Bickers, R. (1992). Changing British Attitudes to China and the Chinese, 1928-1931: Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Peer reviewed version Link to publication record in Explore Bristol Research PDF-document Copyright Robert Bickers, 1992 University of Bristol - Explore Bristol Research General rights This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/red/research-policy/pure/user-guides/ebr-terms/ Changing British Attitudes to China and the Chinese, 1928-1931 Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosphy Robert A. Bickers School of Oriental and African Studies University of London 1992 Copyright 1992 Robert Bickers Abstract This study examines the context and nature of British attitudes to China and the Chinese in the period 1928 to 1931, between the initial consolidation of the Nationalist Revolution in China and the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. The relationship between official and popular levels of this discourse provides the dominant theme of this work. It is argued that these years saw the start of a major long-term shift in British attitudes prompted by the Nationalist Revolution and by changes in Britain's official policy towards China. A wide range of official, institutional, and private primary and secondary material relating to Sino-British relations and to British treaty port life in China is examined in order to identify the sources, nature, and influence of British attitudes. The introduction surveys the existing literature on "attitudes" and "images" and outlines the limitations of traditionally textually-based approaches. Part 1 examines metropolitan and treaty port sources of British attitudes and their articulation and relates these to the structure and mores of British society in China, its socialisation of new arrivals, and its relations with the Chinese as hosts, competitors, colleagues, customers and employees. It shows the extent to which hostile and suspicious attitudes towards the Chinese pervaded British popular culture, diplomacy and treaty port society. Part 2 describes the nature and limitations of British attempts at social and institutional reform in the three main sectors of British society: the structures of treaty port life, businesses and missions. Although British residents accepted the need for reform, in practice they were insular and conservative. Furthermore, successful changes were introduced with the intention of protecting the British presence in China rather than changing its character. This work concludes, however, that genuine attempts were made in this period by influential individuals to alter the character of British treaty port life, and treaty port attitudes, and that the long-term repercussions of these efforts underlie improvements in Sino-British cultural relations since 1928. This study is a contribution to the social history of the foreign communities in China, the history of Sino-British relations and the social history of British attitudes to China and the Chinese. Acknowledgements Those who have helped me in practical or supportive terms over the last four years are too numerous to mention. Long live the professions of Archivist and Librarian. Special thanks, however, should go to my supervisor, Professor T.H. Barrett, and to the following, who have all read and commented on different parts of this work: Dr. Sinharajah Tammitta Delgoda, Dr. Frank Dikötter, Jane Duckett, Jessica Harrison- Hall, George Hood, Jennifer Summit, Dr. R.G. Tiedemann and Susan Whitfield. To the following many thanks for diferent types of support at diferent times and in different ways: Ray Hills and Carol Murphy, Patricia, Bill and Evelyn Bickers, Adam Brookes, Lisa Clothier, Jessica Harrison-Hall, Stephen LLoyd and Charles Bickers. Those unamed are not forgotten. To my parents Bob and Joan, unrequitable gratitude for patience, respite, succour, belief and the electronics. Contents Acknowledgments List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Note on the Transliteration of Chinese words Introduction "A message from some Chinese friends" Part 1 - The structure, formation and articulation of British attitudes Chapter two Chinese Characteristics and treaty port society: an armour of false facts? Chapter three British society in China in 1928 - "An Empire of men, and tenth rate men at that." Part two - Changing British attitudes, 1928-1931 Chapter four British diplomats, Chinese nationalism and treaty port society. Chapter five British businesses and revolutionary nationalism: bayonets into shares. Chapter six British protestant missions and Chinese nationalism: "to serve and not to rule." Conclusion Bibliography List of Illustrations Figure 1: Anti-British propaganda, Sichuan province, 1926, North p.47 China Daily News, China in Chaos, Shanghai, 1927 Figure 2 : Frontispiece, Punch, volume 172, 1927. Figure 3: Cover illustration from Edgar Wallace, The Governor of Chi-Foo, London, 1929. Figure 4: "Waiguo huotui" [foreign ham], from Shanghai suyu tushuo [Illustrated explanations of Shanghai colloquialisms], Suzhou, 1948, p.204. Figure 5: "Sapajou" cartoon, North China Herald, 20/8/27, p.315. Figure 6: The consequences of the activities of British traders, anti-British caricature, Huang Wennong, 1927, Zhongguo manhua shi, Beijing, 1986, p.62. Figure 7: Anti-missionary propaganda, Sichuan province, 1925, North China Daily News, China in Chaos, Shanghai, 1927, p.47. List of Abbreviations used in text and in footnotes ADM Admiralty records APC Asiatic Petroleum Company BAT British American Tobacco, Company, Ltd. BCCJ Journal of the British Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai BMCT British Municipal Council Tientsin BMS Baptist Mission Society BOE Bank of England BRA British Resdients' Association BS Butterfield and Swire BT Board of Trade records CCC Church of Christ in China CIM China Inland Mission CET China Express and Telegraph CMC Chinese Maritime Customs CMSNCo China Merchants Steam Navigation Company CNCo China Navigation Company CR Chinese Recorder DOT Department of Overseas Trade EPM English Presbyterian Mission FBI Federation of British Industries FO Foreign Office records FSC Friends Service Council GMD Guomindang [National People's Party] HSB Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation ICI Imperial Chemical Industries IOLR India Office Library and Records IWM Imperial War Museum JS John Swire and Sons, Ltd. KMA Kailan Mining Administration LMS London Missionary Society NARA United States National Archives and Records Authority NCC National Christian Council NCDN North China Daily News NCSN North China Sunday News NCH North China Herald NMM National Maritime Museum PCE Presbyterian Church of England RAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, North China RG Record Group SAD Special Administrative District [often former foreign Concessions] SDF Shanghai Defence Force SMC Shanghai Municipal Council SMP Shanghai Municipal Police SOS School of Oriental Studies SP Swire Papers SPB Shanghai Publicity Bureau SVC Shanghai Volunteer Corps TBCI Tientsin British Committee of Information TBMC Tientsin British Municipal Council UCC Universities' China Committee WMMS Wesleyan Methodist Mission Society WO War Office records, Public Records Office, Kew Note on the transliteration of Chinese names In accordance with increasingly standard practice the modern Hanyu pinyin system has been used in the transliteration of Chinese names. The exceptions are the retention of "Sun Yatsen" and also those transliterations for which the correct Chinese characters can not be found. Contemporary transliterations, such as H.H. Kung or T.V. Sung, will be used only in the first instance together with the pinyin version which will be used thereafter. Contemporary transliterations of place names are retained in organisational titles (for example, Tientsin Womens' Club) and in references. Chapter 1: Introduction “A Message from some Chinese Friends” On March 7, 1928 the Chargé d’Affaires of the Chinese Legation in London complained to the British Foreign Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain about “the increasing tendency in Dramas and Plays which are now being produced in London to represent Chinese people in consistently vicious and objectionable form.” “No other Oriental nation,” he continued, “is thus singled out for objectionable dramatic treatment, so far as its people are concerned.”1 The Foreign Office passed on his complaint to the Lord Chamberlain’s office whose response was a bemused rebuff, tempered before being passed along to the legation.2 Two months later G.W. Swire, a director of John Swire and Sons in London, having received a letter from Joseph Bailie, a professor at the Chinese Institute of Technical Training in Shanghai, wrote to his Hong Kong and Shanghai managers that Bailie: gave us what he called a “message from some Chinese friends”. Although he said expressly that he was merely alluding to a general principle applicable to foreigners as a whole, this message was... a lesson in manners and can be summarised in the following incident... It sounds perhaps a little near home, but we are perfectly certain he did not have us in mind. Dr. Woo, the director or manager of Han Yang, wishing to arrange a charter, came into the office of a foreign firm and finding the shipping clerk out, sat down to read the paper. The shipping