William Nelson Lovatt in Late Qing China: War, Maritime Customs, and Treaty Ports, 18601904

(Hardback)

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William Nelson Lovatt in Late Qing China: War, Maritime Customs, and Treaty Ports,1860-1904 looks at the late Qing dynasty through the eyes of a British-American who spent most of his adult life in China in the late nineteenth century, fighting in four wars, serving in its maritime customs service, and living in eleven different treaty ports. It is based on the newly-discovered journals, correspondence, and photographs of William Nelson Lovatt (1838-1904), who first arrived in China in 1860 as a sergeant in the British army to fight in the Second Opium War, and who then proceeded to fight against the Taiping in Shanghai, against the Nian in Tianjin, and finally against the Japanese in Taiwan, providing an inside look at those four conflicts. Joining the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service in 1863 under Inspector-General Sir Robert Hart, Lovatt provides a rare insider look at the operation of Hart and the Maritime Customs Service for during the four decades he served. Because he was based in treaty ports, he also provides a new look at those enclaves, their institutions, and their inhabitants Chinese, missionaries, and fellow customs officials. Fluent in Chinese, his frequent travels outside the treaty ports gave him rare access to Chinese society available to few others. This volume opens up a new window on China during the final decades of the Qing dynasty.

Reviews

The book successfully provides a colorful and fascinating account of the life in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service from the perspective of a Victorian British expatriate. This study would be very useful for people who are interested in the global history in the late 19th Century, and specifically modern Chinese history; also to readers who want to know more specifically about the foreign communities at treaty ports in China.

This book is a transnational and transcontinental history within the special context of East-West interactions. For this very reason, this monograph is a benefit to anyone who desires to learn modern Chinese history and China's relationship with the West.

Author Bio

Wayne Patterson is professor of modern East Asian history at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin.