Science, and Art"
"Good Works"
"Useful Knowledge"
Notes
Chapter 3 Life and Work
The "Ungallant" Exclusion
"Serious Illnesses in This Country"
Confinement and Routine
"United Together in a Kind of Brotherhood"
"The Harmony of Our Little Society"
Friendships
Staying On
Notes
Chapter 4 Outlets
Dinners and Parties
The Gardens at Fa-ti
Rowing and Regattas
"Turning Out" to Macao
In the Storm
Notes
Chapter 5 Commemorations and Institutions
"The Nautical Oracle of the World"
The British Chamber of Commerce
The Parsis
The Canton General Chamber of Commerce
Community through Grievances
Grievances, Character, and Conduct
Notes
Chapter 6 Factories, Fear, and Fire
Combustible Canton
The Great Fire of 1822
Frustration and Helplessness
Fire and "the Chinese Character"
Fire as Opportunity (or Not)
Fire and Grievances
Notes
Chapter 7 Robert Morrison's Life in China
With the Americans
With the East India Company
The Company and Morrison's Dictionaries
Morrison and the Press
Change and Uncertainty
The Superintendent of Trade and the Napier Mission
"A Loyal and Industrious Son"
Notes
Chapter 8 Dying in China
"Gonged to Death"
"He Carried to the Grave the Regrets of All"
"A Mysterious Secret"
Death and the British in China
Notes
Epilogue: Canton and Beyond
Notes
Bibliography
Index