China and the Victorian Imagination: Empires Entwined

Description

What happens to our understanding of 'orientalism' and imperialism when we consider British-Chinese relations during the nineteenth century, rather than focusing on India, Africa or the Caribbean? This book explores China's centrality to British imperial aspirations and literary production, underscoring the heterogeneous, interconnected nature of Britain's formal and informal empire. To British eyes, China promised unlimited economic possibilities, but also posed an ominous threat to global hegemony. Surveying anglophone literary production about China across high and low cultures, as well as across time, space and genres, this book demonstrates how important location was to the production, circulation and reception of received ideas about China and the Chinese. In this account, treaty ports matter more than opium. Ross Forman challenges our preconceptions about British imperialism, reconceptualizes anglophone literary production in the global and local contexts, and excavates the little-known Victorian history so germane to contemporary debates about China's 'rise'. Cover Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction Topsy-turvy Britain and China Imagined possibilities Empires entwined Overview: Why China and the Chinese? Why China matters Albion’s East: disciplinary and historical concerns and Britain’s imagined view of China Chinese boxes, or China contained Chapter 1 The manners and customs of the modern Chinese Narrating China through the treaty ports The literary littoral Concessions: a history The conventions of late Victorian culture on the China Coast Excursions in the interior Chapter 2 Projecting from Possession Point James Dalziel’s Chronicles of Hong Kong Theorizing from the fringes of Asia Hugging China Onshore/offshore: tampering with identikit models of empire Whither the white lords of the island? Hybridity in Hong Kong: “despised alike of East and West” Uncommon trysts: the unbearable morality of immoral relations Chapter 3 Peking plots Narrating the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 A state of siege The power of disguise Misguided motives: narrating the Chinese point of view Chapter 4 Britain “knit and nationalised” Asian invasion novels in Britain, 1898–1914 War of the world Insidious insiders Technologies of takeover Chapter 5 Staging the Celestial Chin-chin-chinaman: Chinese stage types China on a plate Blackface, yellowface, and loss of face Bloodthirsty Buddhas Spectacular politics and dramatic moralities East of opium: dramas of morality, politics, and empathy Chapter 6 A Cockney Chinatown The literature of Limehouse, London “A Chinaman’s chance” A paw thing but mine own Dens of iniquity Conclusion No rest for the West Notes Introduction: Topsy-turvy Britain and China Chapter 1: The manners and customs of the modern Chinese Narrating China through the treaty ports Chapter 2: Projecting from Possession Point James Dalziel’s Chronicles of Hong Kong Chapter 3: Peking plots Narrating the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 Chapter 4: Britain “knit and nationalised” Asian invasion novels in Britain, 1898–1914 Chapter 5: Staging the Celestial Chapter 6: A Cockney Chinatown The literature of Limehouse, London Conclusion: No rest for the West Bibliography Primary Sources Secondary Sources Index