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Transferring Technology to China A publication of the Institute of East Asian Studies University of California Berkeley, California 94720 The China Research Monograph series is one of several publications series sponsored by the Institute of East Asian Studies in conjunction with its three constituent units—the Center for Chinese Studies, the Center for Japanese Studies, and the Center for Korean Studies. The others include the Korea Research Monograph series, the Japan Research Monograph series, and the Research Papers and Policy Studies series. The Institute sponsors also a Faculty Reprint series. Correspondence may be sent to: Publications Office Institute of East Asian Studies University of California Berkeley, California 94720 CHINA RESEARCH MONOGRAPH 28 INSTITUTE OF EAST ASIAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA • BERKELEY CENTER FOR CHINESE STUDIES Transferring Technology to China Prosper Giquel and the Self-strengthening Movement Steven A. Leibo Although the Institute of East Asian Studies is responsible for the selection and acceptance of manuscripts in this series, responsibility for the opinions expressed and for the accuracy of statements rests with their authors. Copyright ® 1985 by the Regents of the University of California ISBN 0-912966-76-9 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 85-60380 Printed in the United States of America Contents Foreword vii Acknowledgments. ix Portrait ofProsper Giquel. xii Introduction 1 I. The Making of a China Hand 6 II. The Ever-Triumphant Army 26 III. Sojourn in France and the End of the Taiping Kingdom 41 IV. Prosper Giquel and the Origins of the Fuzhou Dockyard; 1840-1867 61 V. Directing the Fuzhou Dockyard 88 VI. Progress and Accomplishment at the Fuzhou Dockyard 107 VII. Diplomacy and Disillusionment 132 VIII. Conclusion 153 Bibliography 162 Index 172 To the memory of Barbara (Shane) Leibo and for my wfe Sara Zaidspiner-Leibo Foreword It is rare when a single human being during his or her lifetime grapples with many of the central issues of a major period in world history. It is even more unusual when such an individual is neither monarch nor millionaire, but a minor military official serving halfway around the world from his homeland. The Frenchman Prosper Giquel was such a man. The late nineteenth century found him standing at the interface of European and Chinese civilization as China entered a new era in which the lofty isolation of the ancient empire would give way to the irresistible pressure of imperialism. In this unprecedented historical setting, Prosper Giquel's unique blend of talents enabled him to move beyond his role as an agent of imperialism to become a conduit through which cultural influences passed readily. His career dealt directly with many of the issues that subsequently emerged as the principal foci of East-West relations in the twentieth century; military cooperation, transfer of technology, language acquisition, intercultural education, and internal negotiations. His talents as a linguist and an intercultural communicator, and above all his deep human concern for the Chinese with whom he worked, enabled him to set a civilized and productive tone in East-West relations. If such a tone was disappointingly discordant in Giquel's day, today it is our best hope for intercultural cooperation. But Giquel's accomplishments came at a high cultural cost. Dealing with this issue. Dr. Leibo's work passes beyond the scope of a period study in Chinese-European relations and confronts a problem as old as the coming of foreigners to China: sinicization. Like many who had arrived before him to change China, Giquel succumbed, after prolonged exposure, to the powerfully seductive forces of Chinese civilization. Cultural influences gradually mitigated his imperialist biases and molded his perspective in ways that ultimately led his countrymen to view him as a cultural defector to the Chinese. Students of late nineteenth-century China will find fresh perspectives in this volume on many of the major events of that era. Employing Giquel's personal diary and extensive correspondence gleaned from major European archives, Leibo retraces Giquel's involvement with China from viii Transferring Technology to China the occupation of Guangzhou in 1858 to the Sino-French War of the mid-1880s. We see the Sino-French contingent that aided in pacification of the Taipings as a crucible in which the Chinese and foreign components of the Self-strengthening Movement were fused. We view the giant Fuzhou Dockyard, as its founders did, as an educational institution. And we learn of a Chinese educational mission to Europe that was a quiet success. In contemporary East-West relations there is probably no issue more pressing than the transfer of technology. Like the Self-strengthening Movement of the nineteenth century, the Four Modernizations Campaign, the principal economic policy of the People's Republic of China, is heavily dependent on the acquisition and assimilation of foreign technology. There is no place better than the pages of history in which to discover the pitfalls that can beset this complex intercultural process. Giquel's activities in China provide a close view of the transfer of technology with its many frustrations and infrequent satisfactions. The significance of this study for those involved in technical and educational relations with China can hardly be overstated. In these pages the reader will find an unexpected bonus, the unfolding of an intensely human drama. Giquel's career in China, an unending struggle for the advancement of the Chinese, culminated with cruel irony. In 1884 French ships laid waste the Fuzhou Dockyard, the principal monument to this Frenchman's labors for his adopted homeland. In the last months of his life, however, Giquel must have been heartened by the news that Franco-Chinese relations had been re-established and that a new educational mission had set out for Europe. Dr. Leibo began this study as a doctoral dissertation in the Department of History at Washington State University. He brought to his work a rich background in European history and languages and a keen understanding of the development of modern China. His discovery of Giquel's personal papers and his careful and comprehensive use of European archival materials have resulted in a study of Sino-Western interaction that abounds with new information for the specialist. The general reader will find his analyses of intercultural problems provocative and a valuable mirror for contemporary events. Thomas L. Kennedy Washington State University July 1983 Acknowledgments A large number of teachers, archivists, friends, and organizations have contributed to this study. Joachim Remak of the University of California at Santa Barbara first introduced me to the subtleties and humility necessary to the field. At Washington State University, Thomas L. Kennedy contributed enormously to my training in East-West relations and my understanding of the Chinese Self-strengthening Movement. Two other historians, Immanuel C.Y. Hsii and Joseph Chen, have also improved my knowledge of China. Howard C. Payne aided enormously in my development as a European historian. My debt to Professor Payne cannot easily be repaid. Additionally Taketsugu Tsurutani, Robert Grathwol, and Marianne Bastid offered invaluable guidance during the early stages of the research and writing for this work. The research for this book would not have been possible without the award of a Fulbright Fellowship, which allowed a year's work in Paris. While in Europe I became indebted to a number of institutions including the Bibliotheque Nationale, the Archives National, the Archives de I'Armee de Terre, the Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres, and the Service Historique de la Marine. I am particularly grateful for the interest and support I received from the staff of the naval archives. In Great Britain, the staffs of the School of Oriental and African Studies, the British Museum, and the Public Record Office helped profoundly. Though most of this monograph is based on European archives, several American libraries have helped in its preparation. At Washington State University the library staff offered important assistance. Elsewhere, the staff at the Harvard-Yenching Institute, the Hoover and Green libraries at Stanford, and the library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are to be commended. Prosper Giquel's granddaughter, Madame la Baronne d'Ussel, deserves a special word of thanks for giving me access not only to Giquel's papers, but to the hospitality of her home. I hope my efforts to explain her grandfather's career meet with her approval. A number of other people have provided substantive support. Wu Yung-ming offered invaluable help with Chinese sources, and Lewis X Transferring Technology to China Chere offered important advice on chapter seven. Debbie Weston worked with me on a companion volume translation of Giquel's 1864 diary, and Fred C. Bohm, Lee Ann Smith-Trafzer, Cliff Trafzer, Fritz Blackwell, and Bob Swartout provided the support one must have to complete a project of this size. My wife, Sara Zaidspiner-Leibo was a major aid in the editing of the final manuscript, and I am very grateful. Last but not least, my mother, Barbara (Shane) Leibo, who died while the research was being carried out, told me I could do it. That is, after all, the best support any one can ever offer. To her memory this work is warmly dedicated. Steven A. Leibo, a native of California, received his B.A. (1972) and M.A. (1974) from the University of California at Santa Barbara and the Ph.D. (1982) from Washington State University. During the 1979-1980 academic year he lived in Paris as a Fulbright-Hays scholar. He has served as the Associate Director of Asian Studies at Washington State University and has taught at a number of institutions including Blackburn College and the University of Cincinnati. He is the editor of Journal of the Chinese Civil War, 1864, by Prosper Giquel, and is currently on the faculty of the Albany campus of Russell Sage College.

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