In the early nineteenth century China remained almost untouched by British and European powers - but as new technology started to change this balance, foreigners gathered like wolves around the weakening Qing Empire. Would the Chinese suffer the fate of much of the rest of the world, carved into pieces by Europeans? Or could they adapt rapidly enough to maintain their independence?This important and compelling book explains the roots of China's complex relationship with the West by...

After 1914, between tiffin and a day at the race track, the British in Shanghai enjoyed a life far removed from the horrors of the Great War. Shanghai's status as a treaty port – with its foreign concessions home to expatriates from every corner of the globe – made it the most cosmopolitan city in Asia. The city's inhabitants on either side of the conflict continued to mix socially after the outbreak of war, the bond amongst foreign nationals being almost as strong as that between...

Nationalism matters in China, and what matters in China matters to everyone. China’s new nationalism, Robert Bickers shows, is rooted not in its present power but in shameful memories of its former weaknesses. Invaded, humiliated, and looted in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by foreign powers, China looks out at the twenty-first century through the lens of the past. History matters deeply to Beijing’s current rulers, and Out of China explains why.Bickers tracks the...

總是在要求別人道歉的中國◎瑞典脫口秀諷刺中國遊客習慣不佳，中國怒稱用心險惡！◎義大利精品D&G「起筷吃飯」廣告引起公憤，上海大秀被迫取消！◎APEC高峰會要求修改領袖會議宣言，中國官員怒闖巴紐辦公室！集粗暴、憤怒、野心與矛盾於一身的二十一世紀現代中國，從何而來？亟欲擺脫，又同時緊抓不放過去恥辱歷史的中國，又將前往何方？「中國以民族主義為重，而中國重視者，人人不得輕忽。」一九五〇年代，上海歷史博物館展示了一面豎立在外灘河岸公園入口的告示牌：「華人與狗不得入內」。自此這面由博物館虛造的告示牌，烙印在每一個中國人心中。當李小龍在電影《精武門》凌空踢碎告示牌的那一刻，中國人無不拍手叫好。這面告示牌掀起的影響遍及國際、廣至各階層，它象徵著那段列強入侵、掠奪與歧視的降格過往。波濤久久不退，至今依然。中國近代史專家畢可思爬梳一戰結束至中國共產黨於一九四九年掌權間的歷史，進一步述說北京政府如何站在過往基礎上推進「新中國」，外強如何在冷戰期間與中國建立關係，而一九七六年毛澤...

Shanghai in the 1930s was one of the world's most dangerous cities, with kidnappings and murders daily occurrences. British police officer E.W. Peters of the Shanghai Municipal Police takes us down the city's dark lanes and alleys, through a crime-ridden underworld of brothels, opium dens and gambling parlors. This often riotous, true-crime chronicle is filled with colorful criminals, fumbled police raids and gross misunderstandings, one of which lands the author on trial for murder. A mus...

This book presents a wide range of new research on the Chinese treaty ports – the key strategic places on China’s coast where in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries various foreign powers controlled, through "unequal treaties", whole cities or parts of cities, outside the jurisdiction of the Chinese authorities. Topics covered include land and how it was acquired, the flow of people, good and information, specific individuals and families who typify life in the treaty ports, and te...

This book presents a range of new research on British-Chinese relations in the period from Britain’s first imperial intervention in China up to the 1960s. Topics covered include economic issues such as fi nance, investment and Chinese labour in British territories, questions of perceptions on both sides, such as British worries about, and exaggeration of, the ‘China threat’, including to India, and British aggression towards, and eventual withdrawal from, China.

In 1900, China chose to take on imperialism by fighting a war with the world on the parched north China plain. This multidisciplinary volume explores the causes behind what is now known as the Boxer War, examining its particular cruelties and its impact on China, foreign imperialism in China, and on the foreign imagination. This war introduced the world to the "Boxers," the seemingly fanatical, violent xenophobes who, believing themselves invulnerable to foreign bullets, died in their thou...

"[This] thoughtful, engaging, and well-written analysis helps to separate fact from myth when it comes to understanding the nature of Chinese nationalism." — New York Review of BooksChina's new nationalism, Robert Bickers shows, is rooted not in its present power but in shameful memories of its former weaknesses. Invaded, humiliated, and looted in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by foreign powers, China looks out at the twenty-first century through t...

From its origins in Liverpool in 1816, one unusual British firm has threaded a way through two centuries that have seen tumultuous events and epochal transformations in technologies and societies. John Swire & Sons, a small trading company that began by importing dyes, cotton and apples from the Americas, now directs a highly diversified group of interests operating across the globe but with a core focus on Asia. From 1866 its fate was intertwined with developments in China, with the story...

Describes the exceptional wealth of missionary archives and the major contributions they can make not only to the study of the processes of Christian evangelism and Western imperialism but also their value in documenting and analysing the nature of Western encounters with indigenous societies.