Anglo-American relations with the Chinese in Shanghai, 1860-1875 : a study in cultural conflict

In the fifteen years after China's Ch'ing government signed a series of treaties which acknowledged the power of the western nations and granted to foreigners many new privileges in China, British and American nationals who resided in China's treaty ports came into more frequent and intense contact with the Chinese around them. At almost every point where they met they established institutions to mediate their contact with each other and the contact between their cultures. This study looks at the pattern of interaction which developed between British and American foreigners and the Chinese at Shanghai as individuals and groups from both sides vied with each other to control and shape these emerging institutions of local influence and power in the International Settlement.

The institutions studied are the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Kiangnan Arsenal, the Feng chuan shan Military Camp, the Chinese Christian church, the municipal police force, the Mixed Court, and the Municipal Council. The study deals primarily with non-commercial contact and is based on English-language sources including consular records, secular and religious newspapers, diaries, the journal of a local learned society, and records of the local government and missionary societies.

The foreigners' persistent attempts in the 1860's and 1870's to shape and control local institutions and thereby help fashion for China a future in which AngloAmerican ideals and values would find a congenial home were met with sustained resistance on the part of the Chinese. This resistance was, for the most part, polite and genteel. Although it often resulted in neither decisive victories nor clear-cut defeats, this genteel resistance was well-suited to the era and physical setting in which it was practiced. It was a practical way for men who still believed that their own values and ways of ordering society were essentially sound to limit and control the foreign impact on Chinese culture and society. The foreigners discovered that their military superiority did not guarantee that individual Chinese would submit to their wishes, agree with their ideas, or adopt their values.