Public Talk and Keynote speech China in Britain: 1760 to 1860, with Dame Helen Ghosh, Director-General of the National Trust

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A public Talk by Dame Helen Ghosh Director- General of the National Trust at Manchester University.

China held a distinctive place in the European consciousness in the 18th and 19th centuries, and this was no more apparent than in the country houses and gardens that would come into the hands of the National Trust in the 20th and 21st centuries. At times admiring of China’s 4,000 year lineage of society, ethics and traditions, while at other times dismissive of a culture whose artefacts and their collection were viewed as no more than a “deviant obsession”, the British reflected their own ideas of China in the objects they bought and commissioned from the East. Dame Helen will discuss the influence that this fascination with China and Chinese objects has had upon the National Trust’s places and collections, and the people that shaped them, using case studies to draw attention to the complex and lasting impact of China in Britain.

A short biography:

Dame Helen joined the civil service from Oxford University, where she read modern history. During her civil service career, Helen worked in a wide range of Government departments, working on a range of social policy issues, including child poverty, asylum and immigration, and local community regeneration. She also worked on key environmental policies, including climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the protection of habitat for endangered species. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Helen worked at the heart of Government, in Cabinet Office, advising on efficiency and propriety issues. She spent seven years as a Permanent Secretary (CEO) in two departments, Defra and Home Office. In late 2012, Helen moved to become Director-General of the National Trust, where her interest in history, people and places, and her commitment to the environment come together.

For tickets please click here to register.

Manchester University- The story of China with Michael Wood

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THE STORY OF CHINA- a six part BBC series with Manchester University Professor Micheal Wood. BICC member Yangwen Zheng collaborates and appears in episode 5 and 6.

STARTING THURSDAY 21st JANUARY 9PM BBC TWO

THEN EVERY THURS FOR 6 WEEKS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fyFIrN55Hks

Call for Papers: “China in Britain 1760-1860

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Call for Papers

China in Britain: 1760 to 1860

A conference organised by British Inter-university China Centre (BICC) and the Centre for Chinese Studies (CCS) and to be held at the University of Manchester 12-13 May 2016.

2016 marks the bicentenary of Lord Amherst’s embassy to China. This episode of history seems to have been largely forgotten by historians of Britain and China, and has generated little scholarship. But the embassy is important because the delegates saw – in their eyes – a different China to that which had been described before: “Dirt, squalidness, and extreme poverty were as usual their leading characteristics. Their inhabitations were miserable beyond anything which England can exemplify … they looked more like the dens of beasts than the habitations of men” (Clarke Abel, 1819). The British were changing their opinion about, and soon their policy towards, the Middle Kingdom. Chinoiserie would soon lead to the “scramble for China”. Although historians have studied “Britain in China”, they have largely ignored China in Britain after the heyday of eighteenth century Sinophilia, and before the darker turn in relations in the mid-nineteenth century. Tea gave rise to and also saw the decline of the Honourable Company. What is the social life of tea in the United Kingdom? How did increasing dependence on the China trade and the ascend of the “private English” lead to a change in public opinion and ultimately policy? What does this change tell us about British polity and society? We welcome historians/scholars of Britain and China to a debate that addresses the following issues in an effort to promote Anglo-Chinese, some might say Sino-British, studies.

Chinoiserie and allure of the Middle Kingdom in Britain
China trade and its impact on British economy and society
Changing public opinion about and policy towards China
Individuals and institutions that emerged during the change

Inquiries and abstracts of no more than 150 words and 5 lines of biographical information should be sent to: sarah.coakley@manchester.ac.uk before 30 January 2016. Those accepted to present at the conference will be notified by 29 February. Accommodation and food will be provided during the conference. There is a modest budget for travel but priority will be given to PhD students.

The Launch of Disasterhistory.org

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Disasterhistory.org

Pierre Fuller

Web searches remain the predominant avenue for non-academic researchers seeking historical data or contextualisation. Yet online searches on the major topics that I have been researching and publishing on for years – famine, earthquakes and other types of disaster in East Asia – continue to produce next to nothing of much value or depth when performed by the general user (outside, that is, the subscription-walls of Jstor and other academic platforms). So a couple of years ago I held a workshop at Manchester where about a dozen historians from several continents were able to attend. What came out of it was the goal of making up-to-date and reliable information on the subject of disasters in Chinese history, currently beyond the reach of many outside academia, freely available online. We designed and built the site over the year, and a couple of us flew to a conference of anthropologists of disaster in Chengdu last month to formally launch DisasterHistory.org.
Some users have described the site to me as a welcomed public service, but all involved also stand to benefit: making the research conducted here at Manchester and by colleagues around the world more easily accessible simply makes our work more relevant. That can only be a good thing. As for how soon the site will be high in Google hits? That’ll come with time.

More than any other academic project I’ve worked on, DisasterHistory.org is all about colleagues volunteering their time and work. It grew out of a research network funded by the British Inter-University China Centre, and for the moment, the team of historians contributing are limited to those who have worked on disasters in Chinese history, but we hope to soon expand our content to cover other parts of the globe, to include other disciplines, and to use other languages, Chinese especially – although each of these (considering the complexity they add to site construction and functionality) might have to wait until a second stage of funding. For now I’m hugely grateful for colleagues, currently spread out in the UK, the US, Finland and China, for their ideas and contributions.

But there is another added dimension that I’m particularly excited out. With additional financial support from the University’s Learning Enrichment Fund, last spring I incorporated an optional disaster research project into the course work for my first year module Modern China, with the idea that, subject to review by an expert in the field, student work could help populate the site with articles on more obscure disasters; the work of six UG (plus 2 PG) students now appears on the site, which is a great chance for students to showcase their work online, and for the site to broaden its coverage.

As it grows in time as an informational platform and collaborative space, DisasterHistory.org should facilitate scholarly engagement with journalists and other professionals, possibly policymakers and practitioners, and the general public, while helping to shape future research questions and fostering projects that will meet practical and pressing needs beyond the academic world. We hope to build collaborative, data-pooling and data-mapping features into the site in order to foster opportunities for co-production of research by scholars worldwide, for example, on death counts and mortality rates, which in the case of famine are notoriously unreliable.

Better not to end on that depressing note, though. I encourage anyone with work that might be related to disasters (broadly-defined) in any discipline, or who might know a colleague-friend who does, or anyone with ideas on any type of collaboration, to be in touch as we move into our next stage!

BICC and Manchester Museum- The Bellot Collection

Posted on 28 October 2015 by sarahcoakley

The aim of the British Inter-university China Centre (BICC) Cultural Engagement Postdoctoral Fellowship at Manchester Museum is the study of the Chinese bronzes belonging to the Bellot Chinese Collection at Manchester Museum.

These bronzes were collected by Thomas Bellot (1806-1857) when he was serving as a surgeon on the HMS Wolf during his stay in China just after the Opium Wars. They were later inherited by his brother William Henry Bellot (1811-1895), and afterwards by Bellot’s grand-nephew Professor Hugh Hale Bellot (1890-1969), who then donated them to the Manchester Museum in 1969. The Bellot Collection was then divided into a collection of ancient Chinese books and personal manuscripts held in the Manchester City Library and the bronzes and coin collections stored in the Manchester Museum.

For this project I will focus on making a comprehensive study of the 52 bronze pieces that comprise the Bellot Collection at Manchester Museum. Particularly, I intend to find out where in China the bronzes were originally retrieved, and deduct their possible contextual origin. Moreover, I will elaborate on Bellot’s personal connection to these items. In that sense, I am mostly interested in what this collection can tell us about Bellot both as a collector and as an Englishman engaging with China right after the Opium Wars.

For its modest size, the Bellot´s collection is exceptionally diverse. The main body of the collection is comprised of around 30 artifacts of religious character, such as ritual vessels, vases, bells and incense burners. Among them, the most striking ones are two sets of gu 觚 and hu 壶 vases, as well as some ding 鼎 and jue 爵vessels, decorated in a style reminiscent of Shang dynasty (c.1500-1050BCE) bronzes. However, these pieces do not seem to me as datable to the Shang period, due to the lack of corrosion and to their overall good state of conservation. Most probably they are replicas forged during Ming (1368-1644) or even early Qing dyansty (1644-1839). I expect to provide a more accurate dating in the course of my research.

Apart from these items, Thomas Bellot also collected 9 statues and figures of different sizes, which seem to be mostly related to Buddhist religious rites. Among them there are some of the most remarkable items in the collection, such as an 18″ high statue of a man. The infant traces in his expression and the hairstyle make me assume that it could be Ne Zha 哪吒, a mythical figure in Chinese Buddhism, known for being born as a complete adult. Overall, it is still too early to confirm that all of the figures were retrieved from temples, as some of them might be of secular origin, and one of the pieces might not even be Chinese. Tracing the origin of the pieces is one of the next steps in the analysis of the items.

In order to meet the above objectives I will engage with other archival documents related to the Bellot Collection. I will first consult the Bellot Papers preserved in the John Ryland’s Library, as they are a good source of information about the Bellot family’s relationship with these bronzes and their origin. Secondly, I will analyse the Bellot Chinese Collection at Manchester City Library in a hope that it can provide further information about the Bellot’s own motivation for collecting these bronzes and the rationale behind it.

Apart from the analysis of the archival documents, I will focus on the epigraphical analysis of the bronzes. This could provide extremely relevant information about their original usage and the context in which they were retrieved. Having done the preliminary examination of the collection, I was able to use the inscriptions found on some of the mirrors to date them back to the mid-16th century. Moreover, the inscriptions on other trays and vessels indicate that they were produced around the mid-15th century. These inscriptions would confirm that most of the items in the collection were forged during the Ming dynasty; however it is still too early to come to this conclusion. I expect that the study of all the epigraphical evidence on the bronzes will shed more light on this matter.

About me

Dr José Antonio Cantón Álvarez

I obtained my PhD in History at the University of Granada. My research interests include international trade between China and South-East Asia during the Ming and Qing dynasty; the opium trade and its consumption in South, Southeast and East Asia before the Opium Wars; traditional Chinese medicine; the history of drug consumption in Asia; the history of European colonialism in Asia; the introduction of American crops to China and the Taiping Rebellion among others. My doctoral thesis is based on an original, in-depth analysis of primary sources in classical Chinese, Portuguese and English regarding this period.

Most of this research I conducted while being a visiting researcher at Renmin University of China (RUC), for which I secured funding from Hanban’s Confucius China Study Program, under the supervision of Prof. Huang Xingtao, Dean of the RUC’s School of History. My thesis is an original and ground-breaking research project presenting new findings on the changing role of opium in inter-asian trade, its use by European traders and colonizers in Asia from the 16th to the early 19th centuries, and its impact on China. I have already published an article in Spanish in a peer-reviewed international journal stemming from my thesis, and have recently submitted an article on the changing role of opium in Chinese medicine during the Ming dynasty. In addition to this, my interest in other aspects of late imperial Chinese history has led me to publish a monograph on the Taiping Rebellion and a book chapter about the Self-Strengthening Movement, both in Spanish. I am currently researching the role of opium in Chinese international trade from the Song to Ming dynasty, the introduction of the opium poppy in Chinese medicine during the Tang and Song dynasties and the impact of the opium trade on the politics of Macao during the 18th century.

BICC Cultural Engagement Partnership: Maoist posters at the British Library.

Posted on 28 October 2015 by sarahcoakley

Dr Amy Jane Barnes

During my three months at the British Library, I aim to catalogue the Library’s collection of Chinese propaganda posters from the 1950s to 1980s and research several academic papers, as well as investigate the possibilities for digitising and making the collection more accessible to a wider audience. The project also gives me the opportunity to develop my Chinese language skills, albeit a very specialist vocabulary relating to revolutionary ideology! The first week of the project was predominantly taken up with induction-related activities, sorting out IT access, getting to grips with collections procedures, meeting my new colleagues and investigating the collection in the British Library stores with curator Emma Goodliffe – we found lots of things we were expecting, but a few we weren’t, including an exquisite set of revolutionary nian hua (年画, “New Year’s prints”) dating from 1950. From an initial estimate of around 40 posters, we eventually located over 70. And there are many plan chest drawers still to investigate, so we may yet turn up even more! With the formalities out of the way, towards the end of the week I started to photograph, research and catalogue the collection. The posters may be organised thematically – there are examples of public information posters, posters relating to the Mao cult, nian hua ‘catalogue’ posters, so-called ‘chubby baby’ posters and a fair number of anti-Gang of Four cartoons and caricatures. But I have begun with a group of posters which depict scenes from feature films and model operas. In order to catalogue the items, I am making a record of materials, measurements and content, as well as noting down the condition of each poster and highlighting those that might need the attention of a conservator. I have also been making rough translations of the text that appears on the posters – the types of information we need in order to determine the identity of potential copyright holders, such as publishing houses and distribution companies. My knowledge of Chinese (and set of Pleco flashcards) is expanding exponentially. Over the next few weeks I intend to continue to photograph and catalogue each item in the collection. Then begins the exciting work of researching them in depth. Dr Amy Jane Barnes

World Factory

Posted on 6 November 2014 by Robert Bickers

World Factory is a new BICC-supported project that aims to explore the relationship between China and the UK – and the relationship of both countries to consumer capitalism, through the lens of the global textile industry. Textile production in 19^th century Manchester provides the starting point for an exploratory process focussing on the rapid change underway in contemporary China. Professor Dagmar Shäfer at the University of Manchester is collaborating with METIS ARTS who are working with Shanghai-based Chinese theatre director Zhao Chuan and his company Grass Stage to undertake the research and development.

WORLD FACTORY – A CAFÉ CONVERSATION- Centre for Chinese Contemporary Arts, Manchester

Wednesday 25 February 2015 , 6.30 – 8.30 pm
Jasmine Suite

This informal evening offers an introduction to the World Factory project – an investigation of global consumer capitalism through the lens of the textile industry, from the heart of the industrial revolution in nineteenth-century Manchester to the world behind the ‘Made-in-China’ labels on our clothes today.

Four expert speakers with different perspectives on the global textile industry will discuss the relationship between production and consumption patterns in China today, and Manchester’s clothing and textile history, before opening up the conversation to the wider audience. There will also be a live demo of the digital World Factory shirt – with an opportuntity to trial our phone app to scan barcodes on the shirt – to reveal the people and processes behind how each shirt was made.

The speakers are to include Sara Li-Chou Han – researcher, designer and co-founder of Stitched Up collective

Amanda Langdown – Senior Lecturer, Fashion, Illustration with Animation at Manchester Metropolitan University with an interest in sustainable development

Tracey Cliffe – costume assistant, designer and organiser of a recycled fashion show at the Museum of Science and Industry

Lena Simic– performance practitioner, co-organiser of the Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home and Senior Lecturer in Drama at Liverpool Hope University

China Saree video: How do Chinese people understand India?

Posted on 13 May 2013 by William A. Callahan

New Publications by BICC Researchers

Posted on 25 April 2013 by graniapickard

Two BICC researchers have just published important new work.

Jon Howlett, University of York, has had an article published in Modern Asian Studies: ‘The British boss is gone and will never return’: Communist takeovers of British companies in Shanghai (1949–1954)

Sam Geall, Departmental Lecturer in Human Geography of China at Oxford and BICC funded student, has edited China and the Environment: The Green Revolution

Blurb: Sixteen of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in China. A serious water pollution incident occurs once every two to three days. China’s breakneck growth causes great concern about its global environmental impacts, as others look to China as a source for possible future solutions to climate change. But how are Chinese people really coming to grips with environmental problems? This book provides access to otherwise unknown stories of environmental activism and forms the first real-life account of China and its environmental tensions.

Remembering Sir Robert Hart

Posted on 1 March 2013 by Robert Bickers

BICC has been collaborating with Dr Weipin Tsai at Royal Holloway University of London, on her imaginative initiative to restore to public view the achievements of Sir Robert Hart, the Ulsterman who served from 1863-1911 as Inspector-General of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service. The first stage of this programme was completed on 22 February, when sixty guests assembled at All Saint’s Church in Bisham, near Marlow in Berkshire, for a ceremony to rededicate the gravestone of Sir Robert and Lady Hester Jane Hart.

Hart tombstone before restoration

The tombstone had been in danger of being removed, as it was in a decrepit state, but the team have had it professionally restored. On a freezing cold, but sunny morning, an audience of former diplomats, business figures, Chinese studies academics, several descendents of Customs staff, including descendents of Hart himself, and visitors from China, assembled for a simple rededication ceremony. The grave is but a few yards from the Thames, and there the Reverend Sara Fitzgerald led a service which included addresses on Hart’s spiritual life and motivations from Hans van de Ven, at Cambridge University, and on Hart’s contribution to Anglo-Chinese relations from Robert Bickers.

Sir Robert and Lady Hart’s tombstone after restoration, February 2013

Wreaths were then laid by Etain Alexander, great grand-daughter of Sir Robert, Deidre Wildy on behalf of his alma mater Queens’ University Belfast, Julie Shipley, Head of the Sir Robert Hart Memorial Primary School in Portadown, Dr Mary Tiffen, in memory of the Carrall family, and Weipin Tsai on behalf of The Royal Philatelic Society London, Taiwan Chapter; Chinese Taipei Philatelic Society; The China Stamp Society, Inc. Taiwan Chapter. (Hart was appointed to manage the new Imperial Chinese Post Office when it was established in 1896).

Waltham St Lawrence Silver Band, in All Saints’ Church, Bisham

In recognition of Hart’s place in the history of the European classical music’s reception in China — he organised and ran the first secular brass band in the country — the local Waltham St Lawrence Silver Band played a selection of pieces. These included some that are known to have been included in the programmes played by Hart’s own band in the gardens of his residence in Peking.

The ceremony was followed by a reception and presentations about Hart and his legacies, including his archive at Queens’ University Belfast Special Collections, and discussion of how the rich private archives of the British presence in China, not least its photographic records, can help furnish unique materials for understanding China’s modern history, its heritage, and social life and customs.

Hart joined the Customs in 1859, and 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of his formal appointment to the Inspector-Generalship. He was a Chinese civil servant, and never let the foreign nationals on his own staff forget this point, and he worked consistently to try and fashion structures and practices that would reduce the potential for tension between China and the foreign powers. He did not always succeed, but he undoubtedly had a significant impact on the course of events. Hart’s reputation has varied over the years. In Anglophone historical writing in the 1950s-60s he was presented as fairly central to any understanding of China’s interaction with foreign power, but thereafter new scholarly trends explored different fields and approaches and he largely fell out of sight. In China, until relatively recently, he was viewed simply as an agent of foreign, principally British, imperialism.

Attitudes in China today are more nuanced, and there has been a revival of scholarship internationally into the rich and varied history of the activities of Hart and his service. This event was part of a wider initiative, which will include a film, which aims to place Hart back into broader debates about British-Chinese relations, their history, contemporary features and their future. In particular, those state to state relations are at heart also relations between people, British and Chinese. In Hart, and the 22,000 foreign and Chinese staff of the Customs, and in the legacies of those careersdown to today, we have a rich field in which to explore how people shaped such abstractions as ‘Anglo-Chinese relations’.

The booklet accompany this commemorative event, Between Two Worlds: Commorating Sir Robert Hart, compiled by Weipin Tsai, can be found on the History of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service project website.