Anglo-Chinese Encounters since 1800: War, Trade, Science, and Governance (review)

Wang Gungwu, one of the world's leading authorities on Chinese studies, draws on his lifelong research as well as the works of other scholars to give us a lucid, concise, and absorbing account of the Anglo-Chinese encounters since 1800. This book, based on the Smuts Commonwealth Lectures that Wang gave at the University of Cambridge in 1996-1997, explores the complex interactions between China and Britain and evaluates the impact of these past encounters on China today.

The book is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 begins with a brief account of Wang's personal association with the British Commonwealth. Born in the Dutch East Indies to a Chinese literati family, Wang was educated in Britain; then he taught at various universities in Malaya and Australia, and spent time in Hong Kong and Singapore. This personal dimension and the depth of his scholarship inform the descriptions, generalizations, and interpretations that are lucidly presented in the book.

Thematically, Wang conceptualizes Arthur Waley's four words "convert, trade, rule or fight" as being at the core of the history of Anglo-Chinese interaction. By exploring the military, commercial, religious, cultural, technological, and political facets of their encounters, Wang addresses the transmission, acceptance, and reproduction of British naval technology, entrepreneurial practices, scientific culture, and modern form of governance in China. He concludes by focusing on the consequences of China's first defeat by Britain in the Opium War in 1842 .

Chapter 2 examines the change in Chinese strategic thinking in the late nineteenth century. He asserts that the military defeat in the Opium War completely changed the Chinese perception of the threat of danger from outside. Chinese leaders became alarmed and saw the necessity of rebuilding China as a maritime power. For China, this was the most significant outcome of the War. The fact that the naval forces of the foreign powers—first the British, then the Japanese in the 1930s, and after 1949 the Americans—were able to sail along the China coast with impunity later persuaded the People's Republic of China to develop a deep-water navy in order to protect its maritime frontier.

In chapter 3, Wang argues that there was a similar change of attitude among the Chinese elite over the importance of trade. Whereas until the nineteenth century trade had been looked down upon, the Chinese eventually realized that in fact it was an important key to China's national development. The literati became considerably impressed by the amounts of wealth that Chinese overseas business enterprises could produce. They began to reconsider the status of merchants in Chinese society and to reevaluate the role that these merchants could play in assisting China in a new policy of rapid modernization.

As the Chinese came to accept trade as a critical component of modernization, they embraced the importance of science and technology, which is the focus of chapter 4. A nationwide conversion to science and technology took place in dramatic fashion from 1901 to 1910, marking another critical step in China's search for modernity. In contrast, the acceptance of Christianity proceeded slowly, for it was the technological aspects of British culture that impressed the Chinese most. Science remained a symbol of modernity in China throughout the twentieth century. English literature was another significant cultural influence. Writers such as Xu Zhimo, Zhu Guangqian, and Xiao Qian were so fascinated by English literature that they began to appropriate European romantic and spiritual elements and incorporate them in their writings. There was even a "reverse conversion" phenomenon in which Anglicized Chinese like Ku Hung-Ming and Lim Boon Keng revived and promoted Chinese culture in the English language.

The Chinese experience of British rule in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia is the main theme of chapter 5. There was a noticeable difference between Chinese merchants and Chinese nationalists in their responses to the British form of governance. The merchants appreciated the British...