British Travel Writing from China, 1798–1901
Editor: Elizabeth H Chang
978 1 85196 625 7: 234x156mm: £450.00/$795.00
This five-volume reset edition draws together British travel writings about China from a range of different sources. Although often marked by personal prejudice or ignorance, a large degree of thoughtful exchange with the land and people of Qing Dynasty China is evident. From the earliest official expeditions to China, until the Boxer Uprising, the writings here represent works of compelling scholarly interest, but which are not widely available.
The sources reveal the conceptual importance of the Chinese empire to the development of the nineteenth-century European world consciousness. Scholars from a variety of disciplines have noted the absence of materials on China as a major obstacle to a more complete understanding of Sino-British relations in the age of empires.
Most of the travelogues included in this edition are republished in full.
This edition will be important for scholars of Nineteenth-Century Studies, Religious Studies, Travel Writing and Historical Geography.
Sample pages
Contents
Volume 1: Early Encounters, 1798–1824
General Introduction
S Holmes, The Journal of Mr Samuel Holmes (1798); G Wilkinson, Sketches of Chinese Customs & Manners (1814); G T Staunton, Notes of Proceedings and Occurrences during the British Embassy to Peking in 1816 (1824)
Volume 2: Mid-Century Explorations, 1841–1863
J L Scott, Narrative of a Recent Imprisonment in China after the Wreck of the Kite (1841); W H Medhurst, A Glance at the Interior of China (1850); T W Blakiston, Five Months on the Yangtze (1862); G Fleming, Travels on Horseback in Mantchu Tartary (1863)
Volume 3: Expanding Frontiers, 1866–1877
N B Dennys, Notes for Tourists in the North of China (1866); J Dinwiddie, Biographical Memoir of James Dinwiddie (1868); R Swinhoe, Reports by Consul Swinhoe of His Special Mission up the River Yang-tsze-kiang (1870); A R Margary, Notes of a Journey from Hankow to Ta-li-Fu (1875); Anon, Guide for Tourists to Peking and its Environs (1876); N Elias, A Visit to the Valley of the Shueli, in Western Yunnan (1877)
Volume 4: New Perspectives, 1882–1889
E C Baber, 'A Journey of Exploration in Western Ssu-Ch'uan' (1882); I Williamson, Old Highways in China (1884); W S Percival, The Land of the Dragon (1889); G Guinness, In the Far East: Letters from Geraldine Guinness in China (1889)
Volume 5: Century’s End, 1892–1901
T M Morris, A Winter in North China (1892); S B J Skertchly, Our Island: A Naturalist’s Description of Hong Kong (1893); H T Wade, With Boat and Gun (1895); W A Cornaby, Rambles in Central China (1896); A Little, My Diary in a Chinese Farm (1898); H Davies, Among Hills and Valleys in Western China (1901)