English Lessons, James L. Hevia, Duke Univ. Press, 2003 CHAPTER 1 Introduction:Imperialism, Colonialism, and China THE TITLE OF TH 1s BOOK was inspired by a gruesome scene of public execu­ tions that took place in Beijing, China, in the autumn of 1900 (fig. r). This photograph, along with three others, was published in a booklet by the Visi­ tors' Inquiry Association in Brighton, the popular beach resort on England's south coast. On the cover, black letters against a deep red background pro­ claim UniquePhoto9raphs ofthe Executionof Boxers in China.1 When I first opened the slim booklet to this image, my eyes were drawn to and almost as quickly repelled by the beheaded bodies in the left foreground. As my gaze moved from foreground to background, I scanned the living bodies of a crowd press­ ing around another execution in progress, and it became possible to identify individuals and note differences. If one is somewhat familiar with photo­ graphs taken by Westerners in nineteenth-century China, the loose-fitting and unadorned clothes of most of the crowd may be familiar-this is the un­ mistakable dress of the laobaixin9, the common folk of China. Other Chinese r. I am indebted to Bruce Doar for making a gift of the booklet to me in 199 r. As he recalled at the time, he had purchased it in Australia a few years earlier, where it carried the unmistakable signs of once having been in a public library. ,..,.,,.,M:r-----------...&"1~----------.....:.; ".hinese city of the Qing capital, Beijing. The images record one instance of English Lessons, James L. Hevia, Duke Univ. Press, 2003 ·Heexecutions of reputed Boxers. The one reproduced here is among many teJ::found in American and European archives that show Western military :. .and diplomatic officials witnessing local executioners beheading pur- ~!:';identifying the source of the photograph and my initial observations ' ..b not yet explain the title of this book. Where do the En.9lishLessons lie · se public executions reminiscent of those of Europe's ancien regime? ort of pedagogical project, if any, can be found in this picture? Who students? .Venthe source in which the photograph was printed, one group of stu­ may have been the Brighton tourists who purchased the booklet. It was gli media like this that English citizens learned about "civilizing mis­ i• :and the punishments of "savage" peoples who transgressed against ization." But the picture also reveals traces of another sort of lesson, barely visible on the tattered paper bearing Chinese ideograms pasted to pillar on the right. Much like those still to be found on telephone and · ~.poles in contemporary Chinese cities, this one is an advertisement. In inese, it announces English-language classes available at a nearby school :Juxtaposed to the execution scene, this posting provides an inkling of an­ I. Execution scene. Source: Unique Photographs ofExecution the of Boxersin China,ca. 1901. er sort of pedagogical project, one designed to teach natives how to behave a.white man's world of new and unfamiliar relations of power. individuals in fancier uniforms cluster around the next victim of the execu­ It also signi­ s the complicated relationship between the forceful presence of European tioner's sword. These are probably local police and government officials, re­ ,, perial troops in China and Chinese people who might consider learning sponsible for carrying out the executions mandated by the foreign armies who hglish as a second language. There are probably other meanings that can suppressed the Boxer movement. As my gaze continued along this line to the leased from it as well, but regardless of the interpretations that might be left, it was suddenly arrested by an anomaly: three figures in uniforms quite 'posed, the advertisement itself embodies a kind of visual reminder of a different from the clothing of the others. At the time, I assumed that they were iµstorical fact: imperialism was always more than guns and goods; it was members of the British India army, soldiers of the Raj, who, along with units .alsoa cultural process involving resistance to and accommodation of forces from seven other powers, occupied Beijing in the wake of the Boxer Uprising ,Grentities attempting to achieve hegemonic control over specific geographic of 1899-1900. 2 ~paces. To be directed from the execution ground to the language class was A scrutiny of the other photographs in the booklet suggests that they were .to trace one kind of passage along the colonial divide separating Westerners taken at Caishikou, a marketplace and public execution ground in the Outer, from the "inferior" races of Africa and Asia. The kind of lessons learned in 2. According to Ross M. A. Wilson, curator of Dress and Insignia, Canadian War Mu­ /the English class was, perhaps, the softer side of empire, the side that coaxed seum, Ottawa, the three soldiers, all sergeants, were probably in the Royal Horse Artillery. · l;!lldseduced others to participate in what was sometimes imagined as a joint Personal communication, r March 1993. ";:'.t1riterprise.The harder side of empire lies to the left of the pillar, encoded in English Lessons, James L. Hevia, Duke Univ. Press, 2003 4 • ENGLISH LESSONS INTRODUCTION • 5 the violent dismemberment of those who defy the language of civilization and had been established without negotiation or consultation; its "restrictions" its stern rule of colonial law. were all the more onerous because these same merchants were convinced that In the chapters that follow, these two sides of imperial pedagogy, the vio­ China's population was also interested in greater intercourse with the outside lence of arms and the violence of language, are explored. Guns not only force world- ready, as it were, to buy more than opium from European traders. The compliance, they also persuade. Words and images do not simply persuade, free trade convictions of British diplomats and merchants ultimately served they also coerce. Although the Qing Empire was beset by multiple Western to justify the use of force against the Qing and resulted in a whole new order powers in the second half of the nineteenth century, the focus here is on of "foreign relations" between China and other powers, which quickly came Great Britain, whose diplomatic and military agents often thought of imperi­ to include France, the United States, Russia, Germany, and eventually Japan. alism and colonialism as pedagogical processes, ones made up of teaching Principal instruments for creating the new order were treaties, usually and learning by means of gun and pen. This was especially the case in China, couched in terms of promoting "peace, friendship, and commerce." Through where warfare and treaty making marked critical moments of British imperial these legal documents, the Qing government was forced to grant Westerners pedagogy. It will be useful, therefore, to begin with a broad sketch of Anglo­ the host of rights they desired in China. The first of these was the Treaty of Chinese conflict, beginning with the first Opium War (1839-1842) and ending Nanjing, which ended the Opium Warof 1839-1842. The agreement abolished with the Boxer Uprising of 1900, the occasion for this particular photograph the Co-hong, ceded the island of Hong Kong to Great Britain in perpetuity, of executions. opened the ports of Guangzhou, Amoy, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai to Western trade, and approved the permanent residence of foreign consuls and their families in these treaty ports. In a supplemental Treaty of the Bogue in Euroamerican Imperialism in China 1843, Qing sovereigntywas limited in these newly opened ports through three The initial Western military assault on the Qing Empire began in 1839 and additional provisions. The first stipulated that British consuls could try their resulted in an unprecedented opening of China to Euroamerican diplomatic, own subjects for crimes committed in China; that is, Euroamericans in China economic, and cultural penetration. Great Britain went to war with China enjoyed "extraterritorial" legal rights. Second, the British were given the right because Qing government officials had seized and destroyed Indian opium. to fix customs duties on their imports into China; they were set artificially low The opium belonged to English merchants who intended, in defiance ofQing in the treaty itself. 3 Third, Britain received most-favored-nation status, which law, to sell it in China. This Chinese government offense against private prop­ meant that any privileges given to other powers would automatically go to erty and "free" trade was, however, only the most immediate cause of friction the British without negotiation. The U.S. and French governments rushed in between the British and Qing Empires. behind the British and concluded their own treaties in 1844. In addition to The deeper issue had to do with the desires of British diplomatic and all the stipulations of the British treaties, the U.S. Treaty of Wanghsia called commercial agents to open China to greater intercourse with an expanding for revision in twelve years, and the French Treaty of Whampoa included the British Empire. This was, of course, not a situation unique to China; in many right to propagate Catholicism. other areas of the world the British and other European powers had simi­ When the initial treaty settlement expired in 1856, the representatives of lar objectives. What distinguished Qing China was its long-standing success Euroamerican powers attempted to open discussions on treaty revision. The at maintaining control over its coastal trade and of allowing local officials Qing government, however, was reluctant to accept fresh limitations on their to manage foreign relations. British government officials wanted direct ac­ sovereignty. Another war resulted in a British and French victory and the de- cess to the Qing emperor and his government, preferably through the estab­ lishment of a legation in Beijing.