The Land of the Blue Gown

A detailed account of travels in nineteenth-century China from the British leader of the anti-foot-binding movement.

Alicia E. Neve Little (Author)

9781108013864, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 June 2010

396 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.2 cm, 0.5 kg

In the Land of the Blue Gown, first published in 1908, is a thorough and descriptive non-fiction work by Mrs Archibald Little. Born in 1845, she became best known for her travel writing and for her campaign against the Chinese custom of foot-binding. Mrs Little travelled widely both alone and with her husband, Archibald (1838–1909), and eventually settled in the Sichuan province of China. She admired many aspects of Chinese culture, but made it her life's work to become a vigorous leader of the anti-foot-binding movement. This book paints a marvellously descriptive account of her travels to Beijing and remoter parts, and describes her views on the culture, scenery, customs, religion, and much more. The book is extensively illustrated throughout, and also includes a chapter on her 'anti-foot-binding tour'. Other books by Mrs Little and her husband are also reissued in this series.

1. My first visit to Peking: before the Siege
2. Pilot town: Taku
3. August in Chefoo
4. On the walls of Shanghai City
5. Inside Shanghai City
6. Into the Chinese Country
7. April near Ningpo
8. September in Wuhu
9. The Dragon King's cavern and dome: Ichang
10. Fengtu: the Chinese Hades
11. Cheap missionaries
12. Life on a farmstead: fifteen hundred miles inside China
13. Anti-foreign riots in western China
14. Further alarms of riots
15. 'Bad' Wentang
16. Little known border tribes
17. Table decorations
18. What are missionaries doing?
19. Part I. An anti-footbinding tour to Hankow, Wuchang, Han-Yang, Canton and Hong-Kong
19. Part II. To Macao, Swatow, Amoy, Foochow, Hangchow and Soochow.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]