Anglo-Chinese Encounters since 1800
War, Trade, Science and Governance

A penetrating and sophisticated 2003 account of the relationship between China and imperial Britain.

Wang Gungwu (Author)

9780521534130, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 7 April 2003

212 pages
21.8 x 14 x 1.4 cm, 0.278 kg

' … a very enjoyable read … good introductory text … challenges Chinese historians to pry open the history of imperial exploitation in China and rethinks how the presence of these foreign actors allows certain fractions of the Chinese societies within and outside China proper to consolidate and reshape their identities.' Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History

Chinese encounters with the British were more than merely those between two great powers. There was the larger canvas of the Empire and Commonwealth where the two peoples traded and interacted. In China, officials and merchants had to place the British beside other enterprising foreign peoples who were equally intent on influencing developments there. There were also Chinese who encountered the British in personal ways, and individual British who ventured into a 'vast unknown' with its deep history. Wang Gungwu's 2003 book, based on lectures linking China and the Chinese with imperial Britain, examines the possibilities in, as well as the limits of, their encounters. It takes the story beyond the clichés of opium, fighting, and the diplomatic skills needed to fend off rivals and enemies, and probes some areas of more intimate encounters, not least the beginnings of a wider English-speaking future.

1. Introduction
2. To fight
3. To trade
4. To convert
5. To rule
6. Beyond Waley's list.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], General & world history [HBG]