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图书 | Empire careers: Working for the Chinese Customs Service, 1854–1949

Empire careers: Working for the Chinese Customs Service, 1854–1949

By Catherine Ladds

https://doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9780719085482.001.0001

Online ISBN: 9781781704974

Print ISBN: 9780719085482

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 1 March 2013

Abstract: The Chinese Customs Service was a central pillar of the foreign presence in China, 1854–1949. Its far-reaching responsibilities included collecting duties on foreign trade, establishing China’s first postal service, participating in international exhibitions, and even diplomacy. This is the first book-length study of the 11,000 expatriates from twenty-three different countries who worked for the Customs, exploring how their lives and careers were shaped by imperial ideologies, networks and structures. In doing so it highlights the vast range of people for whom the empire world spoke of opportunity. In an age of globalisation, the insights that this book provides into the personal and professional ramifications of working overseas are especially valuable. Empire Careers considers the professional triumphs and tribulations of the foreign staff, their social activities, their private and family lives, their physical and mental illnesses, and how all of these factors were influenced by the changing political context in China and abroad. Customs employees worked across the length and breadth of China, from the cosmopolitan commercial hub of Shanghai to isolated lighthouses. They thus formed the most visible face of imperialism in China. Contrary to the common assumption that China was merely an ‘outpost’ of empire, exploration of the Customs’s cosmopolitan personnel encourages us to see East Asia as a place where multiple imperial trajectories converged. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of imperial history and the political history of modern China.

Keywords: Chinese Customs Service, expatriates, globalisation, imperial ideologies, imperialism, networks

Subject: Colonialism and Imperialism, Asian History, Modern History (1700 to 1945), Chinese History

Contents

Front Matter

Copyright Page

Dedication

List of Tables

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

General Editor’s Introduction

Notes

Introduction: the Customs, China and the empire world

The Customs mindset: ethos, ideologies and knowledge about China

‘We want men and not encyclopaedias’: joining the Customs Service1

‘That chaotic and Gilbertian Service’: working life in the Customs

Private lives, public reputations: the off-duty world of the Customs staff

Leaving the Service: home, identity and post-Customs lives

Chapter Seven Conclusion

End Matter

Select Bibliography

Index

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