Ireland's Imperial Mandarin: How Sir Robert Hart Became the Most Influential Foreigner in Qing China

Ireland's Imperial Mandarin: How Sir Robert Hart Became the Most Influential Foreigner in Qing China PDF Author: Mark O'Neill
Publisher: 三聯書店(香港)有限公司
ISBN: 9620441028
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
“There is almost no Chinese official upon whom I can rely. But the report of this foreigner is reliable… If we had 100 Harts, our affairs would run smoothly.” —Prince Gong, Director of the Tsungli Yamen The prince headed the Yamen, forerunner of the Foreign Ministry, from 1861 to 1884 and 1894 until his death in 1898. Sir Robert Hart served as the Inspector-General of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service of the Qing dynasty from 1863 until his death in 1911. No foreigner has ever had or will ever have the life he did in China. He provided the government with more than 20 per cent of its annual revenue, set up the Chinese Post Office, founded a system of lighthouses along the coast, bought British warships that were the foundation of the modern Chinese navy and negotiated a peace treaty to end the Sino-French war of 1884-85. He was a trusted confidant of government leaders who constantly sought his advice in how to deal with aggressive and meddling foreigners. His finest hour came in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. With 1,300 other foreigners and 3,100 Chinese, he was trapped in the Legation Quarter of Beijing for 55 days, ready for death. After the siege, many called for partition of China or imposition of a new dynasty — but Hart argued that the fault for the rebellion lay with the foreigners. His personal life was just as dramatic. He had a Chinese lady friend, Miss Ayaou, with whom he had three children. He sent them to be brought up by a foster family in London. Then he married an Irish lady from his home place; they also had three children. He did everything possible to prevent each family from knowing of or meeting the other. Mark O'Neill uses a wide range of sources, in English and Chinese, to describe this fascinating and complex character in all his many colours.

Ireland's Imperial Mandarin: How Sir Robert Hart Became the Most Influential Foreigner in Qing China

Ireland's Imperial Mandarin: How Sir Robert Hart Became the Most Influential Foreigner in Qing China PDF Author: Mark O'Neill
Publisher: 三聯書店(香港)有限公司
ISBN: 9620441028
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
“There is almost no Chinese official upon whom I can rely. But the report of this foreigner is reliable… If we had 100 Harts, our affairs would run smoothly.” —Prince Gong, Director of the Tsungli Yamen The prince headed the Yamen, forerunner of the Foreign Ministry, from 1861 to 1884 and 1894 until his death in 1898. Sir Robert Hart served as the Inspector-General of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service of the Qing dynasty from 1863 until his death in 1911. No foreigner has ever had or will ever have the life he did in China. He provided the government with more than 20 per cent of its annual revenue, set up the Chinese Post Office, founded a system of lighthouses along the coast, bought British warships that were the foundation of the modern Chinese navy and negotiated a peace treaty to end the Sino-French war of 1884-85. He was a trusted confidant of government leaders who constantly sought his advice in how to deal with aggressive and meddling foreigners. His finest hour came in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. With 1,300 other foreigners and 3,100 Chinese, he was trapped in the Legation Quarter of Beijing for 55 days, ready for death. After the siege, many called for partition of China or imposition of a new dynasty — but Hart argued that the fault for the rebellion lay with the foreigners. His personal life was just as dramatic. He had a Chinese lady friend, Miss Ayaou, with whom he had three children. He sent them to be brought up by a foster family in London. Then he married an Irish lady from his home place; they also had three children. He did everything possible to prevent each family from knowing of or meeting the other. Mark O'Neill uses a wide range of sources, in English and Chinese, to describe this fascinating and complex character in all his many colours.

Sir Robert Hart. The Romance of a Great Career

Sir Robert Hart. The Romance of a Great Career PDF Author: Juliet Bredon
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
"Sir Robert Hart. The Romance of a Great Career" by Juliet Bredon. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

Robert Hart and China's Early Modernization

Robert Hart and China's Early Modernization PDF Author: Parks M. Coble
Publisher: Harvard Univ Asia Center
ISBN: 9780674775305
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 620

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Book Description
These journal entries continue the sequence begun in Entering China's Service and cover the years when Hart was setting up Customs procedures, establishing a modus operandi with the Ch'ing bureaucracy, and inspecting the treaty ports. They culminate in Hart's return visit to Europe with the Pinch'un Mission and his marriage in Northern Ireland.

An Irishman in China

An Irishman in China PDF Author: Zhao Changtian
Publisher: Shanghai Press
ISBN: 9781602202382
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
It was a long journey—in more ways than mere geography—from a childhood in Northern Ireland to becoming the most influential foreigner in 19th-century China. This historical novel follows the life of Robert Hart, whose career in China spanned more than half a century during the turbulent last decades of the Qing dynasty. As the Qing government's Inspector General of the Maritime Customs Service, Hart was involved in many major events of late Imperial China. While negotiating his way through civil dissent and foreign conflicts, he played an instrumental role in the country's modernization. A rare foreigner who learned the language and developed a deep interest in and sensitivity to the culture, Hart had a passion for his adopted country but continually struggled in his dual role as British subject and employee of the Chinese government. Hart's personal life was not without its own challenges as he grappled with his relationship with his Chinese lover and the children he had with her, as well as his British wife and their family together. Long periods of conflict, loneliness and doubt lurked behind the professional triumphs for which he became world-renowned. Based on exhaustive historical research, the story is enlivened by dialogue and plot elements suggested by the author's deep knowledge of Hart and the country and times in which he lived. The reader will be rewarded with insight into this pivotal period in Chinese history through the lens of the life of one fascinating individual.

Sir Robert Hart

Sir Robert Hart PDF Author: Juliet Bredon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Beijing (China)
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description


Sir Robert Hart and His Life Work in China

Sir Robert Hart and His Life Work in China PDF Author: Andrew B. Drew
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 33

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Book Description


Irish Expatriatism, Language and Literature

Irish Expatriatism, Language and Literature PDF Author: Michael O'Sullivan
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331995900X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
This book examines how Irishness as national narrative is consistently understood ‘from a distance’. Irish Presidents, critics, and media initiatives focus on how Irishness is a global resource chiefly informed by the experiences of an Irish diaspora predominantly working in English, while also reminding Irish people ‘at home’ that Irish is the 'national tongue'. In returning to some of Ireland’s major expat writers and international diplomats, this book examines the economic reasons for their migration, the opportunities they gained by working abroad (sometimes for the British Empire), and their experiences of writing and governing in non-native English speaking communities such as China and Hong Kong. It argues that their concerns about belonging, loneliness, the desire to buy a place ‘back home’, and losing a language are shared by today’s generation of social network expatriates.

Entering China's Service

Entering China's Service PDF Author: Katherine F. Bruner
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 1684172624
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
Robert Hart was one of those empire builders of the Victorian age who had a long and nearly uninterrupted experience in China, from 1854, when as a young Irishman from Belfast he landed in Ningpo, until 1908, when as a man in his seventies he finally retired to England. His years as the Ch'ing government's Inspector General of the Maritime Customs Service have been copiously recorded in letters to his London agent, beginning in 1868, published as a 2-volume collection, The IG. in Peking (Harvard, Belknap Press, 1975). In 1970, a second lode of Hart materials came to light, the 77 volumes of his journals, begun on the day of his arrival in China in 1854 and ending at his departure in 1908, with two short but significant gaps in the first decade where he himself destroyed entries of too personal a nature. Entering China's Service presents a complete and annotated transcript of the surviving journals through 1863, alternating with chapters devoted to Hart's North Ireland background, the China he encountered, the Ch'ing officials who trusted him, and the unfolding of his career. His reactions to the Chinese as well as to his fellow Westerners cast an invaluable light on nineteenth-century China.

Robert Hart and His Influence in Chinese Foreign Relations

Robert Hart and His Influence in Chinese Foreign Relations PDF Author: Walter P. Allen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description


Why Foreigners Like Hong Kong 

Why Foreigners Like Hong Kong  PDF Author: Mark O'Neill
Publisher: 三聯書店(香港)有限公司
ISBN: 962045152X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
This book tells the story of 24 foreigners who are long-term residents of Hong Kong. Their lives have been closely connected with those of their Chinese neighbours. Some were born and raised here, others came to seek opportunities for work and study, and some because they were forced to flee their homeland and start a new life. No matter what brought them here, they have dedicated themselves to Hong Kong and made an important contribution to society. Hong Kong gave them an opportunity to change their destiny, and it has become their second home.