China Lecture Notes II
I. European Contact
1. Early contacts
1. Silk Road – ground transportation from China to Europe existed since Rome
2. Marco Polo – Italian explorer who lived in China from 1271-1295
1. Favorite of Mongol emperor Kublai Khan
2. May have brought pasta back from China to Italy – depends who you ask
3. Returned to Europe and told his stories – interested Europeans in the East
3. Jesuits – lived in Beijing since the 17th century – worked for cross-cultural respect
1. Putting them at odds with the Church – didn't want respect, only supremacy
4. Western contact became widespread only in the 19th century
1. China attempted to deal with the west they way it dealt with local barbarians
2. Diplomacy and playing Western powers against each other – Wei Qi style
3. West doesn't play by those rules – presented a new crisis for Chinese rulers
2. The Canton (Guangzhou) System
1. Canton – southern port city traditionally associated with international trade
1. British began trading beginning in the late 17th century
2. British East Indiamen – big cargo ships used by the BEI to transport goods
1. Round trip to China took 2 years – each ship made 4 trips in her lifetime
3. British factory (trading post of a factor – trade agent) established in 1699
1. Begin trading for Chinese goods – few European goods in demand in China
2. Chinese Trade
1. Heavily controlled by the Chinese – to insulate against “barbarian” domination
1. Canton was the only available port for European use
2. Hong – Chinese merchant guild – only agents allowed to deal with Europeans
3. Corruption rampant - “presents” demanded by officials, tea dyed to appear fresh
4. Profits high, so everybody gets along
2. Silk, porcelain (china,) lacquer, fans, rhubarb, and metals bought by Europeans
3. Tea – dominated all Chinese trade by 1800 - £14M every year
1. Popularized in England as an alternative to gin for the working classes
2. Could only be purchased for silver – Chinese wanted no European goods
1. Lord Macartney – visited Qian Long in 1793 to ask for more open ports
1. Refuses to kowtow (lay down) before the emperor – big deal
2. Unclear what happened at the meeting, but Chinese refuse new deals
3. Begins a search for any goods to trade to stop the silver drain from England
4. Bombay cotton, English wool, and Cornwall tin traded in small amounts
5. Biggest success was opium
3. The First Opium War (1839-1842)
1. Changes in the Canton system – more “unofficial” country traders doing business
1. Happy to buy opium from the British – popular/profitable in China (and illegal)
2. Opium use over the 19th century expanded 100% of 18th century usage
3. Chinese silver now being used to pay for opium – silver starts to drain out of China
2. Lin Zexu – appointed Canton trade commissioner to eliminate opium smuggling/trade
1. 1839 – wrote 2 letters to Queen Victoria asking her to stop opium trade – immoral
2. British government's official policy is to ignore the opium trade
1. Although the drug was illegal in Britain itself
3. Arrests 350 British merchants – holds hostage until British turn over opium stocks
1. 20,000 chests of opium given to Lin – publicly destroys them
2. Enrages the British – forced to leave Canton and begin building posts at HK
3. RN – sends a shallow-water squadron to China – built to capture harbors
1. Ports from Canton to Shanghai assaulted and captured
2. Zhoushan Island – near Shanghai – taken over by the British
3. Tianjin – port near Beijing – captured and used to begin negotiations
4. Little Chinese resistance – Chinese army cannot compete, little navy to speak of
1. Chinese secret societies – support the opium trade
2. British conquests allowing rioting/looting by Chinese citizens
4. Treaty of Nanjing - August 1842 – heavily favored the British
1. 5 new ports open to trade – Canon, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningpo, and Shanghai
2. Hong monopoly system abolished
3. Customs tariffs fixed at 5% (instead of fluctuating, which allowed corruption)
4. Large cash indemnity – because why not?
5. Opium allowed to continue trading
6. Most Favored Nation clause – any right given to a Western power went to all
5. Issues of the war (besides the opium trade)
1. Corruption – Canton officials demands for tariffs would fluctuate
2. Refusal by British to turn over RN sailors who murdered a Chinese man
1. Trial did not establish guilt on anyone – Britain charges no one
3. Diplomatic mismanagement – neither side sees the opposite cultural context
1. China – assumes Chinese superiority
1. Britain should be glad to be allowed to trade at all
2. Britain – assumes all nations are equal, but some are stronger than others
3. Each side assumes itself superior
4. The Second Opium War (1856-1860) (or the Anglo-French War of 1856)
1. Chinese-owned ship Arrow registered in HK and used the British flag
1. Chinese police boarded the ship, lowered the flag, and replaced it with emperor's
2. Father Chapdelaine – arrested for missionary work and executed
1. Canonized in 2000 by JP2
3. British and French use these issues to go to war in 1856 – empire-building
1. British conquer Beijing – loot/burn down the emperor's Summer Palace
2. Prince Gong forced to sign a treaty – emperor had fled
1. Larger indemnity this time
2. 5 more cities opened to European trade
3. Right of travel given to European missionaries and traders outside ports
5. Taiping Rebellion – 1850-1864
1. Hong Xiaquan – founded the Taiping Tianguo (Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace)
1. Dreamed that Jesus visited him in a dream, and taught him to slay demons
2. Jesus also mentioned that Hong was His younger brother
3. Hong failed his civil service exams four times – decided to begin a rebellion instead
2. Hong gathers militia bands and unemployed/desperate men as a base of power
1. Began preaching that the Qing were agents of Satan, and lost the MoH
2. Creates communes – equal land distribution, no private property, gender equality
3. Attracts 30,000 followers in 3 years – desperate society
3. 1852 – capture the major city of Nanjing – major loss for the Qing
1. Hong now calling himself the Tian Wang – Heavenly King
2. Widespread killings, and over 600 cities captured by the Taipings (not at same time)
4. Chinese commanders use Western tactics/equipment to bring down Taipings
1. Americans/British get involved directly when Shanghai is threatened
2. Rebellion put down in 1864
6. Rebellions – common in 1850s
1. Nian – northern rebellion in 1853
2. Southwestern Muslims attempt independence in 1853
3. Threatened by Western contact – suggests the Qing are losing control
II. Chinese Westernization
1. What is Westernization and how was China unique?
1. Process by which China began to adopt “modern” thinking and techniques
2. Chinese slow to realize the benefits of Western ideas and maintained Chinese superiority
2. School of Statecraft – philosophical school of Chinese thought originating in 1860s
1. Tong Zhi Restoration – period of internal peace after rebellions of 1850s – new emp.
2. Statecraft – attempt to deal with the practical problems of Western influence
1. New philosophy – to address modern issues from a Chinese perspective
1. No wholesale adoption of Western ideas for China – contrast with Japan
2. Wei Yuan – writer who framed the Statecraft movement
1. Veteran of the First Opium War, and observer of the Taiping Rebellion
2. Suggested a Chinese maxim to deal with the West
1. “Use barbarians to control barbarians” - split Western powers
3. Adopt Western military hardware/ideas to maintain the Chinese empire
1. “Chinese learning for substance, Western learning for application
3. Li Hongzhang – commander who aided in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion
1. Bought Western guns for his soldiers – built a Western factory to make guns
2. Invested heavily in industrial production for China
1. Military equipment, later machine tools and steamships
3. China Merchants' Steam Navigation Co – 1872
1. Rivaled British companies for river/coastal transport of goods
2. Profits dispersed to owners – not reinvested into business
1. Key part of Western commerce – put money back in to grow
4. Developed industry in north as governor of Tianjin province
1. Coal mining, rail lines/telegraphs connect major cities by 1900
1. Chinese army had to guard telegraph poles for some years
2. Farmers believed the humming disturbed wind/water spirits
3. Cut the poles down to appease these spirits
4. Western changes had very little impact on the vast majority of China
3. 4 Agents of Westernization for the Chinese people
1. Maritime Customs Service – established in Shanghai by the British
1. Duties
1. Check ship cargoes and collections for illegal merchandise/recordkeeping
2. Control foreign merchants
3. Ensure all payments made to Chinese authorities to keep business moving
2. Robert Hart – appointed head of the MCS in 1863
1. Saw himself as a representative of Western thoughts/values
1. And an agent of the Chinese government, not Britain
2. Worked hard and fairly – employed large numbers of native Chinese
1. Taught English, and Western business practices to employees
2. Eventually established an independent post office in China
3. Handled finances honestly and openly
4. Demonstrated the value of Western-style business practices/institutions
2. Traders
1. Western businesses who handled importing/exporting
1. Jardine Matheson Holdings – still operates in Hong Kong
2. Russell and Co. - biggest American company
2. Comprador – senior Chinese employee in each company
1. Liaison between Western executives and Chinese employees
2. Made sales arrangements between port cities and inland markets
3. Taught Chinese social thinking to Western businessmen
4. Acted as to bridge cultural barriers and aid in understanding each society
3. Botanists
1. James Cunningham – English surgeon who collected Chinese plants
1. First collector of Chinese plants – introduced them to England
2. Popularized the cultivation of Chinese plants in England
1. Tea roses, tree peonies, and chrysanthemums
2. Chinese plants brought to England to be studied/cataloged
1. Forsythias, Rhododendrons, Umbrella Pines all Chinese
3. Western botanists also trained Chinese in Western scientific study
1. Used ancient Chinese records to modernize and update plant knowledge
4. Missionaries – most widespread agent of Westernization
1. 150,000 Catholics in China – most leftover from earlier missions (Jesuits)
2. Robert Morrison – sent by London Missionary Society to preach in Canton – 1807
1. Worked as translator for the BEI and produced Christian literature
2. Compiled first Chinese-English dictionary, and translated first Chinese Bible
3. Congregationalist – first American churches in China
4. 1930 – 1% of all Chinese were Christian
5. Negative aspects of missionary work
1. Missionaries tended to get in trouble with local authorities
1. Tended to work inland – greater risk of famine and rioting
2. Forced Western powers to use military aid to rescue them
2. Foreign aid used to settle local disputes
1. “Rice Christians” - falsely converted to have access to Western resources
1. Demand aid for settling law claims and land disputes
3. Indemnities – money demanded from China to pay for missionary problems
4. Resentment from Chinese literati and cultural elites
1. Scholars and aristocrats traditionally maintained culture and aided poor
1. Christians now doing that work
2. Produce rumors and slanderous attacks that orphanages mistreated children
1. Western camera lenses were made from orphaned children eyes
2. Orphanages run by nuns harvested hearts to use in sorcery
6. Positive aspects of missionary work
1. Education/infrastructure
1. Missionary schools – taught Western thought/methods
1. Yanjing University in Beijing built by missionaries
2. Improved the standards of Chinese education as well
2. Girls' education – pioneered by Western churches
3. Hospitals, orphanages, and blind/mental institutions built
1. Medical training also improved via missionary efforts
4. Technical and scientific centers – Zikawei Jesuit Library
2. Appealed to Chinese spirituality
1. Chinese decline questioned the value of Confucianism
2. Daoism too superstitions, Buddhism too esoteric/not respected
3. Christianity represented a “modern” take on the world and its issues
4. Also spoke to early Chinese nationalism – idea that God favored countries
3. Literacy and a Cultural Renaissance
1. Christian Literature Society encouraged reading the Bible
2. Literacy in Chinese sparked a demand for new things to read in Chinese
3. Newspapers, magazines, books all printed to satisfy this demand
1. Similar response to the King James Bible in England
III. Orientalism – European Attitudes toward China and “the East”
1. Edward Said – literary scholar, born in Jerusalem in 1935
1. Supporter of the Palestinian cause in America
2. Believed that Europe/America had created a system for viewing reality that allowed
them to conquer the world
1. Not a technique, skill, or tool for conquest – but a basic assumption
3. Created Post-colonial Studies – looking at former Western colonies and their
relationships to their rulers, as well as their current situation in the world
2. Orientalism Defined
1. Orientalism – Europeans (and Americans) divided the world artificially into East/West
1. Divided humanity into “Us” - the West, and “Them” - the East
2. No actual boundary here exists – there are many different groupings possible
1. Europeans made this one up – drew an imaginary line somewhere to split E/W
3. Assigned attributes to both sides based on the theory of opposites
1. If one side had X characteristic, the other side must have Y characteristic
1. Because East and West are opposite
4. Terminology – remember that cultural history tells us that words are important
1. Europeans force names onto groups as a method of power
2. Transfer European naming conventions onto non-European ideas/groups
1. Muslims becomes Mohammedans – because Christ founded Christianity
1. No Muslim referred to himself as a “Mohammedan”
2. Kong Fu-tzi becomes Confucius – why Latinize a Chinese philosopher?
1. No Chinese person got a say when things were renamed like this
2. The Orient – depicted as strange and different than Europe – how so?
1. Despotic rulers
2. Clannish
3. Sly, Scheming, Untrustworthy – traditionally assigned to women in the West
4. Women oppressed yet sexually exotic
5. Men sexually unrestrained
6. Uncivilized and irrational
3. The Occident – if the East are all those things, Europe reasons, we must be the opposite!
1. Democratic and just
2. Nationalist/religious identities
3. Dutiful, responsible, loyal, trustworthy
4. Women free to live a life of Christian purity
5. Men sexually responsible
6. Civilized and rational – therefore Europe has the duty to civilize the world
3. Early Orientalism – how did we get there?
1. 18th C. - Europeans begin studying Eastern cultures as a prelude to conquest
1. Knowledge is power – you learn so that you can more effectively civilize peoples
2. Teams/individuals travel to Europe to begin investigating
1. Jesuits, Marco Polo, early traders – write down everything they see/experience
1. Irrespective of context
2. Those recordings go back to Europe as the sole sources of Eastern information
2. Generalizations
1. Since there are so few sources of knowledge, Europeans use them to generalize
2. All Easterners become the few detailed in writings
1. If you watched Batman, and assumed all Americans were wealthy vigilantes
3. The East never changes – it is the same today as it ever was
1. Newsweek covers of “The New India” with an old-fashioned sari
2. Even if depicting reality, these images contribute to a stereotype
4. Over 2 centuries, this becomes accepted, assumed knowledge
1. All Easterners are mystical, untrustworthy, and irrational – in contrast to West
2. To be educated, you must “know” this to be true
3. Predictions and Usage – the Mission Civilisatrice
1. All scientific and literary investigation put into this cultural context – self-fulfilling
1. A study of Persian poetry finds it irrational, mystical, and inferior
1. Because that's what you started out assuming
2. Analyzing the behavior of Indian Bengalis finds them effeminate and scheming
1. Confirmation bias – remember the “hits,” forget the “misses”
3. Now, there is scientific research to back all this up – Easterners are inferior
2. White Man's Burden/Mission Civilisatrice/Manifest Destiny
1. It is the duty of the civilized Westerner to educate/civilize the Easterner
1. 150,000 Englishmen ruled a colony (India) of 300,000,000 individuals
2. Paternalism – the ruled are incapable of ruling themselves
2. Having an empire becomes a goal in itself
1. Roman Empire was built on conquest/acquisition
2. British Empire was built on the assumption that Britain should have an
empire – very little domestic resistance/questioning of the Empire
1. Despite its expense and logistical difficulties
3. The French believed they were helping the Algerians by conquering them
1. As the bloody war for independence shows, the Algerians disagreed
4. Contemporary Orientalism
1. Great shift after WWII as East changed to mean “the USSR”
1. Core values/assumptions remained the same – can't trust the Reds
2. Another great shift after the fall of the Soviet Union – who is The Other today?
3. Can we still find old-fashioned Orientalism today?
5. Said's Final Point
1. Not that Europeans were evil, or Easterners were morally pure victims
2. Investigate reality and complexity
3. Reject religious and racial generalizations
4. Don't divide anybody against each other