Britain in China: Community, Culture and Colonialism, 1900-49 (Studies in Imperialism)

Using archival materials newly available in China and records in Britain and the US, Robert Bickers paints a detailed portrait of the traders, missionaries, businessmen, diplomats and settlers who constituted "Britain-in-China." Bickers argues that the British presence in China was dominated by urban settlers whose primary allegiance lay not with any grand imperial design but with their own communities and precarious livelihoods. This brought them into growing conflict with the Chinese population and the British imperial government. Bickers goes on to examine how the British state and its allies brought an end to the reign of freelance, settler imperialism on the China coast. At the same time, other British sectors, missionary and business, renegotiated their own relationship with their Chinese markets and the Chinese state and distanced themselves from the settler British. Contents 7 List of Tables 8 List of Illustrations 9 General Introduction 10 Acknowledgements 11 List of Abbreviations 12 1 Introduction 13 Imperialism and modern Chinese history 18 Britain in China 22 Nationalising Sino-British relations 27 Notes 31 2 China in Britain, and in the British imagination 34 B. L. Putnam Weale, 45 Arthur Ransome, The Chinese Puzzle (1927) 47 H. G. W. Woodhead, ed., 53 W. Somerset Maugham, East of Suez (1922) 58 Louise Jordan Miln, Mr Wu (1918) 60 Wembley 62 Limehouse 63 First impressions: Britons in China 69 Conclusion 71 Notes 72 3 Britons in China: a settler society 79 British subjects in China 81 Why go to Chinai 85 Socialisation 88 Women 100 The outports 102 Missions and Missionaries 104 Boundary maintenance 107 Believing 116 Conclusion 119 Notes 120 4 Dismantling informal empire 127 The British establishment in China 129 Changing British behaviour 155 The Foreign Office regains control, 1937-41 164 Conclusion 173 Notes 175 5 Staying on: the localisation of British activity in China 182 Transforming British businesses 185 Transforming British Protestant missions 207 Conclusion 222 Notes 224 6 After colonialism 231 Notes 256 Select Bibliography 260 Index 281 Using archival materials newly available in China and records in Britain and the US, Robert Bickers paints a detailed portrait of the traders, missionaries, businessmen, diplomats and settlers who constituted "Britain-in-China." Bickers argues that the British presence in China was dominated by urban settlers whose primary allegiance lay not with any grand imperial design but with their own communities and precarious livelihoods. This brought them into growing conflict with the Chinese population and the British imperial government. Bickers goes on to examine how the British state and its allies brought an end to the reign of freelance, settler imperialism on the China coast. At the same time, other British sectors, missionary and business, renegotiated their own relationship with their Chinese markets and the Chinese state and distanced themselves from the settler British.