Chinese Middlemen in Hong Kong's Colonial Economy, 1830-1890

Chinese Middlemen in Hong Kong's Colonial Economy, 1830-1890

Author: Kaori Abe

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-14

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 1134846819

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The traditional view of the Hong Kong colonial economy is that it was dominated by Western companies, notably the great British merchant houses, and that these firms enlisted support from Chinese middlemen – the compradors – who were effectively agents working for the Western firms. This book, which presents a comprehensive overview of the compradors and their economic and social functions over the full period of colonial rule in Hong Kong, puts forward a different view. It shows that compradors existed before the beginning of British rule in 1842, discusses their economic and social roles in the colonial economy, roles which included activities for Western firms, for the government and to support compradors’ own commercial activities, and outlines how the comprador system evolved. Overall, the book demonstrates that the compradors played a key role in the formation and development of Hong Kong’s economy and society, that they were active participants, not just passive servants of Western companies.


Book Synopsis Chinese Middlemen in Hong Kong's Colonial Economy, 1830-1890 by : Kaori Abe

Download or read book Chinese Middlemen in Hong Kong's Colonial Economy, 1830-1890 written by Kaori Abe and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-14 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The traditional view of the Hong Kong colonial economy is that it was dominated by Western companies, notably the great British merchant houses, and that these firms enlisted support from Chinese middlemen – the compradors – who were effectively agents working for the Western firms. This book, which presents a comprehensive overview of the compradors and their economic and social functions over the full period of colonial rule in Hong Kong, puts forward a different view. It shows that compradors existed before the beginning of British rule in 1842, discusses their economic and social roles in the colonial economy, roles which included activities for Western firms, for the government and to support compradors’ own commercial activities, and outlines how the comprador system evolved. Overall, the book demonstrates that the compradors played a key role in the formation and development of Hong Kong’s economy and society, that they were active participants, not just passive servants of Western companies.

A Young Englishman in Victorian Hong Kong

A Young Englishman in Victorian Hong Kong

Author: Benjamin Penny

Publisher: ANU Press

Published: 2023-10-06

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1760465925

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In August 1855, 16-year-old Chaloner Alabaster left England for Hong Kong, to take up a position as a student interpreter in the China Consular Service. He would stay for almost 40 years, climbing the rungs of the service and eventually becoming consul-general of Canton. When he retired he returned to England and received a knighthood. He died in 1898. Throughout his adult life, Alabaster kept diaries. In the first four volumes of these diaries, collected here by Benjamin Penny, the teenage Alabaster recorded his thoughts and observations, told himself anecdotes, and exploded in outbursts of anger and frustration. He was young and enthusiastic, and the everyday sights, sounds and smells of Hong Kong were novel to him. He describes how the Chinese people around him ironed clothes, dried flour and threshed rice; how they gambled, prepared their food and made bean curd; and what opera, new year festivities and the birthday of the Heavenly Empress were like. Like many a young Victorian, he was also a keen observer of natural history, fascinated by fireflies and ants, corals and sea slugs, and the volcanic origins of the landscape. Alabaster’s diaries are a unique, vibrant and riveting record of life in the young British colony on the cusp of the Second Opium War. With A Young Englishman in Victorian Hong Kong, Penny sheds new light on the history of the region.


Book Synopsis A Young Englishman in Victorian Hong Kong by : Benjamin Penny

Download or read book A Young Englishman in Victorian Hong Kong written by Benjamin Penny and published by ANU Press. This book was released on 2023-10-06 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In August 1855, 16-year-old Chaloner Alabaster left England for Hong Kong, to take up a position as a student interpreter in the China Consular Service. He would stay for almost 40 years, climbing the rungs of the service and eventually becoming consul-general of Canton. When he retired he returned to England and received a knighthood. He died in 1898. Throughout his adult life, Alabaster kept diaries. In the first four volumes of these diaries, collected here by Benjamin Penny, the teenage Alabaster recorded his thoughts and observations, told himself anecdotes, and exploded in outbursts of anger and frustration. He was young and enthusiastic, and the everyday sights, sounds and smells of Hong Kong were novel to him. He describes how the Chinese people around him ironed clothes, dried flour and threshed rice; how they gambled, prepared their food and made bean curd; and what opera, new year festivities and the birthday of the Heavenly Empress were like. Like many a young Victorian, he was also a keen observer of natural history, fascinated by fireflies and ants, corals and sea slugs, and the volcanic origins of the landscape. Alabaster’s diaries are a unique, vibrant and riveting record of life in the young British colony on the cusp of the Second Opium War. With A Young Englishman in Victorian Hong Kong, Penny sheds new light on the history of the region.

The China Firm

The China Firm

Author: Thomas Larkin

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2024-03-19

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 0231558538

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What roles did Americans play in the expanding global empires of the nineteenth century? Thomas M. Larkin examines the Hong Kong–based Augustine Heard & Company, the most prominent American trading firm in treaty-port China, to explore the ways American elites at once made and were made by British colonial society. Following the Heard brothers throughout their firm’s rise and decline, The China Firm reveals how nineteenth-century China’s American elite adapted to colonial culture, helped entrench social and racial hierarchies, and exploited the British imperial project for their own profit as they became increasingly invested in its political affairs and commercial networks. Through the central narrative of Augustine Heard & Co., Larkin disentangles the ties that bound the United States to China and the British Empire in the nineteenth century. Drawing on a vast range of archival material from Hong Kong, China, Boston, and London, he weaves the local and the global together to trace how Americans gained acceptance into and contributed to the making of colonial societies and world-spanning empires. Uncovering the transimperial lives of these American traders and the complex ways extraimperial communities interacted with British colonialism, The China Firm makes a vital contribution to global histories of nineteenth-century Asia and provides an alternative narrative of British empire.


Book Synopsis The China Firm by : Thomas Larkin

Download or read book The China Firm written by Thomas Larkin and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2024-03-19 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What roles did Americans play in the expanding global empires of the nineteenth century? Thomas M. Larkin examines the Hong Kong–based Augustine Heard & Company, the most prominent American trading firm in treaty-port China, to explore the ways American elites at once made and were made by British colonial society. Following the Heard brothers throughout their firm’s rise and decline, The China Firm reveals how nineteenth-century China’s American elite adapted to colonial culture, helped entrench social and racial hierarchies, and exploited the British imperial project for their own profit as they became increasingly invested in its political affairs and commercial networks. Through the central narrative of Augustine Heard & Co., Larkin disentangles the ties that bound the United States to China and the British Empire in the nineteenth century. Drawing on a vast range of archival material from Hong Kong, China, Boston, and London, he weaves the local and the global together to trace how Americans gained acceptance into and contributed to the making of colonial societies and world-spanning empires. Uncovering the transimperial lives of these American traders and the complex ways extraimperial communities interacted with British colonialism, The China Firm makes a vital contribution to global histories of nineteenth-century Asia and provides an alternative narrative of British empire.

Multiracial Britishness

Multiracial Britishness

Author: Vivian Kong

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2023-10-31

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 1009202952

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Multiracial Britishness explores how British subjects of different 'races' collectively shaped what it means to be British today, focusing on 1910-45 Hong Kong. This book reframes the discussion about British identities and colonial Hong Kong, with clear implications for understanding Hong Kong's decolonisation, Brexit, and the Commonwealth.


Book Synopsis Multiracial Britishness by : Vivian Kong

Download or read book Multiracial Britishness written by Vivian Kong and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-10-31 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Multiracial Britishness explores how British subjects of different 'races' collectively shaped what it means to be British today, focusing on 1910-45 Hong Kong. This book reframes the discussion about British identities and colonial Hong Kong, with clear implications for understanding Hong Kong's decolonisation, Brexit, and the Commonwealth.

Minorities in Global History

Minorities in Global History

Author: Holger Weiss

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2024-04-04

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 135038223X

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This collection analyses the concept of minority and minorities in global history. Taking transnational, transregional and comparative approaches, it explores narratives of inclusion and exclusion both conceptually and through case studies. Exploring examples of marginalization in Imperial Russia, early-20th century Korea, WWII China and Postcolonial Africa amongst others, the chapters in this volume seek to understand the entanglements of 'fluid minorities' and native populations in various historical settings. They explore dynamics between nation states and empires, minority-majority processes in (post)imperial and (post)Soviet contexts, fourth world perspectives and transnational minority movements. Taken together, the contributions to this collection address the exposure to and challenge of historical and contemporary treatments of marginalization, exclusion, belonging and inclusion in global history.


Book Synopsis Minorities in Global History by : Holger Weiss

Download or read book Minorities in Global History written by Holger Weiss and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-04-04 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection analyses the concept of minority and minorities in global history. Taking transnational, transregional and comparative approaches, it explores narratives of inclusion and exclusion both conceptually and through case studies. Exploring examples of marginalization in Imperial Russia, early-20th century Korea, WWII China and Postcolonial Africa amongst others, the chapters in this volume seek to understand the entanglements of 'fluid minorities' and native populations in various historical settings. They explore dynamics between nation states and empires, minority-majority processes in (post)imperial and (post)Soviet contexts, fourth world perspectives and transnational minority movements. Taken together, the contributions to this collection address the exposure to and challenge of historical and contemporary treatments of marginalization, exclusion, belonging and inclusion in global history.

China Bound

China Bound

Author: Robert Bickers

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-03-05

Total Pages: 577

ISBN-13: 1472949951

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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 of steam, and later of flight, and with the movements of people and of goods that made the modern world. China Bound charts the story of the firm, its family owners and staff, its operations, its successes and its disasters, as it endured wars, uprisings and revolutions, the rise and fall of empires - China's, Britain's, Japan's – and the twists and turns of the global economy. This is the story of a business that reshaped Hong Kong, developed Cathay Pacific Airways, dominated China's pre-Second World War shipping industry, and helped pioneer containerization. Robert Bickers' remarkable new book is the history of a business, and of its worlds, of modern China, Britain, and of the globalization that entangled them, of compradors, ship-owners, and seamen, sugar travellers, tea-tasters, and stuff merchants, revolutionaries, pirates and Taipans. Essential reading for anyone with an interest in global commerce, China Bound provides an intimate history that helps explain the shape of Asia today.


Book Synopsis China Bound by : Robert Bickers

Download or read book China Bound written by Robert Bickers and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-03-05 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 of steam, and later of flight, and with the movements of people and of goods that made the modern world. China Bound charts the story of the firm, its family owners and staff, its operations, its successes and its disasters, as it endured wars, uprisings and revolutions, the rise and fall of empires - China's, Britain's, Japan's – and the twists and turns of the global economy. This is the story of a business that reshaped Hong Kong, developed Cathay Pacific Airways, dominated China's pre-Second World War shipping industry, and helped pioneer containerization. Robert Bickers' remarkable new book is the history of a business, and of its worlds, of modern China, Britain, and of the globalization that entangled them, of compradors, ship-owners, and seamen, sugar travellers, tea-tasters, and stuff merchants, revolutionaries, pirates and Taipans. Essential reading for anyone with an interest in global commerce, China Bound provides an intimate history that helps explain the shape of Asia today.

Strenuous Decades

Strenuous Decades

Author: Chi-cheung Choi

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2022-03-07

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 311075746X

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The movement of goods and passengers between port cities not only stimulates growth in coastal trading networks and centers but also inevitably changes the social and economic lives of people in these port cities and, subsequently, of their fellow compatriots farther inland. Studies of port cities have focused on the interactive political and economic relationship between trading centers. The center of attention in this book is socioeconomic life and cultural identity, which are shaped by the movement of goods, people, knowledge, and information, particularly when the community faces a crisis. Transnational studies focus on cross-border connections between people, institutions, commodities, and ideas, with an emphasis on their global presence. This book looks at the responses of different localities to the same global crisis. It gathers a selection of the fifty papers presented at the conference on "Coping with Transnational Crisis: Chinese Economic and Social Lives in East Asian Port Cities, 1850-1950," held in Hong Kong on June 7-11, 2016. The period from the 1850s to the outbreak of war in the Pacific in the late 1930s encompasses two major transnational crises with significant impacts on the Chinese population in Southeast Asian port cities in terms of their way of living and the construction of their identity: the emergence of bubonic plague in the 1880s and 1920s and the global economic crisis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The authors discuss the social and economic lives in various South East Asian port cities where many residents had to cope with these transnational crises. They do so through examining institutional measurements, rituals and festivals, communication, knowledge and information exchange as well as identity (re)construction. In addition, they explore how local communities responded to knowledge and information between the port cities and cities as well as inland locations. The chapters in this book offer solid grounds for future comparisons, not only based on a specific time or event but also on how society reacted over time, space, and various types of crises.


Book Synopsis Strenuous Decades by : Chi-cheung Choi

Download or read book Strenuous Decades written by Chi-cheung Choi and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-03-07 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The movement of goods and passengers between port cities not only stimulates growth in coastal trading networks and centers but also inevitably changes the social and economic lives of people in these port cities and, subsequently, of their fellow compatriots farther inland. Studies of port cities have focused on the interactive political and economic relationship between trading centers. The center of attention in this book is socioeconomic life and cultural identity, which are shaped by the movement of goods, people, knowledge, and information, particularly when the community faces a crisis. Transnational studies focus on cross-border connections between people, institutions, commodities, and ideas, with an emphasis on their global presence. This book looks at the responses of different localities to the same global crisis. It gathers a selection of the fifty papers presented at the conference on "Coping with Transnational Crisis: Chinese Economic and Social Lives in East Asian Port Cities, 1850-1950," held in Hong Kong on June 7-11, 2016. The period from the 1850s to the outbreak of war in the Pacific in the late 1930s encompasses two major transnational crises with significant impacts on the Chinese population in Southeast Asian port cities in terms of their way of living and the construction of their identity: the emergence of bubonic plague in the 1880s and 1920s and the global economic crisis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The authors discuss the social and economic lives in various South East Asian port cities where many residents had to cope with these transnational crises. They do so through examining institutional measurements, rituals and festivals, communication, knowledge and information exchange as well as identity (re)construction. In addition, they explore how local communities responded to knowledge and information between the port cities and cities as well as inland locations. The chapters in this book offer solid grounds for future comparisons, not only based on a specific time or event but also on how society reacted over time, space, and various types of crises.

Design and Modernity in Asia

Design and Modernity in Asia

Author: Yunah Lee

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2022-10-20

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1350091464

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This new edited volume of critical essays examines designs for modern living in Asia between 1945 and 1990. Focusing particularly on the post-World War II and postcolonial years, this book advances multidisciplinary knowledge on approaches to and designs for modern living. Developed from extensive primary research and case studies, each essay illuminates commonalities and particularities of the trajectories of Modernism and notions of modernity, their translation and manifestation in life across Asia through design. Authors address everyday negotiations and experiences of being modern by studying exhibitions, architecture, modern interiors, printed ephemera, literary discourses, healthy living movements and transnational networks of modern designers. They examine processes of exchange between people, institutions and with governments, in and across Asia, as well as with the USA and countries in Western Europe. This book highlights the ways in which the production and discourses of modern design were underscored by economic advancement and modernization processes, and fuelled by aesthetic debates on modern design. Critically exploring design for modern living in Asia, this book offers fresh perspectives on Modernism to students and scholars.


Book Synopsis Design and Modernity in Asia by : Yunah Lee

Download or read book Design and Modernity in Asia written by Yunah Lee and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-10-20 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edited volume of critical essays examines designs for modern living in Asia between 1945 and 1990. Focusing particularly on the post-World War II and postcolonial years, this book advances multidisciplinary knowledge on approaches to and designs for modern living. Developed from extensive primary research and case studies, each essay illuminates commonalities and particularities of the trajectories of Modernism and notions of modernity, their translation and manifestation in life across Asia through design. Authors address everyday negotiations and experiences of being modern by studying exhibitions, architecture, modern interiors, printed ephemera, literary discourses, healthy living movements and transnational networks of modern designers. They examine processes of exchange between people, institutions and with governments, in and across Asia, as well as with the USA and countries in Western Europe. This book highlights the ways in which the production and discourses of modern design were underscored by economic advancement and modernization processes, and fuelled by aesthetic debates on modern design. Critically exploring design for modern living in Asia, this book offers fresh perspectives on Modernism to students and scholars.

The Economy of Colonial Malaya

The Economy of Colonial Malaya

Author: Sivachandralingam Sundara Raja

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-08-16

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1351850865

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Although colonies are often viewed as having been of crucial economic importance to Britain’s empire, those responsible for administering the colonies were often not at all interested in or supportive of commercial ventures, as this book demonstrates. Based on extensive original research, and including detailed case studies of the agricultural and mining sectors in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Malaya, the book examines how administrators and capitalists interacted, showing how administrators were often hostile to business and created barriers to business success. It discusses in particular contradictory colonial government policies, confusion over land grants and conflicts within bureaucratic hierarchies, and outlines the impact of such difficulties, including the failure to attract capital inflows and outright business failures. Overall, the book casts a great deal of light on the detail of how business and government actually worked in Britain’s colonial empire.


Book Synopsis The Economy of Colonial Malaya by : Sivachandralingam Sundara Raja

Download or read book The Economy of Colonial Malaya written by Sivachandralingam Sundara Raja and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-08-16 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although colonies are often viewed as having been of crucial economic importance to Britain’s empire, those responsible for administering the colonies were often not at all interested in or supportive of commercial ventures, as this book demonstrates. Based on extensive original research, and including detailed case studies of the agricultural and mining sectors in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Malaya, the book examines how administrators and capitalists interacted, showing how administrators were often hostile to business and created barriers to business success. It discusses in particular contradictory colonial government policies, confusion over land grants and conflicts within bureaucratic hierarchies, and outlines the impact of such difficulties, including the failure to attract capital inflows and outright business failures. Overall, the book casts a great deal of light on the detail of how business and government actually worked in Britain’s colonial empire.

Space and Everyday Lives of Children in Hong Kong

Space and Everyday Lives of Children in Hong Kong

Author: Stella Meng Wang

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2024-01-23

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 3031444019

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Deploying a spatial approach towards children’s everyday life in interwar Hong Kong, this book considers the context-specific development of five transnational movements: the garden city movement; imperial hygiene movement; nationalist sentiments; the Young Women's Christian Association; and the Girl Guide. Locating these transnational cultural movements in four layers of context, from the most immediate to the most global, including the context of Hong Kong, Republican China, the British empire, and global influences, this book shows Hong Kong as a distinctive colonial domain where the imperatives around race, gender and class produced new products of empire where the child, the garden, the school and sport turned out to be the main dynamics in play in the interwar period.


Book Synopsis Space and Everyday Lives of Children in Hong Kong by : Stella Meng Wang

Download or read book Space and Everyday Lives of Children in Hong Kong written by Stella Meng Wang and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2024-01-23 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deploying a spatial approach towards children’s everyday life in interwar Hong Kong, this book considers the context-specific development of five transnational movements: the garden city movement; imperial hygiene movement; nationalist sentiments; the Young Women's Christian Association; and the Girl Guide. Locating these transnational cultural movements in four layers of context, from the most immediate to the most global, including the context of Hong Kong, Republican China, the British empire, and global influences, this book shows Hong Kong as a distinctive colonial domain where the imperatives around race, gender and class produced new products of empire where the child, the garden, the school and sport turned out to be the main dynamics in play in the interwar period.