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China
The sub-section relating to China will include material extracted mainly from two publications:
THE CHINA YEAR BOOK, 1913
by H. T. Montague Bell, B.A.
formerly Editor of the "North-China Daily News"
and
H. G. W. Woodhead, M.J.I.
Editor of the "Peking Daily News"
Published in London by George Routledge & Sons, Limited
and in New York by E. P. Dutton & Co.
and
THE NORTH-CHINA HERALD
and SUPREME COURT & CONSULAR GAZETTE
(the weekly edition of the "North-China Daily News")
for the years of 1909 and 1913
Introduction
In the early 20th century the number of foreign nationals living in China was surprisingly high. In 1911, as you'll see from the table below, the largest numbers came from Japan and Russia, which is understandable in view of their close proximity and other historical reasons. Of the rest, most were British, but there were also many Americans in particular, and Portuguese, together with Germans, French, and others. By and large they would live in the 'treaty ports', concessions or settlements — self-governing enclaves on foreign soil.
The history and origins of the treaty ports and concessions is a fascinating story which I will not attempt, but there are sites where you can find a great deal more, and a few are given in the links below. It's often an uncomfortable read, involving questionable motives and not a little skulduggery on 'our' part, not least where the trade in opium was concerned. It's also interesting to observe the 'slant' still put on those events in the writing of the early 20thC — only more recently, perhaps, have more realistic assessments been made. Nevertheless, what happened happened, and by the early 1900s life in the foreign concessions was in full swing.
The purpose of these pages is only to offer a little of the material collected in the course of researching one branch of the family who were in China in the early 20th century. Little detail is known, but the fact that they were traced to the other side of the world prompted efforts to find out why they were there and what they were doing (with a singular lack of success so far, it has to be said!). The search for background information led me to the publications from which these extracts are taken, and I began to realise there was a whole society and way of life I'd been unaware of except in the vaguest way; and a privileged, rather odd and unreal way of life at that.
The China Year Book isn't really what I'd hoped for when buying it unseen. From its name I thought it might include a directory containing names of foreign residents where I might find my grandfather mentioned, but sadly not. But there are items and a number of statistics of general interest, and the table below is in a section dealing with foreigners in China. Quite a number of names of many nationalities are listed too, of those in 'official' capacities (the diplomatic corps, consular services, foreign legations, post office and customs, etc), some of which have been transcribed (see the index).
The North-China Herald volumes (three months of weekly issues in each) are a different matter, containing a great deal of potentially interesting material, but it will take time to extract. So far as the British are concerned, there is 'news from home', editorial comment and 'chatter', as well as general coverage of world affairs, even though much consists of no more than a few brief lines of unembellished fact. Nevertheless, there's a valuable snapshot not only of life in China at this time (albeit from the foreign perspective), but also events in the wider world. Unfortunately the Herald did not include any illustrations (or only in its advertising).
The lives of our ancestors who happened to be in this part of the world at the time is well documented in the Herald as they carried on their business, pleasure and missionary work, wrote letters to the editor about matters of the day (one example is here), brought actions or gave evidence in the courts, were married or died or had children, attended the races and played cricket, or whatever it was. Even their movements are followed to a degree, with many passenger names listed from ships calling at Shanghai — either 'local' regular traffic (almost like ferries, though it seems most such vessels' main purpose was to carry cargo), or larger ships arriving from or leaving for places much further afield — the USA, Britain, Australia, India, etc.
The same names crop up time and again, and it's almost possible to follow the movements of certain individuals or families in some detail over short periods of time. For example, people can be observed coming in to Shanghai either from places elsewhere on the coast or from inland via the Yangtze, then returning a day or two later, and you imagine a visit to attend to some business matter or to enjoy a little recreation or shopping; military personnel travel hither and thither (foreign nations enjoying extra-territorial status had their own garrisons); members of a family often arrive from different destinations then travel onwards together; diplomats to and fro; dignitaries arrive and leave; chaperoned children come and go; there are many instances of missionaries and nuns about their business; and what look like parties of travellers (on a 'grand tour' perhaps?) arrive from overseas then depart again one, two or several weeks later — these include small groups of single females, though there is no way to know if they were 'young things' or the maiden aunt variety :)
The moral is that if you 'lose' an ancestor for a few years, as I did with my grandfather, maybe it's worth considering that they were in China for a while!
Only a few pages are available so far in this section, but more will follow if time allows — meanwhile please also visit the links below the following table of foreign nationals if you're interested in this part of history.
[ Index for Asia section ]
Foreign Nationals in China
The number of foreigners resident in China is given in the Returns for 1911 of the Maritime Customs as 153,522, distributed as follows:-
|
|
Firms.
|
Persons.
|
|
American
|
111
|
3,470
|
|
Austro-Hungarian
|
26
|
385
|
|
Belgian
|
17
|
291
|
|
Brazilian
|
2
|
22
|
|
British
|
606
|
10,256
|
|
Danish
|
9
|
295
|
|
Dutch
|
15
|
192
|
|
French
|
112
|
1,925
|
|
German
|
258
|
2,758
|
|
Hungarian
|
3
|
26
|
|
Italian
|
32
|
424
|
|
Japanese
|
1,283
|
78,306
|
|
Korean
|
46
|
2,256
|
|
Norwegian
|
8
|
246
|
|
Peruvian
|
—
|
—
|
|
Portuguese
|
57
|
3,224
|
|
Russian
|
313
|
51,221
|
|
Spanish
|
6
|
238
|
|
Swedish
|
1
|
150
|
|
Non-Treaty Powers
|
4
|
93
|
|
Total
|
2,863
|
153,522
|
LINKS
Tales of Old China
Wonderful site, though not all links were working when last checked. A great deal of information and many images of Old Shanghai, articles from The North-China Herald, old postcards, etc.
There's also a section explaining extra-territoriality.
Philip Abbey's
Treaty Ports & Extraterritorality in 1920s China
Another great site, with history and excellent explanations of the treaty ports, settlements and concessions; maps, images, etc. Plenty to investigate here.
This page at Regiments.org may be of interest
The Catholic Encyclopaedia (1908)
has an extensive page on China — the section on Foreign Relations is about halfway down, with information about Treaty Ports a little further on.
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