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Imperialism and China, c. 1800-1949

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. Not surprisingly, to this day, the history of imperialism in China is a contentious, bitter history. If imperialism is understood in the broadest terms, consisting of one large group of human beings (a “tribe” or “state” or “nation”) asserting domination over another group by force, then the history of imperialism reaches far back into time—certainly to Hammurabi of Babylon or even earlier. The motivations of imperialism have varied considerably from one empire to another: partly a matter of hyper-patriotic rivalry (chauvinism); partly an appetite for expanded territory, especially thinly populated territory (the Lebensraum argument); partly a sense of cultural superiority (the crusade to bring “civilization” to “barbarians” or “benighted heathen”); and partly a quest for perceived economic benefits, either from trade (as imports of scarce resources or as exports of excess products) or from investment (a vent for excess capital). Thoughtful critics have raised doubts about the validity of all of these motivations, but such voices have been relatively ineffective in curtailing the appetite for empire. In modern times, China’s experience with imperialism has entailed two chronologically parallel stories during the 19th and 20th centuries—stories that are different in their geographic location, in their motivations, and in their outcomes. The facet of imperialism that has received the most attention is that of aggression against China by capitalist nation-states (primarily along the coastline) and China’s nationalistic response. This story evolved in a low-key way before the 19th century, but then entered a more aggressive phase with military action by the British in the First Opium War (1839–1842). Both economic issues and cultural issues have received attention in this story, as discussed at length under Economic Theories of Imperialism and Cultural Analyses of Imperialism, respectively. The simultaneous story of Qing Imperialism in Eurasia entailed a multilateral rivalry, with China, Great Britain, Russia, and Japan jockeying for position. Again, the origins lay well before the 19th century, and again significant military action was important—in this case, led by Zuo Zongtang on behalf of the Qing dynasty. An important aspect of this second story is that the territory in dispute was inhabited by non-Han peoples. For the most part, Chinese writings do not treat this episode as an example of imperialism, much as American history books do not generally treat the incorporation of the swath of Mexican territory from Texas to California into the United States as an act of imperialism.
  4.  
  5. Historians’ Overviews
  6.  
  7. Imperialism and the Chinese reaction to imperialism (nationalism) are central elements in the history of modern China, so each of the nine following books are—in effect—histories of imperialism, whether or not the titles refer to it. Fairbank 1992, Liao 1984, and Spence 1990 are among the best of the textbooks on the subject, although they also cover the period after 1949. For greater detail, by some of the leading experts on various topics, the volumes of The Cambridge History of China (Twitchett and Fairbank 1978–2009) are essential sources. Cohen 2003 explicitly challenges much of the existing literature, including in particular the “impact-response” approach identified with Fairbank, but also the “tradition-modernity” and “imperialism” approaches. Cohen 1997 is an excellent history of an important specific episode (the Boxer Uprising) but is also invaluable for its discussion of historiography more broadly. Hu 1955 (first published in 1948) was an early Chinese history of imperialism, and is still worth reading. Ding, et al. 1973 provides greater detail than Hu but is little changed from the first edition published in 1958. Yan 2001, Wang 2000, and Liu and Wu 2010, taken collectively to cover the period from 1840 to 1937, are more up-to-date in their perspective than Hu 1955 or Ding, et al. 1973—but they are available only in Chinese.
  8.  
  9. Cohen, Paul A. History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
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  11. Excellent source, brilliantly written. Argues that “history” functions at three quite different levels: the historian’s task of explaining what happened in the past and why, the actual experience of participants at the time, and the later interpretation of history to give legitimation to present-day myths. Extensive footnotes and bibliography.
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  13. Cohen, Paul A. China Unbound: Evolving Perspectives on the Chinese Past. London and New York: Routledge/Curzon, 2003.
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  15. Absolutely essential reading. A collection of selections from Cohen’s lifetime of careful scholarship. Argues (p. 16) that Eurocentric approaches to Chinese history all too easily lead to the failings of “stereotyping, caricaturing, essentialization, and mythologization.”
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  17. Ding Mingnan 丁名楠, et al. Diguozhuyi qinHua shi (帝国主义侵华史). 2 vols. 2d ed. Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, 1973.
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  19. Quotes widely from both Chinese and Western sources. Volume 1 covers the period from the First Opium War in 1839–1842 to the Sino-Japanese War in 1894–1895; Volume 2 covers the Scramble for Concessions after 1895 up to the outbreak of World War II.
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  21. Fairbank, John K. China: A New History. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1992.
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  23. The classic Fairbank textbook on China. Devotes a major segment to China’s experience with imperialism and the anti-imperialism (nationalism) that emerged as a consequence.
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  25. Hu, Sheng. Imperialism and Chinese Politics. Beijing: Foreign Languages, 1955.
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  27. Oft-cited Chinese account of imperialism in China. First published in Chinese in 1948. Detailed discussion of events between 1839 (First Opium War) and 1925 (death of Sun Yat-sen). Quotes many important documents, including those from official government archives of the Qing dynasty.
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  29. Liao, Kuang-sheng. Antiforeignism and Modernization in China, 1860–1980: Linkage between Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1984.
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  31. Traces the development of Chinese antiforeignism from its inception as anti-Christian violence in the 19th century to anti-imperialism in the Leninist sense. Characterizes (p. 2) the impact of imperialism on China as involving three distinct aspects: “military technology and ammunition, productive machines and merchandise, and culture and philosophy.” Copublished by St. Martin’s Press (New York).
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  33. Liu Kexiang 刘克祥, and Wu Taichang 吴太昌, eds. Zhongguo jindai jingjishi, 1927-1937 (中国近代经济史, 1927–1937). 3 vols. Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, 2010.
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  35. Structured around the theme of the “development and non-development of Chinese capitalism” during the Nanking Decade, under the influences of imperialism and feudalism.
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  37. Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1990.
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  39. Elegantly written; encyclopedic in scope. Begins in the late Ming and ends in 1989. Sets trade and investment issues in the broader political and cultural history.
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  41. Twitchett, Denis, and John K. Fairbank, general eds. The Cambridge History of China. 15 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1978–2009.
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  43. Essential reading. The magnum opus of Chinese history in English. For understanding imperialism and China, see the four volumes that deal with 1800 to 1949: Vol. 10 (Late Ch’ing 1800–1911, Part 1), 1978; Vol. 11 (Late Ch’ing 1800–1911, Part 2), 1980; Vol. 12 (Republican China 1912–1949, Part 1), 1983; and Vol. 13 (Republican China 1912–1949, Part 2), 1986.
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  45. Wang Jingyu 汪敬虞. Zhongguo jindai jingji shi, 1895–1927 (中国近代经济史, 1895–1927). 3 vols. Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, 2000.
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  47. Discusses the tension between the development and nondevelopment of Chinese capitalism under imperialism, but more a description of events than an analysis of causes or consequences. Extensive unannotated bibliography of Chinese sources; shorter listings of Japanese and Western sources.
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  49. Yan Zhongping 严中平. Zhongguo jindai jingji shi, 1840–1894 (中国近代经济史, 1840–1894). 2 vols. Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, 2001.
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  51. A detailed history of China’s economic relations with the imperial powers from the First Opium War to the eve of the Sino-Japanese War, based on extensive Western sources and even more exhaustive Chinese sources, including numerous difang zhi (地方志, “local gazeteers”).
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  53. Bibliographies
  54.  
  55. China has been the subject of extensive research by both Chinese and non-Chinese scholars, so systematic guidance to the relevant books and articles is essential. The bibliographies listed here are examples of some of the bibliographies that can help explore the topic of imperialism in China, but they are only a starting point. Fairbank and Wright 1957 is a collection of scholarly assessments of a variety of documentary collections. Fairbank and Liu 1961 and Fairbank, et al. 1971 are guides to books and articles on modern China in Chinese and Japanese, respectively. Hucker 1962 is now somewhat dated but still gives many useful leads to further research. Wilkinson 2013 and Bartlett 2011 (cited under Guides to Archives) are much more up-to-date. Young 1966 gives guidance to the history of Manchuria, not just to the activities of the South Manchurian Railway narrowly defined. Zurndorfer 1995 is an extremely valuable bibliography and much more than that. Shulman 1998 gives annotated guidance to (mostly unpublished) PhD dissertations, in many languages. The Guoxue wang (国学网) website is a valuable access tool for recent research on Chinese economic history.
  56.  
  57. Fairbank, John K., Masataka Banno, and Sumiko Yamamoto. Japanese Studies of Modern China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971.
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  59. An annotated listing of Japanese-language publications for modern China, organized by topics.
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  61. Fairbank, John K., and Kwang-ching Liu. Modern China: A Bibliographical Guide to Chinese Works, 1898–1937. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1961.
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  63. An annotated listing of Chinese-language publications for the period indicated, organized by topics. This is a reprinted version of a work first published in 1949.
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  65. Fairbank, John K., and Mary C. Wright. “Documentary Collections on Modern Chinese History.” Journal of Asian Studies 17.1 (1957): 55–110.
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  67. Careful scholarly reviews of several important collections of documentary materials regarding major topics in 19th- and 20th-century Chinese history.
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  69. Guoxue wang 国学网. Zhongguo jingji shi luntan (中国经济史论坛).
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  71. Extremely useful website on China’s economic history, including both bibliographical leads and full-text articles.
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  73. Hucker, Charles O. China: A Critical Bibliography. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1962.
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  75. Contains 2,285 annotated entries arranged by topic. For imperialism, see especially the sections titled “Nineteenth Century” (pp. 32–37), “Nationalist Era” (pp. 38–45), and “Trade and Commerce” (pp. 117–118).
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  77. Shulman, Frank Joseph, ed. Doctoral Dissertations on China and Inner Asia, 1976–1990: An Annotated Bibliography of Studies in Western Languages. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998.
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  79. See especially the sections “Late Ch’ing (Qing) Period, ca. 1800–1911” (pp. 334–365) and “Republican Period, 1911–1945” (pp. 365–391). Extremely comprehensive in its coverage, including many dissertations in English, French, German, and Russian, plus a few in Italian, Hungarian, Danish, and other languages.
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  81. Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 84. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.
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  83. An essential guide to archives and other primary sources for research on Chinese history, recently greatly expanded and updated, although the older version (No. 52 in the Monograph Series) remains valuable in its own right.
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  85. Young, John. The Research Activities of the South Manchurian Railway Company, 1907–1945: A History and Bibliography. New York: Columbia University Press, 1966.
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  87. Covers much more than the South Manchurian Railway. In particular, gives guidance to economic and sociological field studies carried out by Japanese researchers in northern China.
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  89. Zurndorfer, Harriet Thelma. China Bibliography: A Research Guide to Reference Works about China Past and Present. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1995.
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  91. Extremely useful. Covers bibliographies, journals, biographies, and much more.
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  93. Translations of Chinese-Language Materials
  94.  
  95. Books like the three cited here are especially useful to students who do not have the ability to read documents in Chinese. De Bary, et al. 1960 covers much more than the modern period. Teng and Fairbank 1954 focuses on the 19th and 20th century. Schoppa 2000 provides a number of key documents in translation but is also an extensive bibliographical guide.
  96.  
  97. de Bary, William Theodore, Wing-tsit Chan, and Burton Watson. Sources of Chinese Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1960.
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  99. Provides many documents translated from the Chinese originals. For imperialism, see Part5: “China and the New World” (pp. 661–946).
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  101. Schoppa, R. Keith. The Columbia Guide to Modern Chinese History. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
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  103. Covers 1784 to recent years. Combines a summary narrative history, a resource guide for further research, and a collection of translated documents.
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  105. Teng, Ssu-yu, and John K. Fairbank. China’s Response to the West: A Documentary Survey, 1839–1923. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1954.
  106. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674592995Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  107. The documents translated in this volume provide important insights into China’s reaction to imperialism.
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  109. Archival Materials
  110.  
  111. Archives, in the traditional sense of the term, consist of the original records (often handwritten, for earlier periods) of a government, business firm, religious organization, family, or whatever. Such physical documents may be made available in a sophisticated facility like the British National Archives in Kew (with electronic catalog search, careful air quality control, etc.), or haphazardly stored in old boxes in someone’s dusty attic, or anything in between. Much of what we know about history derives from the painstaking effort of scholars to extract information from such materials—either from the documents themselves or (in the past few decades) from microfilm records produced by photographing such documents. The modern high-speed search for information on the Internet is a wonderful tool for certain purposes, but serious contributions to scholarship often require delving into archives of the traditional sort. For this reason, archivists (those who preserve and organize the archives) are the unsung heroes of serious research. The effort to work with archival material requires an extensive knowledge of languages and of cultural context, and is often tedious, but the results can be rewarding. Many of the works cited throughout this article are examples of the genre.
  112.  
  113. Guides to Archives
  114.  
  115. Both Kirby, et al. 2001 and Ye and Esherick 1996 provide valuable guidance to the key archives relating to modern Chinese history. The former volume is a bit more up-to-date, but the latter has wider coverage by periods. Bartlett 2011 focuses on a single archive—but arguably the most important one. Liu 1963 covers many archives in the United States unlisted in other guides. van de Oye 1997 is an informative guide to Russian archives. Substantial guidance to the Chinese Maritime Customs records can be found on the Bristol University website of that name. Practical, down-to-earth guides to many of the important archives related to imperialism and China are available on the website Dissertation Reviews.
  116.  
  117. Bartlett, Beatrice S. “Research Note: The Newly Digitized Archives Program at China’s Number One Historical Archives, Beijing.” Late Imperial China 32.1 (2011): 1–12.
  118. DOI: 10.1353/late.2011.0002Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  119. A helpful recent guide to the materials held at China’s Number One Historical Archives.
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  121. Chinese Maritime Customs, Bristol University, UK.
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  123. Extensive guidance and access to the archives of the Chinese Maritime Customs.
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  125. Dissertation Reviews.
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  127. Practical, first-hand reports by researchers who have used various archives recently. Some especially useful guides are “Urgent Update about Shanghai Municipal Archives,” “Guomindang Party Archives,” “Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East,” “Political Archive of the German Foreign Office,” “Urgent Update on Nanjing Municipal Archives,” and “Urgent Update on Foreign Ministry Archives, Beijing.”
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  129. Kirby, William C., James Chin Shih, Man-houng Lin, and David A. Pietz, eds., State and Economy in Republican China: A Handbook for Scholars. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2001.
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  131. Discusses the many types of research materials available. Then provides detailed guidance to many archives relating to business and economic history. Also, in chapter 19 (pp. 167–180), explains how to understand the esoteric language and structure of the documents of Republican China.
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  133. Liu, Kwang-Ching. Americans and Chinese: A Historical Essay and a Bibliography. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
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  135. An exhaustive listing of archival and published materials related to US-China relations available in the United States. Particularly useful for private papers of business people, missionaries, and diplomats.
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  137. van de Oye, David Schimmelpenninck. Ex Oriente Lux: Ideologies of Empire and Russia’s Far East. PhD diss., Yale University, 1997.
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  139. Valuable at several levels, both as a discussion of ideologies and as a guide to Russian archival sources.
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  141. Ye, Wa, and Joseph W. Esherick. Chinese Archives: An Introductory Guide. Berkeley: Center for Chinese Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1996.
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  143. Explains how archives in China have come to exist and what sorts of documents they contain. Provides detailed guidance to some of the most important archives relating to modern China.
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  145. Published Selections from Various Archives
  146.  
  147. The published documents drawn from various archives listed here relate directly to the topic of imperialism. China Maritime Customs Service 1937–1940 should be read in conjunction with Brunero 2006 (cited under Great Britain). The documents reproduced in Chouban yiwu shimo 1930 and Guo, et al. 1957 are extremely valuable for understanding the official Chinese reaction to imperialism. Guo and Leutner 1991 is very useful to a scholar who reads Chinese but not German. For additional collections of published documents that relate to specific historical episodes such as the Opium War, the Boxer Uprising, etc. and to specific topics such as missionaries, etc., see extensive references in the separate Oxford Bibliographies articles The Fall of the Qing, 1840–1912, Economy, 1895–1949, China and the World, 1900–1949, and Republican China, 1911–1949.
  148.  
  149. China Maritime Customs Service. Documents Illustrative of the Origin, Development, and Activities of the Chinese Customs Service. 7 vols. Shanghai: Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General of Customs, 1937–1940.
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  151. Contains fascinating documents (often with parallel Chinese text), from 1850s to 1930s, referring to many important issues—opium trade, currency issues, indemnities, warlords, etc. Volume 7, pp. 82–83, asserts that the foreign employees of the Customs Service were not connected with their home governments; the reality was more complicated than this.
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  153. Chouban yiwu shimo (筹办夷务始末). Beijing: Gugong Bowuyuan (故宫博物院, Palace Museum), 1930.
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  155. Valuable collection of documents relating to foreign affairs for the period 1836–1874. Available as reprint from several publishers, including Zhonghua Shuju (Beijing, 1979, 8 vols).
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  157. Guo Hengyu 郭恒玉 and Mechtild Leutner, eds. Deguo waijiao dang’an: 1928–1938 nian zhi ZhongDe guanxi (德国外交档案： 1928–1938 年之中德关系). Translated by Xu Linfei 许琳菲 and Sun Shanhao 孙善豪. Taipei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo, 1991.
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  159. Extensive materials from the German diplomatic archives from the Nanking Decade, translated into Chinese.
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  161. Guo Tingyi (Kuo T’ing-i) 郭廷以, et al., eds. Haifang dang (海防档). Taipei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan, 1957.
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  163. Reprints of Qing dynasty memorials to the emperor. The title notwithstanding, covers much more than naval matters.
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  165. Archives in China
  166.  
  167. These official archives are essential research tools. The Zhongguo diyi lishi dang’anguan, Zhongguo dier lishi dang’anguan, Shanghai dang’an xinxi and Xianggang dang’an xuehui are on the mainland. The Guo shi guan and Jindai shi yanjiusuo are in Taiwan.
  168.  
  169. Guo shi guan 国史 馆, Taipei.
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  171. Referred to in English as Academia Historica. Now the primary repository on Taiwan for government archives of the Republican period.
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  173. Jindai shi yanjiusuo 近代史研究所, Academia Sinica (中央研究院), Taipei
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  175. Referred to in English as the Institute of Modern History. Particularly useful archival material relating to foreign affairs and economics in modern China—hence for research on imperialism.
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  177. Shanghai dang’an xinxi 上海档案信息, Shanghai.
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  179. Referred to in English as the Shanghai Municipal Archives. Because of Shanghai’s role as the major treaty port, the municipal archives contain a wealth of material about imperialism.
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  181. Xianggang dang’an xuehui 香港档案学会, Hong Kong.
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  183. Referred to in English as the Hong Kong Archives Society. Copious material not only for Hong Kong itself, but also for events in south China.
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  185. Zhongguo diyi lishi dang’anguan 中国第一历史档案馆, Beijing.
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  187. Referred to in English as the First Historical Archives of China. Successor organization to the earlier Imperial Palace Museum. Now the primary repository for archival materials from the Ming and Qing periods remaining on the mainland.
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  189. Zhongguo dier lishi dang’anguan中国第二历史档案馆, Nanjing.
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  191. Referred to in English as the Second Historical Archives of China. Major repository for archival materials from the Republican period (1911–1949).
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  193. Archives in Other Countries
  194.  
  195. Not surprisingly, all major countries have archives of their ministries of foreign affairs, international trade, colonial administration, and similar subjects relevant to their involvement with imperialism, although not all documents have survived intervening wars, revolutions, and other disruptions. Official policy and practical arrangements regarding scholarly access to such archives vary widely from one institution to the next.
  196.  
  197. In Belgium
  198.  
  199. The State Archives of Belgium comprises the National Archives in Brussels and eighteen specialized archives in various locations. Heavily used documents have been microfilmed and/or digitized.
  200.  
  201. National Archives of Belgium (Archives de l’Etat en Belgique).
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  203. For details of these and other archives for Belgium, see Kurgan-van Hentenryck 1972, pp. 869–884 (cited under Country-Specific Studies: Belgium).
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  205. In France
  206.  
  207. The primary archives in France are divided into several collections. The Archives de France, the Archives diplomatiques, and the Archives nationale d’outre mer all have materials bearing on relations with China.
  208.  
  209. Archives de France, Paris.
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  211. Massive collection. For details, see Lee 1989, pp. 320–328 (cited under France).
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  213. Archives diplomatiques, Nantes.
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  215. The archives for French consular records.
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  217. Archives nationale d’outre mer, Aix-en-Provence.
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  219. The archives for French colonial records, with much material relevant to China.
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  221. In Germany
  222.  
  223. The primary Bundesarchiv (German national archives) are at the Berlin-Lichterfelde location, while the Military Archives are at Freiburg im Breisgau. For details, see Kirby 1984, pp. 326 and 338 (cited under Country-Specific Studies: Germany).
  224.  
  225. Das Bundesarchiv, Berlin-Lichterfelde.
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  227. The primary collection.
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  229. Military Archives, Freiburg im Breisgau.
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  231. This is the primary collection of materials related to military affairs, although some are also in the main collection.
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  233. In Great Britain
  234.  
  235. The archival materials in Great Britain related to China are extremely rich. The official records are primarily in the National Archives at Kew and at the British Library. Useful materials are also located at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at London University and at Cambridge University.
  236.  
  237. British Library, London.
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  239. The India Office and East India Company records and other valuable items are here.
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  241. Cambridge University Libraries.
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  243. Holds archives for the firm Jardine Matheson, c. 1800–1955.
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  245. National Archives, Kew.
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  247. Formerly known as the Public Record Office (PRO). The Foreign Office Papers are here.
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  249. School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London.
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  251. Holds archives related to commercial, missionary, and consular matters for China.
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  253. In Japan
  254.  
  255. Archival materials related to China can be found in several places. Identified and annotated here are some of the key collections—the Archives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives, National Diet Library, and the Tōyō Bunko东洋文库.
  256.  
  257. Archives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Gaimushō 外务省), Tokyo.
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  259. Official archives of Japan’s foreign relations.
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  261. Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR), Tokyo.
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  263. Established under the auspices of the Japanese government, with the intention of converting to digital form the important historical documents.
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  265. National Archives, Tokyo.
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  267. The government’s official archives.
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  269. National Diet Library, Tokyo.
  270. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  271. Primarily a library, but holds some archival materials.
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Tōyō Bunko 东洋文库, Tokyo.
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  275. Primarily a library, but holds some archival materials.
  276. Find this resource:
  277. In Russia
  278.  
  279. The archival records relating to China are held in a number of different institutions. See the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire and Russian State Historical Archives to get started. For further guidance, see the footnotes and bibliographical notes in Lensen 1967 (cited under Military Affairs), Romanov 1952 and Tang 1959 (both cited under Country-Specific Studies: Russia/Soviet Union), and van de Oye 1997 (under Guides to Archives).
  280.  
  281. Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, Moscow.
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  283. A subset of the archives of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Russian State Historical Archives, St. Petersburg.
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  287. These archives house more than 6.5 million files, both governmental and private, from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th.
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  289. In the United States of America
  290.  
  291. Official American archives are held at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington. The Library of Congress is also important. Archives related to the Foreign Relations of the United States are now available in digitized form. Liu 1963, pp. 49–93, (cited under Guides to Archives), provides a rich guide to unofficial/private archives.
  292.  
  293. Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), Madison, WI.
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  295. The digitized archives of the Department of State.
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  297. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington, DC.
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  299. The primary source for American archives of all sorts.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Library of Congress, Washington.
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  303. Beyond American records, the Library of Congress also contains extensive materials in Chinese and Japanese that were accumulated by the Japanese government during World War II.
  304. Find this resource:
  305. Newspapers and Journals of the Era
  306.  
  307. During the period of imperialism, scores of newspapers and journals were published in China or about China. King and Clarke 1965 provides guidance to the newspapers published in China during the period of imperialism. Many of these publications are now quite difficult to locate; Liu 1963 (cited under Guides to Archives) is helpful with identifying and locating surviving items. The four titles listed here are core sources for events and opinions of the treaty port era. Chinese Repository covered the merchant and missionary communities. The Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was an academic publication. The North-China Herald and Shenbao were the most important of the treaty port newspapers.
  308.  
  309. Chinese Repository.
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  311. Monthly periodical published in Macao or Canton from 1832 to 1851. Edited by E. C. Bridgman and S. Wells Williams.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
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  315. Published in Shanghai, 1858–1948. Title varies.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. King, Frank H. H., and Prescott Clarke. A Research Guide to China-Coast Newspapers, 1822–1911. Harvard East Asian Monographs. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965.
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  319. An annotated guide to Western-language newspapers published in various treaty ports. Provides some guidance on where these newspapers are available.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. North-China Herald.
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  323. Essential source for treaty port information. Published as the North-China Herald, 1850–1867, then as the North-China Herald and Market Report, 1867–1870, then as the North-China Herald and Supreme Court and Consular Gazette, 1870–. Available electronically from Brill for a fee.
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  325. Shenbao 申报.
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  327. The Chinese-language competitor to the North-China Herald. An equally important source. Available online under E-Resources from Chinese Studies Library, Bodleian Library, Oxford.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Modern Academic Journals
  330.  
  331. Because of the multidisciplinary nature of the topic of imperialism in China, relevant academic research appears in a very wide range of journals—quite possibly several hundred in all. The few cited here are helpful starting points, but many, many other journals are relevant as well. The articles cited throughout this bibliography give some indication of the possibilities—in China studies journals, of course, but also in journals in history, economics, international relations, sociology, and other fields.
  332.  
  333. Journals Edited in China
  334.  
  335. The Journal of Modern Chinese History is an English-language periodical edited in China. Zhongguo jingji shi yanjiu covers a wide time period, including the era of imperialism.
  336.  
  337. Journal of Modern Chinese History. 2007–.
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  339. Edited by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and published by Routledge. Provides English-language access to Chinese scholarship on imperialism, among other topics.
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  341. Zhongguo jingji shi yanjiu 中国经济史研究.
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  343. Published by the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing. Covers premodern and modern economic history.
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  345. Journals Edited outside China
  346.  
  347. China Journal, China Quarterly, and Modern China are all focused on modern China. Late Imperial China and Twentieth-Century China deal with the Qing dynasty and the Republican era, respectively. The Journal of Asian Studies and Modern Asian Studies cover all of Asia, not just China, but are useful nonetheless. Similarly, the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History covers much more than China, but is valuable for understanding imperialism.
  348.  
  349. China Journal.
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  351. Published twice-yearly by the Australian National University. Not as well-known as some of the other journals, perhaps because of its antipodean origins, but generally of high quality.
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  353. China Quarterly.
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  355. One of the earliest of the specific China journals, and still probably the best, but no longer publishes historical articles. Published quarterly for the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at London University by Cambridge University Press.
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  357. Journal of Asian Studies
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  359. Published quarterly by the American Association of Asian Studies, this journal has articles about China relatively infrequently, but they can be important. Previously titled Far Eastern Quarterly.
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  361. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History.
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  363. Published by Routledge, with five issues a year. Key journal for discussions of British imperialism.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Late Imperial China.
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  367. Because of the focus on the Qing period, carries many articles relevant to China’s experience with imperialism. Previously titled Ch’ing-shih Wen-t’i 清史问题.
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  369. Modern China: An International Journal of History and Social Science.
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  371. A leading journal for articles on the Republican period. A venue for more radical viewpoints than some of the other journals. 1975–present.
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  373. Twentieth-Century China.
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  375. Another leading journal for articles on the Republican period. Semiannual, issued by Ohio State University. Previously titled Republican China. 1983–present.
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Economic Theories of Imperialism
  378.  
  379. Much of the writing about imperialism in China begins from a Marxist-Leninist perspective, which makes it important to understand that the various theories and conceptualizations of imperialism are much more extensive than those set out by Marx and Lenin. Even if a discussion of imperialism is limited to the economic aspects of the concept, Marxist and Leninist perspectives are not the only ones possible. Unfortunately, the classic works on economic imperialism are often referred to but seldom read. Part of the explanation for this neglect is that many of the classics make difficult reading. As is widely recognized, the writings of Karl Marx are particularly unclear, whether in German or in translation, but many of the other classics in the field exhibit similar difficulties. For young scholars, the best advice is probably to begin with the later commentaries, not the classics. However, the commentaries can be misleading, and ultimately the classics cannot be ignored.
  380.  
  381. Classic Texts
  382.  
  383. The starting point for the literature on the economics of imperialism is Ricardo 1971 (Originally published 1817), which famously set out the principle of comparative advantage. The central point of Ricardo’s insight is that trade, whether within a single country or internationally, can be beneficial to both parties (and therefore, by implication, self-reliance can be costly). Karl Marx agreed; Mao Zedong disagreed. One school of thought that derives from Ricardo, usually labeled neoclassical economics, argues that international trade and investment are ultimately beneficial—though in the short run the transitional dislocation can be painful, as the “dark, Satanic mills” of Blake’s oft-quoted poem suggest. A very different school of thought that also derives from Ricardo is usually labeled Marxist or radical economics. However, Marx himself, especially the three volumes of Marx 1967 (first published 1867, 1885 and 1894), focused on capitalism in the home country and said very little about imperialism (capitalism’s relationship with other countries). Luxemburg 1951 (first published 1913) was an important attempt to extend the Marxist analysis to explain why over-production crises within domestic capitalism would make imperialism inevitable. Hobson 1902 had earlier made similar arguments to Luxemburg’s but concluded that British imperialism was ineffective. Lenin 1971 (first published 1917) followed Hobson closely (acknowledging Hobson’s influence). Emmanuel 1972 (first published 1969) develops an entirely different analysis (the concept of unequal exchange) of why capitalist trade with noncapitalist countries is harmful to the latter—a line of argument that Bettelheim (pp. 271–322 of the same book) characterizes as valid but non-Marxist. Wallerstein’s “world-systems analysis,” summarized in Wallerstein 2004 but developed more extensively in Wallerstein’s other writings, also focuses on unequal exchange and divides the modern world into three broad categories of capitalist firms and/or nations: core, semi-peripheral and peripheral. In Wallerstein’s analysis, the essential process occurring in the capitalist world (since the 16th century) has been the extraction of surplus value from the semi-periphery and periphery (firms and nations with little market power) by the core (firms and nations in monopolistic/oligopolistic circumstances, with substantial market power). It is important to note that, although Marx and Wallerstein both frame their analysis in terms of the extraction of surplus value, the seemingly similar terminology has two entirely different meanings.
  384.  
  385. Emmanuel, Arghiri. Unequal Exchange: A Study of the Imperialism of Trade. Translated by Brian Pearce. New York and London: Monthly Review, 1972.
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  387. Originally published as L’échange inégal in Paris in 1969. Listed here in English translation because it is more accessible, but also because this edition contains an extensive debate between Emmanuel and Charles Bettelheim that illuminates the contentious issue of unequal exchange: When is trade fair or unfair?
  388. Find this resource:
  389. Hobson, John A. Imperialism: A Study. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1902.
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  391. Argues forcefully that imperialist expansion by England was economically unnecessary and unwise. “At enormous expense it has procured a small, bad, unsafe increase of markets” but has undoubtedly been “good business for certain classes and certain trades” (p. 46).
  392. Find this resource:
  393. Lenin, V. I. Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. New York: International Publishers, 1971.
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  395. Originally published 1917. Reproduced in Lenin’s Selected Works (New York: International Publishers, 1971) and many other editions. Argues that imperialism is driven by a surplus of capital in the economically advanced countries, and that this flow is controlled by financiers who prefer to invest in backward countries, where profits are greater.
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  397. Luxemburg, Rosa. The Accumulation of Capital. Translated by Agnes Schwarzschild. Introduction by Joan Robinson. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951.
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  399. Originally published in German in 1913. Argues that Marx’s analysis of capitalist growth is fundamentally unsatisfactory, as Marx himself acknowledged. As capitalism grows ever more productive, who will buy the additional product? Luxemburg’s answer: noncapitalist countries are necessary as export markets (not necessarily as formal colonies) to the sustained growth of capitalism.
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  401. Marx, Karl. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. 3 vols. New York: International Publishers, 1967.
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  403. Essential to understanding modern intellectual history, but difficult. As the economist Joan Robinson has written about Capital, “the waters are dark, and it may be that whoever peers into them sees his own face.” Originally published as Das Kapital: Kritik der politischen Ӧkonomie in three volumes dated 1867, 1885, and 1894.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Ricardo, David. The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1971.
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  407. Originally published 1817. Essential reading. Argues that trade (exchange of products) permits an overall increase in production (hence improved standard of living) through specialization. Argues further that some of the benefit must flow to each partner in the transaction (though not necessarily equally)—for otherwise the trade would not occur.
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  409. Wallerstein, Immanuel. World Systems Analysis: An Introduction. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004.
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  411. Identifies the key characteristic of capitalism as the ceaseless accumulation of capital, from which, Wallerstein argues, the exploitation of the periphery and semi-periphery by the core inevitably flows. In explicit disagreement with Marx, he suggests that the emergence of capitalism from feudalism may not have constituted progress (p. 18).
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  413. Commentaries on the Classics
  414.  
  415. Desai 1974 is a clear, technically sophisticated discussion of Marxian economics and the common misunderstandings that plague it. Barone 1985, Barratt Brown 1974, and Brewer 1980 are in-depth books about the economics of imperialism, and with discussion of the theories of Marx and Lenin in a wider context. These three books analyze the theories of the authors covered in the Classic Texts section, but they also discuss the ideas of other important writers whose works are not annotated here, such as Nikolai Bukharin, Thorstein Veblen, Paul Baran, Paul Sweezy, Andre Gunder Frank, and Samir Amin, among others. These three commentaries are not easy books, because the subject is not simple; they are rather similar in their coverage but not in their viewpoints. A shorter introduction to imperialism can be found in Owen and Sutcliffe 1972. Another brief introduction, set specifically in the context of China, can be found in Osterhammel 1986.
  416.  
  417. Barone, Charles A. Marxist Thought on Imperialism: Survey and Critique. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1985.
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  419. After an introduction to the incomplete theories of imperialism set out by Marx himself, Barone compares and contrasts the ideas on imperialism set forth by many later Marxist writers, broadly defined.
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  421. Barratt Brown, Michael. The Economics of Imperialism. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1974.
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  423. Barratt Brown writes that “imperialism is not a precise economic concept” (p. 19). He explores three schools: Marxist, neoclassical, and Keynesian. He points out that “since theory helps to determine consciousness, false theory determines false consciousness. Theory is as much a tool of apologetics as of scientific inquiry” (p. 20).
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Brewer, Anthony. Marxist Theories of Imperialism: A Critical Survey. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980.
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  427. Similar to Barone 1985 in theories covered. Suggests that Lenin’s famous pamphlet on imperialism is treated within the orthodox Marxist tradition as a “sacred text” but is in fact a “minor work” with serious weaknesses (pp. 108–109).
  428. Find this resource:
  429. Desai, Meghnad. Marxian Economic Theory. London: Gray-Mills, 1974.
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  431. Concise, carefully constructed lecture notes. Explains that “exploitation,” in Marxian terms, does not arise in exchange (markets), either for commodities or for labor, but in factory production. Also discusses clearly Luxemburg’s critique of Marx, which is a theory of imperialism in a way that Marx’s theory of capitalism is not.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. Osterhammel, Jürgen. “Semi-Colonialism and Informal Empire in Twentieth Century China: Towards a Framework of Analysis.” In Imperialism and After: Continuities and Discontinuities. Edited by Wolfgang J. Mommsen and Jürgen Osterhammel, 290–314. London: Allen and Unwin, 1986.
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  435. Discusses three conflicting interpretations of China’s economic experience: (1) the “oppression argument” (foreign intervention stifled the development of China’s economy); (2) the “modernization argument” (foreign intervention supported modern development of the economy); and (3) the “marginality argument” (foreign intervention was too small to have a significant impact).
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  437. Owen, Roger, and Bob Sutcliffe, eds. Studies in the Theory of Imperialism. London: Longman, 1972.
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  439. Kemp’s essay “The Marxist Theory of Imperialism” (pp. 15–34) and Barratt Brown’s essay “A Critique of Marxist Theories of Imperialism” (pp. 35–70), taken together, provide an introduction to many of the economic theories of imperialism.
  440. Find this resource:
  441. International Trade and Investment in China
  442.  
  443. The literature on imperialism and China contains many important works on international trade and investment, with both broader studies about the situation overall and narrower studies of particular economic sectors. The historical facts remain contentious, and the appropriate interpretation of these facts (the theoretical frameworks within which to understand the facts) is even more so. In this context, three items are particularly recommended: Paul Cohen’s discussion of history as event and myth (see Cohen 1997, cited under Historians’ Overviews), Tim Wright’s analysis of the ongoing methodological debate (see Wright 1986, under General Discussions), and Philip Huang’s discussion of the interplay between fact and theory (see Huang 1985, under General Discussions).
  444.  
  445. General Discussions
  446.  
  447. As eloquent, careful history, nothing has ever supplanted Fairbank’s analysis of imperialism in China (Fairbank 1953). Fairbank recognizes explicitly that the opium trade was “a social evil, like the great contemporary institution of human slavery” (p. 133). As he writes of the treaty settlement of 1843, “the result was to split the foreign trade into two parts, legal and illegal . . . In the words of one unhappy British consul, the officials of both countries were expected to acknowledge the presence of one of the Siamese twins and forget all knowledge of his brother. The dichotomy between the contraband drug traffic and the legitimate trade in teas, silks, and foreign manufactures . . . colored the whole intervening period” (p. 151). Thus, Fairbank condemns drug dealing but presents normal trade as legitimate—a perspective that places him firmly in the neoclassical branch of Ricardians. Hou 1965, Dernberger 1975, and Rawski 1989 are in the same school. Hou argues that the available evidence suggests that foreign trade and investment during the period of imperialism were beneficial to China. Dernberger also suggests that foreigners played an important positive role in China’s early modernization, though he warns that his conclusion is a tentative one. Rawski expands these arguments and documents them in greater detail than Hou and Dernberger. Lippit 1978, written by a Marxist Ricardian, focuses on the agricultural sector and argues that, while imperialism was certainly harmful, the domestic problem of gentry extravagance was a more fundamental barrier to economic modernization (the commentaries accompanying Lippit’s article challenge his argument from several directions). Huang 1985 also focuses on the agricultural sector, in Hebei and Shandong specifically, and presents a rich, nuanced picture of developments in China’s villages, based on important Japanese field studies. Hamashita 1989 places emphasis on China’s maritime links and intra-Asian trade and investment. Wu 1955 provides systematic data on foreign investment in China. Wright 1986 summarizes some of the key issues in the debate over imperialism in China.
  448.  
  449. Dernberger, Robert F. “The Role of the Foreigner in China’s Economic Development, 1840–1949.” In China’s Modern Economy in Historical Perspective, 19–48. Edited by Dwight H. Perkins. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1975.
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  451. Argues that foreign business people played an essential positive role in China’s economic development through the transfer of resources and technology, as embodied in both trade and investment. Further suggests that the Chinese government itself was “the greatest and most obvious obstacle” to development (p. 47).
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  453. Fairbank, John K. Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast: The Opening of the Treaty Ports, 1842–1854. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953.
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  455. Fairbank’s own self-effacing assessment of this opus classicus is that “it seems a shallow product, compared with the problems and materials with which it deals” (p. vii). Most scholars would respectfully disagree—even the scholars who have made a career of challenging Fairbank’s perspective on imperialism. Extensive bibliography.
  456. Find this resource:
  457. Hamashita Takeshi濱下武志. Chūgoku kindai keizaishi kenkyū: Shinmatsu kaikan zaisei to kaikōjō shijōken (中国近代経済史研究: 清末海関財政と開港場市場圈). Tokyo: Tōkyō Daigaku Tōyō Bunka Kenkyūjo, 1989.
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  459. Covers the trade patterns and financial consequences of China’s ports in both the Late Qing and Republican periods. Extensive tables, maps, and bibliography. Hamashita’s own translation, Trade and Finance in Late Imperial China: Maritime Customs and Open Port Market Zones (Singapore: Singapore University Press), had not been released as of October 2013.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Hou, Chi-ming. Foreign Investment and Economic Development in China, 1840–1937. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965.
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  463. An early study, but still extremely valuable. Notes that Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung all agreed that trade with and investment by the imperialist powers harmed China economically, but argues that the available evidence supports the opposite conclusion.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Huang, Philip C. C. The Peasant Economy and Social Change in North China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1985.
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  467. Valuable source for understanding how imperialism affected Chinese agriculture. Builds on three competing theoretical perspectives: formalist (the peasant as independent capitalist farmer), substantivist (the peasant as member of tight-knit feudal community), and Marxist (the peasant as exploited tenant-laborer). Identifies strengths and weaknesses in all three schools of thought.
  468. Find this resource:
  469. Lippit, Victor. “The Development of Underdevelopment in China.” Modern China 4.3 (1978): 251–376.
  470. DOI: 10.1177/009770047800400301Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  471. Argues that traditional Chinese agriculture produced a substantial surplus, extracted from the peasants as rents, taxes, low wages, and interest—totaling nearly 20 percent of national income—but that this surplus was largely spent on conspicuous consumption by the gentry, not to finance modernization.
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  473. Rawski, Thomas G. Economic Growth in Prewar China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.
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  475. Argues, with extensive data, that the overall economic effect of foreign trade and investment on the Chinese economy was positive. Provides an extensive bibliography, including materials in Chinese and Japanese languages.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Wright, Tim. “Imperialism and the Chinese Economy: A Methodological Critique of the Debate.” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 18 (1986): 36–45.
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  479. An even-handed discussion of the debate. Points out that Marx himself believed that British capitalism played a progressive role in India. Emphasizes the “intractable problem of counter-factuality”—to assess impact, we must have a clear picture of what the situation without imperialism would have been.
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  481. Wu Chengming 吴承明. Diguozhuyi zai jiu Zhongguo de touzi (帝国主义在旧中国的投资). Beijing: Rennmin Chubanshe, 1955.
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  483. From many sources, draws together data on foreign capital flowing into China, c. 1850–1950. Categorizes investments by country of origin, type of investment, and so on.
  484. Find this resource:
  485. Studies of Specific Industries
  486.  
  487. Each of the following monographs is a careful study of an important industry in China during the period of imperialism—valuable in themselves but also helpful guides to a broader literature. The cotton industry was fundamental to the supply of clothing in China and was also the most important cash crop. Kraus 1980 and Feuerwerker 1970 are therefore essential. Although less important than cotton in overall terms, silk was a major export crop, and is therefore also important to understanding the economics of imperialism. Eng 1986, Li 1981, and So 1986 disagree with each other on important questions, but taken together they shed much light on the sericulture industry. Brandt 1989 documents positive changes in agriculture, including cotton and silk, in the lower Yangtze River area. Cochran 1980 is a unique study of Sino-foreign rivalry between British American Tobacco (BAT) and Nanyang in the cigarette industry. Wright 1984 describes the emergence of the modern coal-mining sector, without which modern industrialization would have been impossible. Huenemann 1984 documents the development of railroads in China up to 1937, but Huenemann also—in his “didactic fable” of chapter 1 (pp. 1–36)—explores theoretical questions regarding imperialism more generally.
  488.  
  489. Brandt, Loren. Commercialization and Agricultural Development: Central and Eastern China, 1870–1937. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
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  491. Focused on the lower Yangtze River region. Examines cotton, silk, and handicraft textiles, among other rural crops and products. Strongly challenges the view that commercialization of agriculture in this period caused damage to rural incomes. “By all indications, the benefits of this [agricultural] growth were rather evenly distributed” (p. 178).
  492. Find this resource:
  493. Cochran, Sherman. Big Business in China: Sino-Foreign Rivalry in the Cigarette Industry, 1890–1930. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980.
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  495. Provides multiple, nuanced definitions of imperialist exploitation. Argues that the “oppression” argument (foreign firms like BAT harmed native firms like Nanyang) and the “imitation” argument (foreign firms stimulated native firms) are not mutually exclusive (p. 217). Excellent bibliography, with leads to much more than just the cigarette industry.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. Eng, Robert Y. Economic Imperialism in China: Silk Production and Exports, 1861–1932. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1986.
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  499. Carefully summarizes the revisionist (neoclassical) and neo-Marxist theories regarding China’s experience with imperialism. Then argues that both paradigms fail to encompass complexities adequately, and that, at least for the silk industry, “imperialism was neither a purely progressive nor a purely destructive force” (p. 189).
  500. Find this resource:
  501. Feuerwerker, Albert. “Handicraft and Manufactured Cotton Textiles in China, 1871–1910.” Journal of Economic History 30.2 (1970): 338–378.
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  503. Challenges the assertion that mechanized cotton textile production damaged traditional handicraft production. Develops quantitative estimates suggesting that, while handicraft spinning declined, handicraft weaving held up well.
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  505. Huenemann, Ralph William. The Dragon and the Iron Horse: The Economics of Railroads in China, 1876–1937. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984.
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  507. The standard source on railroads in China. Argues (pp. 1–36) that whether foreign trade and investment are economically beneficial or harmful, and to whom, is ultimately a question of fact, not of ideology. Notes (pp. 98–132) that Lenin’s theory of imperialism—that finance capital “skins the [colonial] ox twice”—is neoclassical, not Marxist.
  508. Find this resource:
  509. Kraus, Richard. Cotton and Cotton Goods in China 1918–1936. New York and London: Garland, 1980.
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  511. After careful quantitative study of the available records for the cotton industry (production and consumption, distinguishing foreign from domestic and hand-made from machine-made), Kraus concludes that modernization of the industry harmed the peasants, though he remains “agnostic” about the overall impact of imperialism on China’s national income (p. 164).
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Li, Lillian M. China’s Silk Trade: Traditional Industry in the Modern World, 1842–1937. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981.
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  515. Argues that, in contrast to cotton and opium (where imports harmed China’s economy), exports of silk were beneficial to China in the period of imperialism, at least up to 1929. Also notes that the modernization of China’s silk industry (steam filatures replacing earlier technologies) was almost entirely Chinese.
  516. Find this resource:
  517. So, Alvin Y. The South China Silk District: Local Historical Transformation and World-System Theory. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986.
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  519. Accepts Wallerstein’s fundamental criticism of Marxism (see Wallerstein 2004, cited under Classic Texts), but also criticizes Wallerstein for giving insufficient attention to local variety in the periphery. Dates China’s incorporation into the world system to the mid-19th century (the First Opium War). Provides rich detail about local development of sericulture in Pearl River delta. Oddly, makes no reference to Li 1981.
  520. Find this resource:
  521. Wright, Tim. Coal Mining in China’s Economy and Society, 1895–1937. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
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  523. Demonstrates that, while the quantitative records are imperfect, the modern coal-mining sector grew at an average annual rate of output of about 10.9 percent, and therefore cannot be characterized as stagnant during the period of imperialism.
  524. Find this resource:
  525. Finance and Banking
  526.  
  527. King 1965 remains a valuable source for understanding how China’s complex monetary and banking system functioned during the era of imperialism. King 1987–1991 provides a detailed study of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Thomas 2001 sheds light on the history of the Shanghai stock market—and to a lesser extent on other securities markets in China—from 1860 to 1949. Dayer 1981 argues that imperialism in China was shaped much more by the interests of foreign bankers than by the interests of merchants. Brandt and Sargent 1989 argues that, contrary to much of the existing literature, the impact on China’s economy of the Great Depression generally, and of the US policy of purchasing silver more specifically, was not harmful.
  528.  
  529. Brandt, Loren, and Thomas J. Sargent. “Interpreting New Evidence about China and U.S. Silver Purchases.” Journal of Monetary Economics 23 (1989): 31–51.
  530. DOI: 10.1016/0304-3932(89)90060-3Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  531. An important paper. Examines the available empirical evidence and concludes that the conventional wisdom, which asserts that China’s economy was damaged in the 1930s by America’s silver policy, is probably mistaken.
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  533. Dayer, Roberta Allbert. Bankers and Diplomats in China 1917–1925: The Anglo-American Relationship. London: Frank Cass, 1981.
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  535. Argues that “political power in China in the early 1920s emanated from the boardrooms of foreign banks” (p. xiii), especially British and American banks. Title notwithstanding, covers a wider time period than 1917–1925.
  536. Find this resource:
  537. King, Frank H. H. Money and Monetary Policy in China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965.
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  539. A careful survey of the evolution of banking and finance, both Chinese and foreign, during the era of imperialism, focused primarily on the fifty years between 1845 and 1895.
  540. Find this resource:
  541. King, Frank H. H., with Catherine E. King and David J. S. King. The History of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Vols. 1–4. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987–1991.
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  543. Exhaustive history of the “Old Lady of the Bund,” as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was widely known. Places the HSBC in larger context.
  544. Find this resource:
  545. Thomas, William Arthur. Western Capitalism in China: A History of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2001.
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  547. Covers both the Rubber Boom of 1910 and the Crash of 1929, among other episodes. Extensive descriptive passages but little analysis.
  548. Find this resource:
  549. Cultural Analyses of Imperialism
  550.  
  551. In contrast to the literature on the economic causes and consequences of imperialism, there is another literature focused on what can be characterized, broadly speaking, as the cultural causes and consequences of imperialism. Three helpful discussions of the general concept of imperialism, both economic and cultural, can be found in Colás 2007, Jordheim and Neumann 2011, and Wolfe 1997. Said 1993 is an important statement of the cultural approach to imperialism. Cultural analyses of imperialism are heavily influenced by the classic works of postmodernism—the writings of Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Franҫois Lyotard, Roland Barthes, Jürgen Habermas, and others. As can also be said about the classic works on economic imperialism, postmodernism is perhaps best approached initially through knowledgeable commentaries on postmodernism, not through the classics themselves. Butler 2002, supplemented with Gutting 2005 and Glendinning 2011, provides a good starting point. As Butler’s skeptical survey makes clear, postmodernism has caustic critics as well as ardent advocates. Among the critics, Dawkins 1998 is an important example.
  552.  
  553. Butler, Christopher. Postmodernism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
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  555. Essential reading. Argues that there is “a deep irrationalism at the heart of postmodernism” (p. 11). Butler’s section on “Rewriting History” (pp. 32–36), even though it says nothing directly about China, is important for anyone trying to understand the history of imperialism in China.
  556. Find this resource:
  557. Colás, Alejandro. Empire. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2007.
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  559. Gives equal emphasis to empire as territory (the nationalities/boundaries questions), empire as market (the economic questions), and empire as culture (the rhetoric/religion/race/gender questions). Points out (pp. 39–40) that China was the core of an empire for many centuries before it became the periphery (semi-colony) of the modern industrial world.
  560. Find this resource:
  561. Dawkins, Richard. “Postmodernism Disrobed.” Nature 394 (1998): 141–143.
  562. DOI: 10.1038/28089Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  563. In this lengthy review of the book Intellectual Impostures by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, Dawkins summarizes some of the most scathing criticism that has been levied against postmodernism by various authors.
  564. Find this resource:
  565. Glendinning, Simon. Derrida: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  566. DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780192803450.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  567. Glendinning explicitly identifies himself as an affectionate disciple of Derrida, and vigorously defends Derrida’s writings. However, he also admits openly that Derrida employed a “vertiginous prose style, spinning itself out in multiple directions and at different speeds that challenge even the most generous and well-prepared readers” (p. 8).
  568. Find this resource:
  569. Gutting, Gary. Foucault: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  570. DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780192805577.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  571. Provides (at pp. 20–31) a helpful discussion of Foucault’s distinction between polemics and problematizations, which warns against addressing any social issue from a preconceived ideology (doctrinal framework)—Marxism included. In Foucault’s own words (quoted on p. 27): “Has anyone ever seen a new idea come out of a polemic?”
  572. Find this resource:
  573. Jordheim, Helge, and Iver B. Neumann. “Empire, Imperialism and Conceptual History.” Journal of International Relations and Development 14 (2011): 153–185.
  574. DOI: 10.1057/jird.2010.21Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  575. Authors assert that the terms empire and imperialism “have a very complex conceptual history in which a whole range of different themes and problems are at stake: forms of rule, race, culture, civilization, political orientation, and so on” (p. 157). Interestingly, economics is missing from this list.
  576. Find this resource:
  577. Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993.
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  579. While acknowledging the economic side of imperialism, Said stresses the cultural side—and how xenophobic that cultural side can be. “The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism” (p. xiii).
  580. Find this resource:
  581. Wolfe, Patrick. “History and Theory: A Century of Theory, from Marx to Postcolonialism.” American Historical Review 102 (1997): 388–420.
  582. DOI: 10.2307/2170830Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  583. A survey of theories of imperialism, both economic/material and cultural/ideological. Good at showing how Marxist-Leninist economic theories relate to postmodernist cultural theories; weak on analyzing, or even acknowledging the existence of, other economic or cultural perspectives on imperialism.
  584. Find this resource:
  585. Cultural Perspectives on China
  586.  
  587. Bergère 1997 is an excellent place to start. Bergère points out that recent cultural perspectives on Chinese urban history (especially regarding the treaty port of Shanghai) are “infinitely more precise, vivid and complex than previous sketches drawn from theoretical (mostly Marxist) assumptions” (p. 317), but she goes on to suggest that when the newer cultural studies are divorced from the narratives provided by earlier political and economic history, the result is “nihilistic subjectivism” (p. 320). Young 2001 is an important monograph on the meaning of postcolonialism and how it is related to, but different from, Marxist analysis of imperialism. Jindai Zhongguo bainian guochi ditu (1997) and Callahan 2010 both stress the importance of China’s humiliation under imperialism in shaping attitudes even today. The Chinese volume cited provided the catalyst for Callahan’s book. Callahan stresses the importance of the question “Where is China?” and provides a nuanced discussion of the various ways in which this question can be explored. Hevia 2003 raises the related question of how “China” came to be understood by various participants in the historical process. Duara 1995 raises fundamental questions about the various meanings that can be given to the concept of a “nation” (and the related concept of a “nation-state”), and how this relates in particular to China’s experience in the era of imperialism. Liu 1995 says very little about the term “imperialism” but explores in detail a number of related terms (such as “individualism,” “nationalism,” “democracy,” and so on), how these terms came into modern Chinese, and possible ambiguities of meaning. Young 1968 provides an illuminating discussion of the diverse meanings attributed to the phrase “Open Door.” The discussions of language in Liu 1995 and Young 1968 complement each other.
  588.  
  589. Bergère, Marie-Claire. “Civil Society and Urban Change in Republican China.” China Quarterly 150 (1997): 309–328.
  590. DOI: 10.1017/S0305741000052498Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  591. Essential article. Warns that one feature of the new cultural analyses is an “underestimation of historical chronology” (p. 317). Also warns that it is important to maintain a distinction between “reality and the way reality is perceived” (p. 320).
  592. Find this resource:
  593. Callahan, William A. China: The Pessoptimist Nation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
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  595. Argues that China’s “pessoptimistic” (simultaneously negative and positive) view of the world is deeply grounded in China’s experience with imperialism—more than a century of national humiliation (guochi 国耻). In Callahan’s words, “China’s sense of pride and sense of humiliation are actually interwoven in a ‘structure of feeling’ that informs China’s national aesthetic” (p. 10). Lacks bibliography.
  596. Find this resource:
  597. Duara, Prasenjit. Rescuing History from the Nation: Questioning Narratives of Modern China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
  598. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226167237.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  599. Understanding the interaction between imperialism and nationalism requires a nuanced view of both concepts. Duara advances “a specific conception of the nation that is critical of the claim that nationalism represents a unitary consciousness or identity” (p. 7).
  600. Find this resource:
  601. Hevia, James L. English Lessons: The Pedagogy of Imperialism in Nineteenth-Century China. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.
  602. DOI: 10.1215/9780822385066Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  603. Asserts that “imperialism was always more than guns and goods; it was also a cultural process,” and that the pedagogy of imperialism entailed both “the violence of arms and the violence of language” (pp. 3–4). Copublished by Hong Kong University Press.
  604. Find this resource:
  605. Jindai Zhongguo bainian guochi ditu (近代中国百年国耻地图). Preface by Mei Siyi 美思毅 and foreword by Gong Shuduo 龚书铎. Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, 1997.
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  607. A recent memorial volume to China’s national humiliation. Provides maps and contemporaneous photographs (of poor quality, unfortunately) of many key events between 1840 and 1945. Provided the starting point for Callahan 2010; the two books should be read together.
  608. Find this resource:
  609. Liu, Lydia H. Translingual Practice: Literature, National Culture, and Translated Modernity—China, 1900–1937. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995.
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  611. Contends that “the study of modern Chinese history must take the history of translingual practice into account” (p. 27)—that is, it must explore how languages influence each other, and hence shape our understanding of reality, in ways that are much more subtle than the obvious difficulties of simple translation. Extensive bibliography.
  612. Find this resource:
  613. Young, Marilyn Blatt. The Rhetoric of Empire: American China Policy, 1895–1901. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968.
  614. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674434899Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  615. Careful analysis of rhetoric (the shifting, ambiguous, manipulative meaning attributed to words). The “Open Door” policy as negotiated by the United States with other powers was hostile to China (it accepted territorial breakup into spheres of influence), but as later interpreted by American mythology it was portrayed as friendly to China. Thoughtful Chinese disagreed.
  616. Find this resource:
  617. Young, Robert J. C. Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001.
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  619. Describes French colonial brutality with unvarnished candor. Focused on events after World War II, and more on Africa than Asia, but nevertheless an important book for understanding the subjective/cultural aspects of imperialism in China.
  620. Find this resource:
  621. Literary Accounts
  622.  
  623. Literary works, both fiction and nonfiction, can be important sources for understanding cultural context. Lao She 1947 and especially Lao She 1979, although less well known outside China than Lao She’s classic novel Luotuo Xiangzi (骆驼祥子, translated variously as Rickshaw Boy and Camel Xiangzi), are essential reading for understanding China’s experience under imperialism as seen from a Chinese viewpoint. Xiao 1935 portrays the complex struggle of a Chinese woman against two forms of domination—Japanese imperialism and Chinese patriarchy. Both Macartney 1985 and Maugham 1985 provide illuminating British perspectives on imperialism. (The official papers of Lady Macartney’s husband, George Macartney, are available in the Indian Office archives in London.) Yokomitsu 2001 provides a fictionalized account of the watershed events in Shanghai in May 1925, from the perspective of Japanese expatriates living in Shanghai’s demimonde.
  624.  
  625. Lao She 老舍 [pseud. of Shu Qingchun 舒庆春]. Mao cheng ji (猫城记). Shanghai: Chenguang chuban gongsi, 1947.
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  627. A bitter satire, cast as science fiction. Critical of foreigners’ behavior in China, but even more critical of servile Chinese behavior. Available in translation as Cat Country, A Satirical Novel of China in the 1930’s, translated by William A. Lyell Jr (Columbus OH: Ohio State University Press, 1970).
  628. Find this resource:
  629. Lao She 老舍 [pseud. of Shu Qingchun 舒庆春]. Sishi tongtang (四十同堂). Tianjin, China: Baihua Wenyi Chubanshe, 1979.
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  631. Originally published in late 1940s. An epic novel in three parts—Huanghuo (惶惑), Tousheng (偷生), and Jihuang (饥荒)—about a Chinese family living in Beiping (wartime Beijing) under Japanese occupation. Available in abridged translation as The Yellow Storm, translated by Ida Pruitt (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1951).
  632. Find this resource:
  633. Macartney, Lady [Catherine]. An English Lady in Chinese Turkestan. Introduction by Peter Hopkirk. Hong Kong and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
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  635. Autobiographical sketch of expatriate life in Kashgar (Kashi, 喀什), originally published in 1931. Life in Central Asia as experienced by a young Victorian woman. Her Eurasian husband, George Marcartney (his father was British, mother Chinese), was in charge of the British diplomatic mission in Kashgar from 1890 to 1918, and hence deeply involved in the “Great Game.”
  636. Find this resource:
  637. Maugham, W. Somerset. On a Chinese Screen. Introduction by H. J. Lethbridge. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
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  639. Originally published 1922. Colorful, acerbic vignettes of China in the 1920s. Day-to-day life of imperialism, as seen by observant English eyes. This is a perspective on imperialism much more in the school of Said than of Lenin.
  640. Find this resource:
  641. Xiao Hong 萧红. Sheng si chang (生死场). Shanghai: Xinwenyi Chubanshe (新文艺出版社), 1935.
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  643. A dark novel that weaves together the problems of imperialism and patriarchy/misogyny. Available in English as The Field of Life and Death and Tales of Hulan River, translated by Howard Goldblatt and Ellen Yeung (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979). Discussed in Liu 1995, pp. 195–213 (cited under Cultural Perspectives on China).
  644. Find this resource:
  645. Yokomitsu, Riichi. Shanghai: A Novel. Translated, with Postscript, by Dennis Washburn. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2001.
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  647. The May 30 incident as experienced by a fictional group of disenchanted, decadent Japanese businessmen. Washburn characterizes the depictions of racial and political attitudes as “thoroughly . . . eroticized” (p. 238); a less euphemistic characterization would be to call the novel a political polemic drenched in gratuitous sex. Worth reading nonetheless.
  648. Find this resource:
  649. Racism
  650.  
  651. Much of the literature that sheds light on racism is not explicitly identified as such. Often the phenomenon is perceived as nationalism, patriotism, cultural superiority, and so on. And sometimes racism is reciprocal racism, with each group identifying the Other as inferior. Jew 2003 and Love 2004 document the anti-Chinese racism in the United States. Winter 2008 complements Jew and Love with a discussion of events in Canada, and Fitzgerald 2007 provides a parallel analysis of the anti-Chinese racism in Australia. Han 1965 is a classic autobiography that portrays the bitterness of reciprocal racism.
  652.  
  653. Fitzgerald, John. Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2007.
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  655. Documents the attitudes lying behind the White Australia Policy enacted in 1901. Explicitly challenges the misrepresentation of the Chinese community that was used to justify the policy of exclusion.
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  657. Han Suyin. The Crippled Tree. London: Jonathan Cape, 1965.
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  659. A history of imperialism in China. But also a tragic personal account of the reciprocal racism between Han Suyin’s in-laws: her father’s gentry family was convinced that his marriage to a Belgian woman made them lose face, and her mother’s family was equally sure that her Chinese husband was inferior to them.
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  661. Jew, Victor. “‘Chinese Demons’: The Violent Articulation of Chinese Otherness and Interracial Sexuality in the U.S. Midwest, 1885–1889.” Journal of Social History 37.2 (Winter 2003): 389–410.
  662. DOI: 10.1353/jsh.2003.0181Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  663. Provides the details of a particular episode of anti-Chinese rioting in Milwaukee in 1889, but also sets this incident in the larger context of the racist “Chinophobic” atmosphere in the United States, including the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
  664. Find this resource:
  665. Love, Eric T. Race over Empire: Racism and U.S. Imperialism, 1865–1900. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
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  667. Documents how deeply racism (white supremacism) infused American imperialism, including the policies adopted to fend off the “yellow peril.” Not primarily about China, but essential nonetheless.
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  669. Winter, Stephen. “The Stakes of Inclusion: Chinese Canadian Head Tax Redress.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 41.1 (2008): 119–141.
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  671. Discusses the anti-Chinese racism in Canada that paralleled the phenomenon in the United States, including the head tax imposed on immigrants in 1885.
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  673. Gender
  674.  
  675. The interplay between imperialism and gender issues in China has received relatively little attention in the literature, but these references provide a starting point for further research. Siu 1982 explores the impact of the modernization of the textile industry on women’s lives. Sasaki 2009 and Shemo 2012 discuss the role of women missionaries in China. Levine 2004 and Woollacott 2006 are general treatments of the gender issues in imperialism but say little about China.
  676.  
  677. Levine, Philippa, ed. Gender and Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
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  679. The papers in this volume discuss gender issues in the British Empire from a variety of illuminating perspectives, but coverage of specifics in China is rather superficial.
  680. Find this resource:
  681. Sasaki, Motoe. “American New Women Encountering China: The Politics of Temporality and Paradoxes of Imperialism, 1898–1927.” Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 10.1 (2009).
  682. DOI: 10.1353/cch.0.0042Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  683. Discusses women who went to China as missionaries, where they discovered to their dismay that the role model they tried to embody was “basically ignored” by their Chinese students. Available online from Project MUSE.
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  685. Shemo, Connie. “Directions in Scholarship on American Women and Protestant Foreign Missions: Debates over ‘Cultural Imperialism.’” History Compass 10.3 (March 2012): 270–283.
  686. DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2012.00831.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  687. Argues for “the importance of embracing the complexity of American women missionaries—their simultaneous opposition to imperialism and racism and complicity with imperialist structures and drawing on ideologies of race” (p. 270).
  688. Find this resource:
  689. Siu, Bobby. Women of China: Imperialism and Women’s Resistance, 1900–1949. London: Zed Books, 1982.
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  691. A primary purpose of this book is “to show the linkages between imperialism and the Chinese women’s struggle” (p. 2). Main illustrative example is the textile industry, as it developed from handicrafts in the home to mechanized production in factories. Extensive bibliography.
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  693. Woollacott, Angela. Gender and Empire. Basingstoke, UK, and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
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  695. A good introduction to the gender issues in imperialism, but says very little about China specifically.
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  697. Religion (Christianity)
  698.  
  699. Although Christianity reached China long before the era of imperialism (beginning with the Jesuit Matteo Ricci in the 1580s and even earlier), extensive conflict between Christian and non-Christian Chinese developed only after unequal treaties gave foreigners the right to live and work throughout China. Both Cohen 1963 and Bays 1996 shed much light on the relationship between Christianity (Catholic and Protestant) and imperialism. Spence 1996 focuses on the Taiping Rebellion, in which Hong Xiuquan, a Chinese convert to Christianity, led a massive civil war against the Qing dynasty, but paradoxically the British imperialists (of self-declared “muscular Christianity”) helped the Qing rulers suppress the uprising. Carlson 1974, although fundamentally sympathetic to the missionaries’ goals, candidly describes what he characterizes as the unbridgeable chasm between a group believing in the deep depravity of humankind (the missionaries’ interpretation of the Bible) and a group believing in the intrinsic goodness of humankind (the teachings of Mencius).
  700.  
  701. Bays, Daniel H., ed. Christianity in China: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996.
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  703. Illuminating papers about various aspects of the role of Christianity in modern Chinese history, and of the interplay with imperialism: cultural and fiscal conflict between Christian institutions and local community institutions at early stages, compounded by political conflict later (foreign identity vs. emerging Chinese nationalism, exacerbated by Protestant-Catholic frictions).
  704. Find this resource:
  705. Carlson, Ellsworth C. The Foochow Missionaries, 1847–1880. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974.
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  707. Presents an even-handed analysis of the inevitable conflict between Christian missionaries and educated gentry: “neither [group] thought it could learn anything of value from the other” (p. 45).
  708. Find this resource:
  709. Cohen, Paul A. China and Christianity: The Missionary Movement and the Growth of Chinese Antiforeignism 1860–1870. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
  710. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674283633Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  711. Documents the central role of Christian missionaries in contributing to militant antiforeignism in modern China. Discusses the link of Christianity to the ideology of the Taiping Rebellion, to the foreign use of gunboat diplomacy, etc. Extensive bibliography.
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  713. Spence, Jonathan D. God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1996.
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  715. Superb narrative of the convoluted story of Hong Xiuquan, the convert to Christianity who led the Taiping Rebellion (arguably the largest civil war in human history). Essential reading.
  716. Find this resource:
  717. Qing Imperialism in Eurasia
  718.  
  719. Like the imperialism that developed primarily in the coastal region of China (through cultural, commercial, and military intrusion by the European and North American maritime powers, and later by Japan), the imperialism that evolved simultaneously in continental Eurasia—in a long arc from Tibet in the southwest through Central Asia to the west and around to Korea in the northeast—also involved cultural, commercial, and military aspects, but with an important difference. In Eurasia, China was not a victim but an ambitious participant. All nine of the books reviewed here are important sources, though their coverage varies. Millward 1998, Perdue 2005, Hostetler 2001, Lary 2007, and Mackerras and Clarke 2009 (in English), and Wei 1984 and Pan 1995 (in Chinese) are all overall surveys of the topic, although they vary somewhat in the time period and geographical region covered. Millward 1998 and Perdue 2005 are probably the best starting points, though the others are all valuable as well. Hambly, et al. 1969 is older, but still useful. Meyer and Brysac 2006 presents an even-handed British perspective. Islamic and Buddhist minorities played particularly important roles in the Eurasian events, and further sources are discussed below under Xinjiang and Tibet, respectively. Developments in the Korean peninsula were also a chapter in their own right and are discussed separately under Korea.
  720.  
  721. Hambly, Gavin, et al. Central Asia. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969.
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  723. Careful scholarly treatment of evolution of Central Asia, covering three themes—a shifting agricultural world of oases (crops) versus nomads (flocks), the spread of Buddhism and Islam, and interaction with neighboring powers (especially Iran, China, and Russia). First twelve chapters focus on pre-1800; chapters 13–20 (pp. 175–313) focus on 19th and 20th centuries. Extensive bibliography.
  724. Find this resource:
  725. Hostetler, Laura. Qing Colonial Enterprise: Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
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  727. Argues that the Qing empire was “an active participant in a shared world order” (p. 1). Provides extensive analysis of the role of maps and cartography as tools of the ideology of Qing imperialism.
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  729. Lary, Diana, ed. The Chinese State at the Borders. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2007.
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  731. Excellent introduction. Discusses Central Asia 1800–1949, both geographically and chronologically, in the wider setting of China’s border regions more generally. Infused with the magisterial scholarship of Alexander Woodside.
  732. Find this resource:
  733. Mackerras, Colin, and Michael Clarke, eds. China, Xinjiang and Central Asia: History, Transition and Crossborder Interaction into the 21st Century. London and New York: Routledge, 2009.
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  735. Focuses primarily on more recent events in Central Asia, but also discusses extensively the events prior to 1949. On various issues it challenges both the Chinese and the Western (British, Russian, and American) versions of events in the region.
  736. Find this resource:
  737. Meyer, Karl E., and Shareen Blair Brysac. Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
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  739. An extensive, well-researched source on the conflicts in Central Asia, from about 1800 to 1989. Notes that “of the making of books about imperialism there will be no end” (p. 630). Valuable notes and sources, with guidance to important archives.
  740. Find this resource:
  741. Millward, James A. Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity, and Empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759–1864. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998.
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  743. Essential reading. Explores both economic (commercial) and cultural (ethnic) aspects of Qing empire-building. Argues (pp. 3–4) that in early 19th century the Jiayu Guan was still an important boundary, both in the physical and symbolic sense, but by the late 19th century was an “incongruous relic” of no real significance. Extensive bibliography.
  744. Find this resource:
  745. Pan Guangdan 潘光旦. Pan Guangdan minzu yanjiu wenji (潘光旦民族研究文集). Beijing: Minzu chubanshe, 1995.
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  747. Essential book. Collected essays of the ethnographer Pan Guangdan. See especially his article on Great [Han] Chauvinism (pp. 146–159), first published in 1951. Acknowledges chauvinism in other countries, but stresses a “narrow-minded” (xia ai 狭隘) Han arrogance that has been evident for 3,000 years, seen in pejorative adjectives like “boorish” (cu guang 粗犷) used to describe non-Han groups.
  748. Find this resource:
  749. Perdue, Peter C. China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Asia. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2005.
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  751. Even more essential than the works of Millward and Pan, if that is possible. Magisterial scholarship, in the tradition of Joseph Fletcher, Benjamin Schwartz, and Alexander Woodside. Covers political, military, economic, and cultural aspects of the story. Massive bibliography.
  752. Find this resource:
  753. Wei Yuan 魏源. Shengwu ji (盛武记). Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju (中华书局), 1984.
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  755. Originally published 1842; woodblock version (traditional characters) reprint available (Taibei: Wenhai chubanshe [文海出版社], 1967). Popularized the Qing military campaigns against border area minorities as inevitable victories, even when the outcomes were in fact problematical. Nevertheless, questioned the permanence or legitimacy of China’s boundaries.
  756. Find this resource:
  757. Xinjiang
  758.  
  759. Millward 2007 is probably the best starting point. Leibold 2007 covers a wider area than just Xinjiang, but provides an excellent complement to Millward. Starr 2004 and Clarke 2011 are both focused primarily on post-1949 events and issues, but they provide brief introductions to the pre-1949 era. Bellér-Hann 2008 is an excellent introduction to Xinjiang in the Qing and Republican periods; more emphasis on sociological than political matters. Qi 2010 covers Xinjiang all the way through history from the Qin (秦) and Han (汉) dynasties to 1949 and discusses all the minority nationalities, not just the Uyghur and Han. Zuo 1986–1996 (originally written in the 19th century) provides essential writings of a key participant in major events of the time.
  760.  
  761. Bellér-Hann, Ildikó. Community Matters in Xinjiang 1880–1949: Towards a Historical Anthropology of the Uyghur. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2008.
  762. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004166752.i-477Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  763. Focuses on late Qing and Republican periods, though enriched by reference to author’s field studies done in 1980s and 1990s. Describes Uyghur traditions (family customs, life cycle patterns, religion, etc.); discusses variations within the Uyghur group and also interactions with non-Uyghurs. Wide-ranging bibliography to resources in many languages, both published and archival.
  764. Find this resource:
  765. Clarke, Michael E. Xinjiang and China’s Rise in Central Asia—A History. London and New York: Routledge, 2011.
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  767. Primarily about post-1949 Xinjiang, but chapter 2 (pp. 16–41) provides a helpful survey to pre-1949 events.
  768. Find this resource:
  769. Leibold, James. Reconfiguring Chinese Nationalism: How the Qing Frontier and Its Indigenes Became Chinese. New York and Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
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  771. Does not focus on Xinjiang, but important book nonetheless. Characterized as “a history of how the vast Qing empire became ‘Chinese,’ and more particularly the role played by the new categories of frontier and minority nationalities in constructing political and cultural narratives of Chinese nationhood” (p. 7).
  772. Find this resource:
  773. Millward, James A. Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
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  775. Well-researched introduction to Xinjiang’s history—“from Tienshanosaurus to the twenty-first century” (p. xi). In the author’s words “an overview to the history of a region that has played an important role in world history, but for which there is no good introduction in English” (p. xi).
  776. Find this resource:
  777. Qi Qingshun 齐清顺. 1759–1949 nian Xinjiang duo minzu fenbu geju de xingcheng (1759–1949 年新疆多民族分布格局的形成). Urumqi, China: Xinjiang Renmin Chubanshe, 2010.
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  779. Despite the dates in the title, starts with events in Xinjiang in the Qin (秦) and Han (汉) dynasties. Describes in detail the demographic evolution (population estimates) of the various ethnic groups (minority nationalities) through time. No index, but provides list of about fifty recent Chinese publications about Xinjiang.
  780. Find this resource:
  781. Starr, S. Frederick. Xinjiang: China’s Muslim Borderland. Armonk, NY, and London: M. E. Sharpe, 2004.
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  783. Primarily about post-1949 Xinjiang, but chapters 2–3 (pp. 27–98) and chapters 12–14 (pp. 299–374) describe and analyze the pre-1949 situation.
  784. Find this resource:
  785. Zuo Zongtang [Tso Tsung-t’ang] 左宗棠. Zuo Zongtang quanji (左宗堂全集). 15 vols. Changsha, China: Yuejian Shushe, 1986–1996.
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  787. Collected writings of leading Han statesman and general (b. 1812–d. 1885) who advocated—and then in the 1870s carried out—Qing reconquest of Xinjiang.
  788. Find this resource:
  789. Tibet
  790.  
  791. Recently published books and articles about Tibet focus on events since 1949, but some of them also describe events pre-1949, if only to justify various interpretations of the post-1949 events. Beckwith 1987 and Powers 2004 are valuable places to begin to understand Tibet’s involvement in Central Asia in the 19th and 20th centuries. Powers warns that the Tibetan term for history “encompasses both historical and mythological sources, as well as chronicles and hagiographies” (p. 157). Grunfeld 1987 presents the Chinese point of view; Powers explicitly disagrees.
  792.  
  793. Beckwith, Christopher I. The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia: A History of the Struggle for Great Power among Tibetans, Turks, Arab, and Chinese during the Early Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987.
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  795. Essential reading, despite its focus on the Tang dynasty period and earlier. Leads reader to important sources in Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and other languages. Makes the important point that the conflicts in Central Asia in the 19th and 20th centuries have roots much deeper in history.
  796. Find this resource:
  797. Grunfeld, A. Tom. The Making of Modern Tibet. London: Zed Books, 1987.
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  799. Argues that China’s role in Tibet was to bring civilization and modernization to a backward people. Co-published by M. E. Sharpe (Armonk, NY).
  800. Find this resource:
  801. Powers, John. History as Propaganda: Tibetan Exiles vs. the People’s Republic of China. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
  802. DOI: 10.1093/0195174267.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  803. Sympathizes personally with the Tibetan exiles, but nevertheless asserts that “I do not accept the implicit belief by both sides that if one side’s story could be proved wrong, the other must be correct” (p. 158). Argues that both sides suffer from “amnesias and blind spots” (p. 155).
  804. Find this resource:
  805. Korea
  806.  
  807. In general terms, events in the Korean peninsula were part of the story of Qing imperialism in Eurasia, but they differed enough in the details to warrant separate analysis. Larsen 2008 is a good place to start. Larsen notes that “difficulties with recognizing Qing imperialism in the nineteenth century for what it was probably owe much to influential and widely shared notions of Chinese exceptionalism” (pp. 2–3). Lee 1984 and Swartout 1980 provide succinct summaries of the events in the 19th century. Lensen 1982 is particular valuable for the material drawn from Russian archival sources.
  808.  
  809. Larsen, Kirk W. Tradition, Treaties, and Trade: Qing Imperialism and Chosŏn Korea, 1850–1910. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.
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  811. Argues that “it is patently obvious that China constitutes one of the largest and most successful empires in human history,” and that “the Qing empire (although its ruling house was Manchu not Han Chinese) constitutes the apex of Chinese imperial expansion” (p. 6). Extensive bibliography.
  812. Find this resource:
  813. Lee, Ki-baik. A New History of Korea. Translated by Edward W. Wagner, with Edward J. Schultz. Cambridge, MA: Harvard-Yenching Institute, Harvard University Press, 1984.
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  815. Originally published in Korean in 1961 with the title Kuksa Sillon. At pp. 268–290, gives a succinct history of the triangular rivalry for control of Korea between Qing China, Japan, and Russia. Qing military forces under General Wu Changqing moved into Korea in 1882. Yuan Shikai became “Director-General Resident in Korea of Diplomatic and Commercial Relations” in 1885.
  816. Find this resource:
  817. Lensen, George Alexander. Balance of Intrigue: International Rivalry in Korea and Manchuria, 1884–1899. 2 vols. Foreword by John J. Stephan. Tallahassee: University Presses of Florida, 1982.
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  819. Provides valuable insights from the perspective of Russian archival resources. “An underlying, and timely, theme is the attempt of the great powers to manipulate Korea and China without realizing that they themselves were being used by Seoul and Peking” (p. xvi). Massive bibliography.
  820. Find this resource:
  821. Swartout, Robert R. Jr. Mandarins, Gunboats, and Power Politics: Owen Nickerson Denny and the International Rivalries in Korea. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1980.
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  823. Describes (especially at pp. 37–41 and 81–98) the complex Manchu-Japanese-Russian rivalry for control of events in Korea, beginning with the Manchu pressures dating from the 1620s and 1630s and ultimately leading to Yuan Shikai’s assumption of de facto ruling power as the Qing “Resident” in 1885.
  824. Find this resource:
  825. Treaty Ports
  826.  
  827. The treaty ports and their various alternatives (formal colonies, leaseholds, concessions, and spheres of influence) were extremely important in the events of 19th- and 20th-century Chinese history, functioning as both the mechanisms and the locations of imperialist impact. Feuerwerker 1976, Murphey 1970, and Hao 1970 discuss the treaty ports primarily in terms of their economic functions. Extensive coverage of historical details can also be found in the works annotated under Historians’ Overviews. In Elvin and Skinner 1974, Murphey argues that “contemporary China is inconceivable without the treaty port experience,” not so much for the economic consequences, but because it caused “a psychological shock of deep significance” (p. 66). In the same volume, Elvin describes how municipal governance structures of a modern type emerged in the treaty ports, yet were “not . . . intrinsically Western” (pp. 239–240). Bickers 1999 documents the experience of Britons in treaty port China—and makes the important point that these people were for the most part neither expatriates nor sojourners but settlers (an important distinction), and that they often acted against the interests of official British foreign policy. Rowe’s study of Hankow (Rowe 1984) provides a valuable perspective on what might be called the more ordinary treaty ports, not the special cases of Shanghai and Hong Kong. Scholarly works on Shanghai and Hong Kong more specifically are discussed under Shanghai and Hong Kong, respectively.
  828.  
  829. Bickers, Robert. Britain in China: Community, Culture and Colonialism, 1900–1949. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1999.
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  831. Argues the British community of settlers living in China was an “incoherent assemblage of conflicting and competing interests” (p. 108). Also argues that the nominally British imperial interests in China were largely international in fact, and as much a product of imagination and fantasy as of reality.
  832. Find this resource:
  833. Elvin, Mark, and G. William Skinner, eds. The Chinese City between Two Worlds. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1974.
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  835. See in particular the papers “The Treaty Ports and China’s Modernization” by Rhoads Murphey, pp. 17–71, and “The Administration of Shanghai, 1905–1914” by Mark Elvin, pp. 239–262.
  836. Find this resource:
  837. Feuerwerker, Albert. The Foreign Establishment in China in the Early Twentieth Century. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1976.
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  839. A brief overview, focused on 1910–1920, of the “treaty ports, concessions, leaseholds, and spheres of influence” that formed the primary location of foreign activities in China. By Feuerwerkers’s own admission, this monograph is set at a high level of generality (in other words, seriously oversimplified).
  840. Find this resource:
  841. Hao, Yen-P’ing. The Comprador in Nineteenth Century China: Bridge between East and West. Harvard East Asian Series 45. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970.
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  843. Classic study of the maiban (买办), or compradors, the Chinese managers of foreign firms in the treaty ports, who played a crucial role as middlemen between foreign and Chinese merchants. Hao argues that the significance of the comprador lay “in his ability to combine ownership of capital with entrepreneurial skill” (p. 5).
  844. Find this resource:
  845. Murphey, Rhoads. The Treaty Ports and China’s Modernization: What Went Wrong? Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1970.
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  847. A brief but helpful survey of the treaty ports, especially for the discussion of how the Chinese residents of the treaty ports gradually emerged as new, and highly influential, players in modern Chinese history.
  848. Find this resource:
  849. Rowe, William T. Hankow: Commerce and Society in a Chinese City, 1796–1889 Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1984.
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  851. First of two volumes by Rowe on Hankow. Rowe directly challenges Max Weber’s long-standing assertion that Chinese cities failed to provide catalysts for modernization because they were administrative, not commercial, in their function. He quotes the early Qing poet Cha Shenxing’s (查慎行) ode to Hankow: “Greatest of markets, crossroads of land and river trade.” See also Rowe’s second volume, Hankow: Conflict and Community in a Chinese City, 1796–1895 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1989).
  852. Find this resource:
  853. Shanghai
  854.  
  855. Begère 2009 is undoubtedly a good place to start for any research on Shanghai, both for the author’s superb scholarship and for her coverage of the important role of the French community—and even more of the Chinese community—in a literature that generally focuses on the British community. Johnson 1995 is best for understanding Shanghai before 1842. Lanning and Couling 1921 provides a thorough introduction to the British role, especially in municipal governance. Bickers 2003 provides revealing insights into Shanghai through a fascinating “biography of a nobody.” Henriot and Yeh 2004 focus on the years (1937–1945) when Shanghai was under Japanese occupation. Zhang 1990 is one example of the extensive research published by the “Shanghai studies” group based at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Fudan University and elsewhere; Chen 1996 represents the parallel group based in Taiwan. Xiong 1999 is a massive collection of informative essays about Shanghai’s history.
  856.  
  857. Begère, Marie-Claire. Shanghai: China’s Gateway to Modernity. Translated by Janet Lloyd. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009.
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  859. Eloquent and essential. Originally published in French in 2002. Argues that “Shanghai, the most ‘foreign’ of all Chinese towns, was also the one where nationalist awareness and the revolutionary mobilization of the masses first developed” (p. 5).
  860. Find this resource:
  861. Bickers, Robert. Empire Made Me: An Englishman Adrift in Shanghai. London: Allen Lane, 2003.
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  863. The biography of Richard Maurice Tinkler, an ordinary Briton living at the geographic and social margins of the British Empire. Also an illuminating account of the Shanghai Municipal Police as an organizational mechanism of imperialism.
  864. Find this resource:
  865. Chen Sanjing 陈三井. Jindai Zhongguo bianju xia de Shanghai (近代中国变局下的上海). Taipei: Dongda Tushu Gongsi, 1996.
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  867. Discusses Shanghai’s evolution in the first half of the 20th century. Also assesses some of the other books that have been contributed to the field of “Shanghai studies” by scholars in Taiwan.
  868. Find this resource:
  869. Henriot, Christian, and Wen-Hsin Yeh, eds. In the Shadow of the Rising Sun: Shanghai under Japanese Occupation. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
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  871. Examines various aspects of the complex, paradoxical experience of Shanghai’s foreign concessions as gudao (孤岛, “lone islets”)—simultaneously immersed in, and separated from, wartime China. Argues that reality was neither resistance nor collaboration in any simplistic way.
  872. Find this resource:
  873. Johnson, Linda C. Shanghai: From Market Town to Treaty Port, 1074–1858. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995.
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  875. Argues that the development of Shanghai cannot be easily divided into “before” and “after” the Opium War—that continuities in the urban evolution were important. Also argues that “’Imperialism’ is a loaded term, pejorative in some contexts and ambiguous in others” (p. 14).
  876. Find this resource:
  877. Lanning, George, and Samuel Couling. The History of Shanghai. Shanghai: Kelley and Walsh, 1921.
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  879. A detailed description of how Shanghai’s government functioned c. 1920, as perceived by the British elite. Helpful contemporary maps.
  880. Find this resource:
  881. Xiong Yuezhi 熊月之, ed. Shanghai tongshi (上海通史). 15 vols. Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 1999.
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  883. Each volume thematically focused. Of particular relevance to understanding imperialism are Volume 1 (Overview), Vols. 3–6 (Late Qing Politics, Economy, Society, and Culture, respectively), and Vols. 7–10 (Republican Politics, Economy, Society, and Culture, respectively).
  884. Find this resource:
  885. Zhang Zhongli 张仲礼. Jindai Shanghai chengshi yanjiu (近代上海城市研究). Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 1990.
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  887. An extensive study of the history of Shanghai from 1840–1949, written by one of the leaders of the “Shanghai studies” group of scholars.
  888. Find this resource:
  889. Hong Kong
  890.  
  891. Unsurprisingly, given its central role in the history of imperialism in China, Hong Kong has been the subject of an extensive literature. The items annotated here are simply a starting point for further research. Carroll 2005 provides a recent, explicit discussion of how Hong Kong fits into the larger issues of imperialism. Tsang 2004 and Tsai 1993 both provide overviews of the history of Hong Kong, although they vary somewhat in the time periods covered. Cai 2001 is a similar overview in Chinese. Chan 1990 is less an internal history of colonial Hong Kong as such and more a study of how events in Hong Kong interrelated with political developments in China, especially in Canton (Guangzhou). Chu 2005 focuses on the foreign communities in the colony. Smith 1995 also focuses on specific communities, variously defined. Sinn 1989 provides, through a seemingly narrow study of a specific institution, broad insights into Hong Kong as a community.
  892.  
  893. Cai Rongfang 蔡荣芳 (Tsai Jung-fang). Xianggang ren zhi Xianggang shi 1841–1945 (香港人之香港史 1841–1945). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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  895. Complements and expands the author’s earlier study (Tsai 1993), to include the events in Hong Kong during the Republican era and under Japanese occupation. Extensive bibliography.
  896. Find this resource:
  897. Carroll, John M. Edge of Empires: Chinese Elites and British Colonials in Hong Kong. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.
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  899. Important book. Explicitly moves beyond both the Marxist views and the postmodern/postcolonial views on Hong Kong. Refreshingly, Carroll “questions the common assumption that nationalism inevitably pits colonized peoples against their colonizers” (p. 14).
  900. Find this resource:
  901. Chan Lau, Kit-ching. China, Britain and Hong Kong 1895–1945. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1990.
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  903. Chan Lau “does not trace Hong Kong’s ‘history’ in the usual sense of the word” (p. 1). Rather, she discusses Hong Kong’s role in broader Chinese history—especially its importance as a base of Republican revolution around 1911 and later as a catalyst/foundation of anti-foreignism.
  904. Find this resource:
  905. Chu, Cindy Yik-yi. Foreign Communities in Hong Kong, 1840s–1950s. New York and Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
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  907. Studies of the diverse foreign communities in Hong Kong and the varied ways they were perceived.
  908. Find this resource:
  909. Sinn, Elizabeth. Power and Charity: The Early History of the Tung Wah Hospital, Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1989.
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  911. Despite the title, a much broader study than the history of a single institution.
  912. Find this resource:
  913. Smith, Carl T. A Sense of History: Studies in the Social and Urban History of Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Educational, 1995.
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  915. Discusses specific Hong Kong communities, variously defined: Chinese citizens, urban neighborhoods, women and labor, and Christian individuals and institutions.
  916. Find this resource:
  917. Tsai, Jung-fang [Cai Rongfang]. Hong Kong in Chinese History: Community and Social Unrest in the British Colony, 1842–1913. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
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  919. An excellent starting point for understanding Hong Kong under imperialism. In Tsai’s words, the work “seeks to explore the social reality hidden behind a veneer of prosperity, stability, and harmony so often portrayed by the colony’s dominant groups and ruling elite” (p. 6). Chapters 5 to 10 devoted to various episodes of social unrest. See also Cai 2001.
  920. Find this resource:
  921. Tsang, Steve. A Modern History of Hong Kong. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2004.
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  923. Attempts to neither underplay nor overplay the role of either the British colonists or the local people. The declared intention is to “ignore political correctness and present a modern history that does justice to all who . . . have been part of this shared history” (p. x). Extensive bibliography, including archival guidance.
  924. Find this resource:
  925. Treaties and Legal Issues (Extraterritorialty)
  926.  
  927. The legal issues involved in China’s experience with imperialism are a complex subject deserving extensive treatment in their own right. Stephens 1992 explores the fundamental question of whether “law” means the same thing in China and Great Britain. Tyau 1917 is an early treatment of China’s treaties, covering political, economic, and other issues. Kayaoğlu 2010 focuses on the important issue of extraterritoriality (“extrality” as it was known in the treaty ports)—that is, the treaty-based right of foreigners to be exempted from submission to Chinese law. Cassel 2012 is an important addition to the discussion of extraterritoriality. Wang 2005 is a thoughtful discussion of exactly what is meant by the label “unequal treaties.”
  928.  
  929. Cassel, Pär Kridtoffer. Grounds of Judgment: Extraterritoriality and Imperial Power in Nineteenth-Century China and Japan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  930. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199792054.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  931. Extremely interesting, well-informed discussion of the problematical meaning of the concepts of nation-state and sovereignty, as exemplified by the practice of extraterritoriality. Cassel notes that there was an “acute sense of indeterminancy [surrounding] . . . an institution that was supposed to give foreigners a privileged status” (p. 4).
  932. Find this resource:
  933. Kayaoğlu, Turan. Legal Imperialism: Sovereignty and Extraterritoriality in Japan, the Ottoman Empire, and China. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
  934. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511730252Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  935. Discusses the central issue of extraterritoriality in the jurisprudence of imperialism, in three national settings. Extensive bibliography.
  936. Find this resource:
  937. Stephens, Thomas B. Order and Discipline in China: The Shanghai Mixed Court, 1911–1927. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1992.
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  939. Thoughtful analysis of whether Chinese “law” (fa, 法) means a system of rule-based adjudication of disputes, as it does in Western jurisprudence, or means a system of power-based discipline.
  940. Find this resource:
  941. Tyau, Min-ch’ien T. Z. The Legal Obligations Arising out of Treaty Relations between China and Other States. Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1917.
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  943. A discussion of treaty obligations in three broad categories: (1) political: representation, extraterritoriality, concessions and settlements, leased territories, and preferential treatment; (2) economic: trade, residence, tariffs, cabotage, inland navigation, inland travel, landholding, railroads, mining, and loans; and (3) general: physical protection, religious toleration, reciprocity, and most-favored-nation provisions.
  944. Find this resource:
  945. Wang, Dong. China’s Unequal Treaties: Narrating National History. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005.
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  947. Explores several related questions: What is an unequal treaty, in the Chinese context but also more generally? “Are all treaties between powers of unequal strength—that is, virtually all international treaties—unequal treaties?” (p. 5) How has the concept “unequal treaties” shaped Chinese nationalism? Extensive bibliography of works in English and Chinese.
  948. Find this resource:
  949. Military Affairs
  950.  
  951. Many authors point out that conquest (military success) is an essential aspect of the history of imperialism, yet relatively few discuss the details of military operations. These seven volumes are exceptions to this general rule. Paine 2003 describes the battles of the first Sino-Japanese War and places these military events in their broader context; Mitter 2013 provides information about the second Sino-Japanese War (World War II). Lensen 1967 and Silbey 2012 describe the Boxer Uprising in a similar fashion. Connaughton 2003 provides details of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, which superficially might seem not to involve China (except as the theater of war), but in fact was central to the development of imperialism in China. van den Ven 2003 discusses the importance of military events and institutions during the Chiang Kai-shek era. Polachek 1992 explores the important question of how military defeat affects the politics and policies of the losing side.
  952.  
  953. Connaughton, Richard. Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear: Russia’s War with Japan. London: Cassell, 2003.
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  955. Focuses on the military events in Manchuria, but also sheds light on the motives and outcomes of the rivalry of Russian and Japanese imperialism.
  956. Find this resource:
  957. Lensen, George Alexander. The Russo-Chinese War. Tallahassee, FL: The Diplomatic Press, 1967.
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  959. Deals primarily with the Russian role during the Boxer Uprising, but also gives useful information about events before and after. Provides an extensive bibliography, especially for Russian-language sources.
  960. Find this resource:
  961. Mitter, Rana. China’s War with Japan, 1937–1945: The Struggle for Survival. London: Lane Allen, 2013.
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  963. Argues that the understanding of World War II by many Westerners “failed to give a proper account of the role of China. . . Nor has the outside world ever fully understood the ghastly price that China paid to maintain its resistance against Japan for eight long years” (p. 5).
  964. Find this resource:
  965. Paine, S. C. M. The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895: Perceptions, Power and Primacy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
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  967. Exhaustive, even-handed account of “a seminal event in world history” (p. 3), drawing on sources in all key languages. Stresses the importance of perceptions as well as military ascendancy in explaining events. Excellent bibliographic essay and bibliography.
  968. Find this resource:
  969. Polachek, James M. The Inner Opium War. Cambridge, MA: The Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1992.
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  971. Challenges the earlier literature on the Opium War to suggest that military defeat could, and did, cause some important Chinese officials to fundamentally rethink their approach to foreign policy.
  972. Find this resource:
  973. Silbey, David J. The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China. New York: Hill and Wang, 2012.
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  975. Discusses many aspects of the Boxers (secret societies, missionaries, etc.) but focuses on military details of the eight-nation intervention and makes the important point that the foreign forces nearly lost the war. Argues that the Japanese “learned from the uprising that they held the whip hand in Asia” (p. 232).
  976. Find this resource:
  977. van den Ven, Hans J. War and Nationalism in China 1925–1945. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
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  979. Van den Ven places “the role of warfare and the military central in the history of the Nationalists” (p. 12). He discusses these military issues at the ideological, strategic, and operational levels.
  980. Find this resource:
  981. Country-Specific Studies
  982.  
  983. Although imperialism is often inappropriately treated as a single phenomenon, the reality is that both motives and results differed widely between countries. Specifics about Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Taiwan, Russia/Soviet Union, and the United States of America are covered in this section.
  984.  
  985. Belgium
  986.  
  987. Belgium’s involvement in the era of imperialism in China was heavily shaped by the ambitions of the monarch, Leopold II. Certainly the motivation was partly a matter of the national desire to emulate the larger European states, but it seems also to have been a personal desire by Leopold to match the successes of his cousin Victoria, the British monarch. Stengers 1972 provides a brief introduction to the Belgian experience with imperialism in China and elsewhere (especially the Congo). Kurgan-van Hentenryck 1972 provides a massive (950-page), careful discussion of the Belgian experience in China, and of Leopold’s key role, after the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. Frochisse 1936 is a more dated discussion but still valuable because it covers the period before Shimonoseki.
  988.  
  989. Frochisse, J. -M. Belgique et la Chine: Relations Diplomatique et Économiques (1839–1909). Brussels: L’Édition Universelle, 1936.
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  991. Documents Leopold’s lifelong interest in export markets and other apects of empire, clearly visible already when he was Duc du Brabant (young heir apparent). Discusses in detail Belgium’s complex interaction with the larger powers in China.
  992. Find this resource:
  993. Kurgan-van Hentenryck, Ginette. Léopold II et les groupes financiers belges en Chine: La politique royale et ses prolongements, 1895–1914. Brussels: Palais des Académies, 1972.
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  995. Extensively documents Leopold’s hands-on involvement with Belgian financial interests in China, including such mechanisms as the “purely fictional” Société Asiatique (p. 601). Excellent guidance to archival materials, primarily Belgian—both public (royal and government archives) and private—but also French, British, American, and German.
  996. Find this resource:
  997. Stengers, Jean. “King Leopold’s Imperialism.” In Studies in the Theory of Imperialism. Edited by Roger Owen and Bob Sutcliffe, 248–276. London: Longmans, 1972.
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  999. Argues that Leopold enthusiastically sought railway and mining contracts in China during the Scramble for Concessions after 1895 for the benefit of Belgian capitalists, but that, paradoxically, the Belgian business community did not display much interest in Leopold’s endeavors in China.
  1000. Find this resource:
  1001. France
  1002.  
  1003. France’s involvement with European imperialism in Asia was significantly affected by the instability of the political situation in France itself, as the Revolution of 1789, the rule of Napoleon (First Empire, 1804–1814), the restoration of the monarchy (1814–1848), the brief Second Republic (1848–1852), and the Second Empire (1852–1870) followed each other in fairly quick succession. Under Bismarck’s leadership, the German side won the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), which brought down the Second Empire and established the Third Republic, which lasted until World War II. The Third Republic was also unstable at home, but its leaders—especially Jules Ferry—were determined to demonstrate power and prestige to match the German successes overseas. The importance of conservative Roman Catholicism in domestic French politics also colored French ambitions in China. Ferry 1890 is a first-person account of French ambitions, written by the man who served as prime minister in the early 1880s and actively pursued French colonial expansion. Eastman 1967, Lee 1989, and McAleavy 1968 are all well-informed narratives of the French expansion in Vietnam and the adjoining area of southern China. Bouvier and Girault 1976 contains several valuable papers on French involvement in China. Brötel 1996 is also a useful account, written from a German perspective. Gagnier 1972 explores the role of French banks in China—and notes that what the financiers wanted and what the government wanted were not entirely compatible.
  1004.  
  1005. Bouvier, Jean, and René Girault. L’imperialisme franҫais d’avant 1914. Paris: Mouton, 1976.
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  1007. Contains three relevant papers: John Laffey’s on French imperialism in the Far East (pp. 15–37), Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch’s on the differences between French and British imperialism (pp. 85–124), and Marianne Bastid’s on French involvement in the 1911 revolution. No bibliography, but many helpful leads in the footnotes of the individual papers.
  1008. Find this resource:
  1009. Brötel, Dieter. Frankreich im Fernen Osten: Imperialistische Expansion und Aspiration in Siam und Malaya, Laos und China, 1880–1904. Stuttgart: Steiner, 1996.
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  1011. Argues that the most important goal of French expansion in Southeast Asia was to gain access to markets of southwest China. Also explores France’s role as the protector of Roman Catholic missions in China.
  1012. Find this resource:
  1013. Eastman, Lloyd E. Throne and Mandarins: China’s Search for a Policy during the Sino-French Controversy 1880–1885. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.
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  1015. With good reason, the standard English-language source on this subject. Based on extensive research in French and Chinese materials. Excellent bibliography.
  1016. Find this resource:
  1017. Ferry, Jules. Le Tonkin et la Mère-patrie. Paris: V. Havard, 1890.
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  1019. Focused on French activities in Indochina, but also sheds light on French ambitions in China, especially in the area adjoining Indochina. Ferry, as leader of the Third Republic, organized France’s colonial expansion into Tonkin and Annam in the 1880s. The potential of mining in Yunnan is discussed on pp. 230–254.
  1020. Find this resource:
  1021. Gagnier, D. “French Loans to China, 1895–1914: The Alliance of International Finance and Diplomacy.” Australian Journal of Politics and History 18 (August 1972): 229–249.
  1022. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8497.1972.tb00593.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1023. Describes the complex and shifting alliances between France and other governments in dealing with China. Argues that economic penetration of China by French banks was driven by the need for “an outlet for the surplus capital accumulated in Europe during the last third of the nineteenth century” (p. 246).
  1024. Find this resource:
  1025. Lee, Robert. France and the Exploitation of China, 1885–1901: A Study of Economic Imperialism. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1989.
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  1027. Although limited in the time period covered, a valuable book, both for content and perhaps even more for its exhaustive bibliography of French-language sources, both official archives and scholarly writings.
  1028. Find this resource:
  1029. McAleavy, Henry. Black Flags in Vietnam: A Story of Chinese Intervention. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1968.
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  1031. Provides a detailed history of the 1884–1885 Sino-French War, but also of the events leading up to that conflict as European expansion reached Southeast Asia. Explains how the regions traditionally referred to as Annam and Tonkin became known as Vietnam after 1802. Extensive bibliography of French-language sources.
  1032. Find this resource:
  1033. Germany
  1034.  
  1035. Germany’s imperial expansion was focused on Africa and the South Pacific, but Germany also established a naval base/colony at Tsingdao (Qingdao,青岛) on Kiaochow (Jiaozhou) Bay (胶州湾) on the Shandong peninsula. Schrecker 1971 is the most important English-language source of information about German imperial activities in China in the 19th and early 20th centuries. As can be seen from Smith 1978, Wehler 1972, and Stern 1977, the economic and political pressures created in Germany by the modern industrial revolution, and the accompanying ideological developments, were similar to what was occurring in the other industrial nations of the day. As Smith 1978 makes clear, the German views on the economic value of colonies derived primarily from the writings of Friedrich List (b. 1789–d. 1846). Wehler 1972 explains the important distinction between a reluctant imperialist like Bismarck and an enthusiastic imperialist like Kaiser Wilhelm II. Stern’s biography of Bismarck (Stern 1977) is particularly valuable for illuminating the role of the banker Gerson Bleichröder in Bismarck’s career. Knoll and Hiery 2010 provides an interesting collection of archival documents about Germany’s colonial experience, many of which are drawn from China. In their introduction, the authors say that “this collection seeks to highlight events on the micro level—what imperialism meant to the man or woman on the ground” (p. xviii). The arguments presented in Johannsen and Kraft 1937 make clear the links between Germany’s experiences with 19th-century imperialism, the Versailles Peace Treaty in 1919, and the rise of Hitler. Kirby 1984 discusses the conflict between the post-imperialist policies of the Weimar Republic and the neo-imperialist policies of the Third Reich; Adolphi and Merker 1998 focuses on the Third Reich’s shifting China policy.
  1036.  
  1037. Adolphi, Wolfram, and Peter Merker, eds. Deutschland und China 1937–1949: Politik-Militär-Wirtschaft-Kultur; Eine Quellensammlung. Berlin: Akadamie Verlag, 1998.
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  1039. A collection of illuminating documents, revealing Fascist Germany’s attempts to retain influence and shape events in China even as the German military alliance with Japan emerged. Extensive bibliography in German, Chinese, and English.
  1040. Find this resource:
  1041. Johannsen, G. Kurt, and H. H. Kraft. Germany’s Colonial Problem. Port Washington, NY, and London: Kennikat, 1937.
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  1043. Explicates Hitler’s grievances against the 1919 treaty. Argues that any modern industrial economy needs colonies, as secure sources of raw materials and export markets. Marxists saw these arguments as a criticism of capitalism, whereas Hitler (and Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm II before him) saw them as a justification for imperialism.
  1044. Find this resource:
  1045. Kirby, William C. Germany and Republican China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1984.
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  1047. Describes the complex history of German involvement in China: small-scale colonial inroads in Shandong, then “the removal of German imperialist pretensions” (p. 8) by World War I and emulation of Germany by Chinese leaders, until Hitler’s ambitions undercut the emerging cooperation. Provides extensive leads to Chinese- and German-language sources.
  1048. Find this resource:
  1049. Knoll, Arthur J., and Hermann J. Hiery. The German Colonial Experience: Select Documents on German Rule in Africa, China, and the Pacific, 1884–1914. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010.
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  1051. Translates interesting documents drawn from various official, journalistic, and private archives, organized by topics such as charter companies, governance, economy, infrastructure, religion, women in empire, race relations, and so on. Title notwithstanding, some of these documents date from as early as 1865. Introductory notes quite illuminating.
  1052. Find this resource:
  1053. Schrecker, John E. Imperialism and Chinese Nationalism: Germany in Shantung. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971.
  1054. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674865785Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1055. An essential work on German imperialism in China. Begins with the “crucial turning point” in 1859, when for the first time Prussia sent a naval fleet to China to “negotiate” a commercial treaty (p. 3), but concentrates on events between 1895 and 1915.
  1056. Find this resource:
  1057. Smith, Woodruff D. The German Colonial Empire. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1978.
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  1059. Although this book devotes only a few pages (pp. 112–116) to the specifics of German interests in China, it is an illuminating analysis of how support for imperialism gradually emerged in Germany over the 19th century, to “complete the logic” (p. 14) of the protectionist economic system advocated by Friedrich List.
  1060. Find this resource:
  1061. Stern, Fritz. Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichröder, and the Building of the German Empire. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.
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  1063. Valuable for understanding German imperialism—first under the reluctant imperialist, Bismarck, and then under the enthusiastic imperialist, Wilhelm II. Hobson and Lenin asserted that finance capital drove imperialism, but Bismarck expressed the contrary view that “the German capitalist is unsure of himself” (pp. 394–95).
  1064. Find this resource:
  1065. Wehler, Hans-Ulrich. “Industrial Growth and Early German Imperialism.” In Studies in the Theory of Imperialism. Edited by Roger Owen and Bob Sutcliffe, 71–92. London: Longmans, 1972.
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  1067. Argues that Bismarck strongly preferred indirect “open door” (free trade) imperialism to the direct imperialism of formal colonies, and pursued the latter only late in his career when the “preclusive” imperialism of rival nations (especially England and France) forced his hand.
  1068. Find this resource:
  1069. Great Britain
  1070.  
  1071. Although Britain was the leading industrial and military power during much of the era of imperialism, British imperial policy was primarily focused on the formal colonies, especially India, and on the colonies that became the Commonwealth. Thus China was relatively unimportant to Whitehall policymakers. Yet, paradoxically, Britain was nonetheless the most influential foreign power in China during much of this period. To understand China’s place in Britain’s larger imperial scene, Gallagher and Robinson 1953, Davis and Huttenback 1986, Cain and Hopkins 2002, and Darwin 2012 are all important. Gallagher and Robinson 1953 discusses the difference between informal (free trade) imperialism in the earlier years and more formal (protectionist) imperialism later. Davis and Huttenback 1986 is excellent for providing an introduction to the important archival sources. Cain and Hopkins 2002 argues that in Britain political power lay with “gentlemanly capitalists” (landowners, bankers, and others who had great wealth without demeaning themselves by visibly working), and that, by contrast, the newly emerging capitalists of Britain’s industrial revolution were relatively weak in the political/policy realm—Marx’s analysis to the contrary notwithstanding. Darwin 2012 provides a detailed description of the halting, uneasy steps by which the British Empire was built and eventually collapsed. Otte 2007 is very useful for illuminating the imperialist rivalry between Britain and other major powers in China. Brunero 2006 and Bickers 2011 both document the importance of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service—important to the Qing dynasty for providing reliable administration of the key revenue source, but equally important to Britain as an informal channel of influence with the Chinese government. Sa and Pan 1996 provides a well-researched Chinese view of Britain’s relationship with China.
  1072.  
  1073. Bickers, Robert. The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832–1914. London: Allen Lane, 2011.
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  1075. An important new history of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service and much, much more. Asserts, eloquently and persuasively, that “mere history matters in modern China, and the past is unfinished business” (p. 10). Exhaustive endnotes and helpful guidance to unpublished and archival sources.
  1076. Find this resource:
  1077. Brunero, Donna. Britain’s Imperial Cornerstone in China: The Chinese Maritime Customs Service, 1854–1949. Abingdon, UK, and New York: Routledge, 2006.
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  1079. Provides valuable details about the functioning of the Customs Service—“arguably the most important institution in China” during the late Qing/early Republican period (p. 1). Suggests that “the Service stood as a manifestation of British imperialism in Republican China” (p. 3). A useful guide to documentary archives.
  1080. Find this resource:
  1081. Cain, Peter J., and Antony G. Hopkins. British Imperialism, 1688–2000. 2d ed. Harlow, UK: Longman, 2002.
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  1083. Essential reading, eloquently written. Focuses on “that elusive creature, the English gentleman” (p. 34). Argues that imperialism served London (British financial interests), not Manchester (British manufacturing). Disagrees with Gallagher and Robinson, Marxists, and postmodernists, among others. Devotes two chapters to China, covering 1839–1911 and 1911–1949, respectively. Exhaustive footnotes; no bibliography.
  1084. Find this resource:
  1085. Darwin, John. Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2012.
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  1087. Argues persuasively that Britain’s empire was created not by abstract pressures of economics or ideology but by individual men and women “whose actions were shaped by motives and morals no less confused and demanding than those that govern us today” (p. xi). Excellent bibliographical guidance in “Further Reading” (pp. 445–456).
  1088. Find this resource:
  1089. Davis, Lance E., and Robert A. Huttenback, with the assistance of Susan Gray Davis. Mammon and the Pursuit of Empire: The Political Economy of British Imperialism, 1860–1912. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
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  1091. Mentions China only briefly, but nevertheless a valuable resource for understanding British imperialism. After painstaking archival research, in both government and business records, concludes that in the formal empire, “the British taxpayer paid and the colonies benefited” (p. 191). Quotes Disraeli: “Those wretched colonies [are] . . . a millstone around our neck” (p. 301).
  1092. Find this resource:
  1093. Gallagher, J. A., and R. Robinson. “The Imperialism of Free Trade.” Economic History Review, n.s. 6.1 (1953): 1–15.
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  1095. Important paper. Explicitly rejects the Hobson-Lenin assertion that British imperialism emerged in the 1880s. Argues, rather, that commercial expansionism—with both mercantilist and Manchester aspects—began much earlier, using informal political influence wherever possible and formal colonial conquest only as a last resort.
  1096. Find this resource:
  1097. Otte, Thomas G. The China Question: Great Power Rivalry and British Isolation, 1894–1905. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
  1098. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199211098.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1099. Illuminating discussion of imperial rivalries in China. Acknowledges the “profound irony” that although the great powers were keen to carve out colonial concessions, they also recognized that “the formal partition of China was best avoided” (p. 2). Extremely valuable for its bibliographical guidance to government archives and private papers.
  1100. Find this resource:
  1101. Sa Benren 萨本仁, and Pan Xingming 潘兴明. Ershi shiji de ZhongYing guanxi (二十世纪的中英关系). Shanghai: Renmin Chubanshe, 1996.
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  1103. Title notwithstanding, covers some pre-20th century events. Illuminating to read in parallel with British accounts—for example, this book devotes two pages (pp. 144–145) to the Wan County Massacre (Wanxian can’an, 万县惨案) in 1926, which Bickers 2011 (p. 189) covers only in a single sentence and without mentioning casualties.
  1104. Find this resource:
  1105. Italy
  1106.  
  1107. To date, the Italian experience with imperialism in China has been relatively little explored in non-Italian sources. One interesting exception is Marinelli 2012, a postmodernist analysis of the Italian community in Tianjin. Another exception is Smith 2012, a fragmented book but a useful starting point nonetheless. Ben-Ghiaf and Fuller 2005 provides a global setting for Italy’s imperialism but does not cover events in China.
  1108.  
  1109. Ben-Ghiaf, Ruth, and Mia Fuller, eds. Italian Colonialism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
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  1111. Much useful information about Italian imperialism generally, from a postmodernist perspective, focused entirely on events in Africa. No mention of China. Extensive bibliography.
  1112. Find this resource:
  1113. Marinelli, Maurizio. “An Italian ‘Neighbourhood’ in Tianjin.” In Twentieth-Century Colonialism and China: Localities, the Everyday, and the World. Edited by Bryna Goodman and David S. G. Goodman, 92–107. London and New York: Routledge, 2012.
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  1115. Discusses why, in terms of the self-serving rhetoric of colonialism, the Italians characterized the settlement in Tianjin as a neighborhood rather than a concession. Provides revealing insights into the insecurities of Fascist Italy. An explicit application of Foucault’s vocabulary and conceptualization to imperialism.
  1116. Find this resource:
  1117. Smith, Shirley Ann. Imperial Designs: Italians in China, 1900–1947. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2012.
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  1119. Argues that Italy sought imperial privilege in China almost entirely from an unwise, ill-prepared emulation of more powerful European states. Chapter 2 (pp. 25–65) provides a translation of Luigi Barzini’s illuminating journalistic accounts of the Boxer Uprising. Chapter 4 (pp. 99–128) provides a brief account of Mussolini’s attempt to curry favor with Chiang Kai-shek.
  1120. Find this resource:
  1121. Japan
  1122.  
  1123. Although Japan was a late entrant into what is commonly referred to as the “scramble for concessions,” it was ultimately the imperial power that penetrated most extensively into Chinese territory and created the most bitter memories, which deeply color relations between the two nations to this day. The overall story of Japan’s role in Chinese history can be found in English in Fairbank 1992 and Spence 1990 (both cited under Historians’ Overviews; extensive materials in Chinese can be found in the eight volumes of Wang 1979–1982). Fogel 2009 also provides an illuminating perspective on Sino-Japanese relations. The articles in Duus, et al. 1989 shed much light on Japanese imperialism in China over the entire period from 1895 to 1937. The papers in Akita and White 2010 explore two themes: the complex interaction—partly conflict, partly complementarity—between British and Japanese imperialism as it played out in intra-Asian trade and investment, and the continuities/discontinuities between the 1930s and the 1950s. Two informative analyses of the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), which was a crucial turning point in the history of imperialism in China, can be found in Qi 2005 and Saya 2011. A postmodernist perspective on Japan’s role in northeast China is provided in Duara 2003. The infamous Nanjing Massacre of 1937 is chronicled and assessed in Yoshida 2006. A valuable survey of the second Sino-Japanese War (World War II) is provided by Hsiung and Levine 1992. For further discussion of the second Sino-Japanese War, see also Mitter 2013 and van den Ven 2003 (both cited under Military Affairs).
  1124.  
  1125. Akita, Shigeru, and Nicholas White. The International Order of Asia in the 1930s and 1950s. Farnham, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010.
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  1127. Chapter by Akita (pp. 17–48) argues that the relationship between Great Britain and Japan was complementary in several important aspects. Chapter by Cumings (pp. 103–130) stresses the central role of Korea in Japanese imperialism. Both quite informative.
  1128. Find this resource:
  1129. Duara, Prasenjit. Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.
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  1131. Provocative postmodernist analysis of the assimilation of Dongbei (东北) from its initial status as culturally and politically separate from China through two competing forms of imperialism—the external variety (creation of the artificial nation-state Manchukuo, controlled by the Japanese military) and the internal variety (mass immigration of Han Chinese).
  1132. Find this resource:
  1133. Duus, Peter, Ramon H. Myers, and Mark R. Peattie, eds. The Japanese Informal Empire in China, 1895–1937. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.
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  1135. An important book. Duus notes that “what often obfuscates the study of modern imperialism is the fact that not every imperialistic relationship is necessarily a colonial one” (p. xi). Duus also makes the important point that imperialism is based on mythologies, and that the Japanese created “potent and complex” myths about China to justify their expansionism (p. xiii).
  1136. Find this resource:
  1137. Fogel, Joshua A. Articulating the Sinosphere: Sino-Japanese Relations in Space and Time. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.
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  1139. Focuses more on the cultural than the economic issues in this relationship. In three essays, presents three perspectives: macrohistory, microhistory, and the in-between approach. Notes that each approach has strengths and weaknesses.
  1140. Find this resource:
  1141. Hsiung, James C., and Stephen I. Levine, eds. China’s Bitter Victory: The War with Japan, 1937–1945. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1992.
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  1143. Covers many aspects of the war: political, military, economic, diplomatic, etc. Places Yoshida 2006 in the larger context.
  1144. Find this resource:
  1145. Qi Qizhang 戚其章. Jiawu zhanzheng shi (甲午战争史). Shanghai: Renmin Chubanshe, 2005.
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  1147. Detailed account of the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) by China’s preeminent historian on the subject. For the underlying archival materials, see Qi Qizhang 戚其章, ed., Zhong-Ri zhanzheng (中日战争), 11 vols. (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1989–1996).
  1148. Find this resource:
  1149. Saya, Makito. The Sino-Japanese War and the Birth of Japanese Nationalism. Translated by David Noble. Tokyo: International House of Japan, 2011.
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  1151. Originally published in Japanese in 2009. Very much in the school of Said, not Lenin: how culture (songs, literature, theatre, newspapers, etc.) shaped imperialism. Little mention of economics. Discusses emergence of Japan as a modern nation-state.
  1152. Find this resource:
  1153. Wang Yunsheng 王芸生, comp. Liushi nian lai Zhongguo yu Riben (六十年来中国与日本). 8 vols. Beijing: Sanlian Shudian, 1979–1982.
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  1155. The sixty years referred to in the title cover approximately 1871–1931. Extensive archival materials about China’s relations with Japan during this period.
  1156. Find this resource:
  1157. Yoshida, Takashi. The Making of the “Rape of Nanking”: History and Memory in Japan, China and the United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
  1158. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195180961.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1159. Carefully examines in three parallel strands how the history of the Nanjing Massacre of 1937 has been constructed in Japan, China (including Taiwan), and the United States as conflicting narratives heavily influenced by perceptions of nationalism and ethnicity. Valuable bibliography.
  1160. Find this resource:
  1161. Taiwan
  1162.  
  1163. Japanese imperial control of Taiwan from 1895 to 1945 is an important chapter in the history of Taiwan, but not the whole story. Taken together, Ho 1978, Ka 1995, and Barclay 1954 provide a multifaceted overview of Taiwan’s development as a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945. Chang and Myers 1963 and Matsuda 2008 discuss the bureaucracy that shaped these developments. Shepherd 1993 and Kleeman 2003 provide important correctives to the oversimplified narrative of Japanese imperialism against China and suggest instead a complicated sequential history of imperialism, first by Europeans and Chinese, and later by Japanese against Taiwan’s aboriginal people.
  1164.  
  1165. Barclay, George W. Colonial Development and Population in Taiwan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1954.
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  1167. Focuses on demographic issues in Taiwan as a Japanese colony: growth of population, migration, patterns of fertility, public health issues, etc.
  1168. Find this resource:
  1169. Chang, Han-Yu, and Ramon H. Myers. “Japanese Colonial Development Policy in Taiwan, 1985–1906: A Case of Bureaucratic Entrepreneurship.” Journal of Asian Studies 22.4 (August 1963): 433–449.
  1170. DOI: 10.2307/2049857Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1171. Argues that Japanese control of Taiwan after 1895 provided significant political and economic improvements compared to earlier Qing control, including reduced corruption, better infrastructure, and improved support of commercial agriculture.
  1172. Find this resource:
  1173. Ho, Samuel P. S. Economic Development of Taiwan, 1860–1970. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1978.
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  1175. Summarizes the economic development, both agricultural and industrial, of Taiwan. Chapters 1–6 cover the Japanese period. Argues that “because postcolonial Taiwan inherited a more integrated economy, it had a considerable head start, in comparison to the other ex-colonies, in its efforts to industrialize” (p. 40).
  1176. Find this resource:
  1177. Ka, Chih-ming. Japanese Colonialism in Taiwan: Land Tenure, Development, and Dependency, 1895–1945. Foreword by Sidney W. Mintz. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1995.
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  1179. Analyzes the important role of agriculture in Taiwan’s development under the Japanese, and in particular focuses on the cropping competition between rice (the crop that was essential to the aboriginals and Chinese) and sugar (the crop that was important to Japan’s colonial goals).
  1180. Find this resource:
  1181. Kleeman, Faye Yuan. Under an Imperial Sun: Japanese Colonial Literature of Taiwan and the South. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2003.
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  1183. Essential reading. Provides careful analysis of Japanese writings about Taiwan—both in fiction (by such authors as Nakamura Chihei 中村地平, Nishikawa Mitsuru 西川满, and others) and in nonfiction (by ethnographers such as Inō Kanori 伊能嘉矩 and Torii Ryūzō 鳥居龍藏).
  1184. Find this resource:
  1185. Matsuda Toshihiko 松田利彦, ed. Nihon no Chōsen, Taiwan shihai to shokuminchi kanryō (日本の朝鮮・台湾支配と植民地官僚). Kyoto: Ningen Bunka Kenkyū Kikō Kokusai Nihon Bunka Kenkyū, 2008.
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  1187. Papers from a 2007 conference on “Bureaucracy of the Japanese Colonial Empire.” Papers on pp. 89–185 focus on Taiwan.
  1188. Find this resource:
  1189. Shepherd, John Robert. Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier 1600–1800. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press 1993.
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  1191. Careful scholarly survey of Taiwan’s long-time history: the earliest settlement by aboriginal tribal groups (non-Han peoples pushed out of southern China in Neolithic times), then imperial/colonial interaction with Europeans (especially the Dutch) and with military/political power from China (most notably with the Ming loyalist Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong 鄭成功) in the late 17th century).
  1192. Find this resource:
  1193. Russia/Soviet Union
  1194.  
  1195. As Clubb 1971 and Hsü 1965 document, Russia had territorial ambitions in Central Asia from a relatively early date, where it encountered rivalries from both England and China in what came to be called the “Great Game” by the British and the “Tournament of Shadows” by the Russians. Russia also developed territorial ambitions in eastern Asia. An early chapter of this story in the 1850s is described in Bassin 1999. By the 1890s, under Sergei Witte’s leadership, Russian expansion into Siberia and then Manchuria was embodied in the Trans-Siberian Railroad, as chronicled in Romanov 1952 (first published in 1928) and von Laue 1963. This led to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. Nish 1985 explores the political and military aspects of the war; Wells and Wilson 1999 describes the cultural side of the story. (For other perspectives on this important event, see Connaughton 2003 and Paine 2003, both cited under Military Affairs.) The Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 overthrew the Romanov tsardom and brought the USSR into existence. However, as Tang 1959 documents, Russian territorial ambitions were not extinguished in 1917.
  1196.  
  1197. Bassin, Mark. Imperial Visions: Nationalist Imagination and Geographical Expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840–1865. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
  1198. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511493638Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1199. Describes an early chapter of Russian expansion into the Amur region (eastern Siberia) in the 1850s, formalized in treaties with China dated 1858 and 1860. Argues that the motivation was primarily grounded in a poetic vision (“Amur euphoria” in Bassin’s words), not in any objective Russian interest—economic or otherwise.
  1200. Find this resource:
  1201. Clubb, O. Edmund. China and Russia: The “Great Game.” New York: Columbia University Press, 1971.
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  1203. Describes the early contact between the Manchu dynasty in China (1644–1912) and the Romanov dynasty in Russia (1613–1917), and the essential role played in Central Asia by the Mongols; also describes the succeeding chapter of contact between Bolshevik Russia and Republican China.
  1204. Find this resource:
  1205. Hsü, Immanuel C. Y. The Ili Crisis: A Study of Sino-Russian Diplomacy, 1871–1881. Oxford: Clarendon, 1965.
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  1207. Examines the episode of complex imperialist rivalries known as the Ili Crisis, in which China faced “a disastrous war or a humiliating peace” (p. 1). China successfully challenged Russia’s incursion into Xinjiang. England advised the Chinese. France intervened to discourage war, so as to keep Russia strong to constrain Germany in Europe.
  1208. Find this resource:
  1209. Nish, Ian. The Origins of the Russo-Japanese War. London and New York: Longman, 1985.
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  1211. Nish’s use of Japanese archives complements Romanov’s use of Russian archives (see Romanov 1952). Careful analysis of the origins of the war—who supported it, who opposed it, and why? The fundamental cause was undoubtedly a clash of national imperialisms, involving political, strategic, economic, and other interests, real or perceived.
  1212. Find this resource:
  1213. Romanov, B. A. Russia in Manchuria (1892–1906). Translated by Susan Wilbur Jones. Ann Arbor, MI: J. W. Edwards, 1952.
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  1215. Russian text published in 1928. Based on extensive archival materials covering Witte’s aggressive expansion into Manchuria. The Trans-Siberian Railroad, begun in 1892, was—in Witte’s words—consciously intended to strengthen Russia’s “control over the entire movement of international commerce in Pacific waters” by reinforcing the naval base at Vladivostok (p. 2).
  1216. Find this resource:
  1217. Tang, Peter H. S. Russian and Soviet Policy in Manchuria and Outer Mongolia, 1911–1931. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1959.
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  1219. Argues that, even after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, “modern Russian history is a more or less consistent record of territorial expansion” (p. ix). By 1931, Outer Mongolia was effectively absorbed into the Russian orbit, while in Manchuria competing Japanese ambitions restrained Russian expansion.
  1220. Find this resource:
  1221. von Laue, Theodore H. Sergei Witte and the Industrialization of Russia. New York: Columbia University Press, 1963.
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  1223. Witte, Minister of Finance from 1892 to 1903, urged Tsar Nicholas II to support industrialization “to satisfy the needs of Russia and of the Asiatic countries which are—or should be—under our influence” (p. 3). Witte pushed construction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad “to capture Chinese markets from the English” (p. 82).
  1224. Find this resource:
  1225. Wells, David, and Sandra Wilson, eds. The Russo-Japanese War in Cultural Perspective, 1904–05. New York: St. Martin’s, 1999.
  1226. DOI: 10.1057/9780230514584Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1227. This volume is concerned not with the events of the war itself, “but with its symbolic meaning in the home countries of the belligerents, its influence on intellectual, political and aesthetic thought” (p. xi). This is a study of imperialism very much in the school of Said, not of Lenin.
  1228. Find this resource:
  1229. United States of America
  1230.  
  1231. Cohen 2010, Fairbank 1983, and Hunt 1983 are all valuable books, essential to a nuanced understanding of American imperialism in China. All three also provide superb bibliographies. May and Fairbank 1986 provides historical perspective on various aspects of American trade with China. Downs 1968, based on extensive business archives, documents the American role in selling opium to China. Anderson 1986 covers the same events as the other books but focuses on the biographies of several important American diplomats—hence, understandably, it concentrates on official US policy. Ninkovich 2001 acknowledges the role of both commerce and geopolitics in American imperialism but argues that the more fundamental explanation lay in national insecurities.
  1232.  
  1233. Anderson, David L. Imperialism and Idealism: American Diplomats in China, 1861–1889. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.
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  1235. Demonstrates that “official United States policies toward China have been ambivalent and inconsistent” (p. viii). Pointing out the basic alliance between prayer (missionary activity) and profit (commercial activity), argues (p. 4) that “the inextricable link between American ideals and interests made the line between altruism and selfishness very thin.”
  1236. Find this resource:
  1237. Cohen, Warren. America’s Response to China: A History of Sino-American Relations. 5th ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.
  1238. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1239. Describes America’s sanctimonious free ride on England’s aggressive expansionism: “The lion roared and made the kill; the jackal smiled and picked the bones” (p. 20). Extended discussion of the role of missionaries (p. 49): “Despite the idealism of the missionaries, they functioned as a part of the treaty system.”
  1240. Find this resource:
  1241. Downs, Jacques M. “American Merchants and the China Opium Trade, 1800–1840.” Business History Review 42.4 (1968): 418–442.
  1242. DOI: 10.2307/3112527Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1243. Documents the important role of American merchants in the opium trade. Asserts that the Americans “managed to circumvent both the East India Company’s franchise and the Chinese Government’s prohibition and carried on a very lucrative, if antisocial and ultimately ruinous trade” (p. 419).
  1244. Find this resource:
  1245. Fairbank, John K. The United States and China. 4th ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983.
  1246. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1247. Essential reading. As Edwin O. Reischauer writes in the foreword, “no one has written more clearly or perceptively about China during the past three decades than John Fairbank, and no one has contributed more to American understanding of that country” (p. xii).
  1248. Find this resource:
  1249. Hunt, Michael H. The Making of a Special Relationship: The United States and China to 1914. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.
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  1251. Essential reading for understanding the US-China relationship, including—the title notwithstanding—the years after 1914 up to the present day. Argues persuasively that the “special relationship” was not the altruistic friendship portrayed in American political mythology, but rather the story of two peoples “locked in conflict” (p. 300). Extremely valuable bibliography.
  1252. Find this resource:
  1253. May, Ernest R., and John K. Fairbank, eds. America’s China Trade in Historical Perspective: The Chinese and American Performance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986.
  1254. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1255. A collection of specialists’ papers about diverse aspects of US-China trade.
  1256. Find this resource:
  1257. Ninkovich, Frank. The United States and Imperialism. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001.
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  1259. Provocative perspective. Challenges traditional narratives about American imperialism. Ninkovich argues that his interpretation is “more consistent with America’s liberal sensibility” (p. 2). He places American imperialism in China in the larger context of other events, especially the “splendid little war” with Spain over Cuba and the Philippines (John Hay’s phrase).
  1260. Find this resource:
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