In Room 145 of the Ceramics Galleries of the Victoria & Albert Museum, at the top of case 50, you can see an 'architectural fragment', which, according to its label, 'once ornamented a palace in Yuanmingyuan or "garden of perfect clarity"'. Made of stoneware, the item comprises a scrolling shell-like form and is covered with an exquisite turquoise-blue glaze.(1) The label tells you no more about how it came to be removed from the palace complex nor how it was acquired by the V & A. For this, you have to go to the nearby electronic catalogue. Alongside the excellent colour illustration, you learn that 'the item was purchased by C. H. Wylde in China in 1912 as a fragment from the Old Summer Palace … the palace was destroyed by British-French troops during the Second Opium War and all that remains of the splendid buildings are scattered ruins and architectural fragments such as this.' Factually this is not correct. Although British and French troops indulged in the three day frenzy of looting which preceded the destruction of the palace complex, as Louise Tythacott emphasises in the introduction to this collection of essays on 'Summer Palace' objects, French forces took no part in the destruction, which took place afterwards. On the contrary, ambassador Gros strongly protested when he learned of the order given by Lord Elgin (son of Elgin of marbles fame) which led to the two-day conflagration, generally recognised as the worst-ever act of cultural vandalism.
, in the early hours of the morning, the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, acting on behalf of a Consortium of five western powers, and representatives of the republican government of China signed what became known as the Reorganisation Loan. They did so in conditions of the utmost secrecy since there was concern that, if word got out, anti-imperialist forces would seek to prevent its completion.(1) It was the culmination of a process which had begun 15 years earlier, which saw China steadily mortgaging its revenues to fund the punitive indemnities imposed following the Sino-Japanese War (1894-5) and the Boxer Uprising (1900), and to finance the building of the country's railways. To prop up Yuan Shikai's fledgling regime following the fall of the Qing in 1911, something more fundamental was required. With the Customs tariffs already used up, the salt gabelle was the only significant security left available. In return for a loan of £25 million, the Consortium assumed control over its collection and, effectively, over China's economy.(2) This was, as most acknowledge, the high point of financial imperialism in China.(3) However, whilst not challenging this view, Phoebe Chow contends that, as the title of her book implies, the seeds of 'imperial retreat' had already been sown in the Foreign Office mind: by 1901, there were, she says, 'subtle changes in how opinion-makers and policy-makers wrote about China' and, by 1906, Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary in the newly-elected liberal government, had become 'willing to embark on a new policy of gradual retreat from China'. It is a bold and novel thesis and one that allows for a powerful analysis of Sino-British relations in the early 20th century, and of the wider issue of how foreign policy was already being shaped by public opinion, whatever its exact form at that time.
As part of the growing scholarship on family and empire, this study examines Britain’s presence in China through the lens of one family, arguing that, as the physical embodiment of the imperial project, it provided a social and cultural mechanism for mediating Britain’s imperial power, authority and presence, and forging connections and networks throughout the expanding British world. Drawing on public and private papers, it breaks significant new ground in its development of those themes.
To counter what he sees as the increasing influence of cultural studies, John Tosh has argued that historians need 'to reconnect with that earlier curiosity about experience and subjectivity, while recognising that experience is always mediated through cultural understandings'.(1) As if in response to that plea, Balfour's World sets out to examine and understand the experience and subjectivities of a group of men and women who dominated the politics and social discourse of upper class Britain in the late 19th century. However, this is not simply another description of the antics and apercus of the Souls, as they became known. Instead, by adopting an original approach, Ellenberger has provided a fresh and illuminating perspective of what would otherwise be familiar territory for scholars of the period.
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