Bøger i Cambridge Library Collection - East and South-East Asian History serien

Taking advantage of his diplomatic privilege in Japan to travel further and inquire deeper than other foreigners, Swiss envoy Aime Humbert (1819-1900) brought back stories of life under the Tokugawa shogunate in its final years. First published in the journal Le Tour du monde in 1866, his account of Japanese history and daily life was republished as Le Japon illustre in 1870. This 1874 English translation brought readers up to date by including additional chapters on the 1868 revolution and its aftermath. Humbert focused his narrative on the history and culture of four locations: Benten, the foreign settlement at Yokohama; Kyoto, where emperors had resided for centuries; Kamakura, the old centre of political power; and Yeddo, now Tokyo, the new capital of Japan. Featuring almost 200 illustrations taken from Humbert's collection of prints and photographs, this book captures descriptively and pictorially a country on the verge of dramatic political and social change.

After spending a year in Tokyo, American teacher Alice Mabel Bacon (1858-1918) became the first author to usher Western readers into the graceful, paper-walled realm of the Japanese woman. An intimate friend of several Japanese ladies, Bacon was privy to a domestic world which remained closed to male visitors. This 1891 work begins with birth and childhood, including the colourful, kimono-like dress of infants, their ornate dolls, and their education in handwriting, flower painting and etiquette. Trained for a lifetime of service to her husband and his parents, the Japanese woman was praised for her loyalty and obedience. But new Western influences, especially on education, were challenging the old ways. Bacon evocatively depicts Japanese women unsettled by their modern education, yet saddled with traditional cultural expectations. With its insight into Japan's class system, cultural history and moral framework, this book remains an essential complement to any study of Japanese social history.

Gabriel Ferrand (1864-1935) travelled widely as a French diplomat and pursued scholarly passions as a polyglot orientalist. He served as consul to Madagascar and published several works about the island, noting the Arab influence that preceded the arrival of Europeans. A member of the Societe Asiatique, and editor of its journal from 1920 until his death, Ferrand sought in particular to make Arabic geographical and nautical writings more accessible to fellow scholars and students. Forming part of that project, this work appeared in two volumes in 1913-14. It presents annotated French translations of mainly Arabic texts relating to the Far East. Brief biographical notes on the authors are given for the benefit of non-specialists. Volume 1 contains the preliminary matter explaining Ferrand's approach to transcription and translation. This is followed by texts up to the thirteenth century, including extracts from the ninth-century author Sulaiman al-Tajir.

Following his election to Parliament and extensive travels through Asia, George Nathaniel Curzon (1859-1925) published in 1894 this consideration of the present state of Japan, Korea and China within a changing international landscape. Later viceroy of India, Curzon was fascinated by the rich cultural heritage of the Far East, yet he remained a staunch supporter of British imperialism. He explains that the book's purpose is to delve deeper into political, social and economic conditions, rather than present a travel narrative of 'temples, tea-houses and bric-a-brac'. After devoting a substantial section to each country, Curzon closes with 'The Prospect', exploring what he envisages for the future of the whole region. The favourable reception of this title and his 1892 work, Persia and the Persian Question (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection), highlighted Curzon's diligently acquired knowledge of Asian affairs and how they affected Britain's imperial interests.

Educated at the Government School of Design (predecessor of the Royal College of Art), Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) became arguably the first industrial designer, identified by his name on his work. He was an early proponent of oriental art: as a leading figure in the Aesthetic Movement, he promoted Japonism in art and decoration. In 1876-7 he toured Japan at the Japanese government's invitation, investigating local manufacturing and design. This beautifully illustrated 1882 work is the result. The first half is a travelogue of Dresser's time in Japan, written with a designer's eye for the architecture and decoration around him. The second half, covering the various ways in which design and decoration were used in the manufacturing industries, includes consideration of architectural motifs, the importance of symbols, lacquerware, ceramics, metalware, and fabric production. This remains an invaluable resource for the student of Japanese art and design.

A respected authority on Japan, William Elliot Griffis (1843-1928) did much to foster understanding between the United States and Japan in the late nineteenth century. This was his most popular work on the subject. It is arranged in two sections, with maps and illustrations throughout. The first part is a detailed history of Japan from 660 BCE, covering factual events as well as mythological elements of the Japanese past. This is followed by a personal account of the four years Griffis lived in Japan, during which the country underwent significant modernisation. Highly successful, the work went through twelve editions following its initial publication in 1876. It is reissued here in its second edition of 1877 and features improvements, such as the addition of content in the appendices and footnotes, made in response to comments by critics. Giffis' Corea, the Hermit Nation (1882) is also reissued in this series.

Described as a 'hermit nation' because it isolated itself from the rest of the world, Korea remained very little known to English speakers in the late nineteenth century. During his time in Japan, the American author and educator William Elliot Griffis (1843-1928), who did much to foster understanding between the United States and Japan, became fascinated by Korea and its influence on Japanese history and culture. This historical outline of Korea is compiled from printed sources and eyewitness accounts rather than from personal experience since Griffis was yet to visit Korea at this point. Despite this, and the fact that he was sometimes criticised for presenting Korea in comparison with Japan, this book was well received. First published in 1882, it contains an annotated bibliography and features maps and illustrations throughout. Griffis' most famous work on Japan, The Mikado's Empire (1877), is also reissued in this series.

Gabriel Ferrand (1864-1935) travelled widely as a French diplomat and pursued scholarly passions as a polyglot orientalist. He served as consul to Madagascar and published several works about the island, noting the Arab influence that preceded the arrival of Europeans. A member of the Societe Asiatique, and editor of its journal from 1920 until his death, Ferrand sought in particular to make Arabic geographical and nautical writings more accessible to fellow scholars and students. Forming part of that project, this work appeared in two volumes in 1913-14. It presents annotated French translations of mainly Arabic texts relating to the Far East. Brief biographical notes on the authors are given for the benefit of non-specialists. Volume 2 contains texts from the thirteenth century onwards, and includes a section of translated extracts from Chinese, Japanese, Tamil, Kawi and Malay texts.

Born and educated in Florence, Arnold Henry Savage Landor (1867-1925) abandoned his art studies in Paris in favour of adventurous expeditions across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society from 1892, Landor was also made a member of the Royal Institution in 1897. Dismissive of specialist equipment, he embarked on extraordinary trips that often required considerable courage and endurance. Another of his publications, Alone with the Hairy Ainu (1893), is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection. The present work, first published in 1895, is an absorbing account of the geography, people and culture of Korea. While Landor's grasp of the forces of change at work in the country may be partial, the work nevertheless demonstrates a valuable understanding of Korean culture and customs not found in earlier accounts. Many fine illustrations by Landor himself increase the book's appeal.

After studying medicine at Edinburgh, John Crawfurd (1783-1868) joined the medical service of the East India Company. While posted at Penang, he studied the Malay language and culture and became an expert in Eastern affairs. His talent was recognised by the British Government, which entrusted to him both administrative and diplomatic responsibilities. He was sent as an envoy on many missions, most notably to the Court of Siam (Thailand) where his efforts led to a possibility of opening up the diplomatic relations between the two countries, troubled since the seventeenth century. In 1827, he was sent on his last diplomatic assignment in the service of the East India Company, to the Court of Ava (then the capital of present-day Myanmar (Burma)). This 1829 work describes his experiences at Ava, and provided a reference source for subsequent missions. The appendix contains several relevant official communiques.

The Prussian-born Protestant missionary Karl Friedrich August Gutzlaff (1803-51) sought to spread Christianity in the Far East. A gifted linguist, he sailed to Siam and worked on a translation of the Bible into Thai. The British missionary Robert Morrison had fired his interest in China, and Gutzlaff later focused his evangelising efforts there, learning several dialects and distributing translated literature. The present work, featuring an introductory chapter by fellow missionary William Ellis on Chinese attitudes to foreign influence, was first published in 1834. Gutzlaff had left Siam in 1831 in a Chinese junk trading along the coast of China. The next year, as an interpreter aboard an East India Company vessel, he also visited Korea and Okinawa. The third voyage recounted here describes the places and peoples encountered from Canton to Manchuria. Also reissued in this series are Gutzlaff's Sketch of Chinese History (1834) and China Opened (1838).

The sinologist George Thomas Staunton (1781-1859) learned Chinese as a child and accompanied his father on a trip to China in 1792 where, though the Ambassador's page, he was the only member of the delegation who could speak to the Emperor in Chinese. A career in the East India Company's Canton factory followed, and he translated many texts between Chinese and English. Upon his return to Britain in 1817, he spent many years as a Tory MP and often spoke about China and its trade with Britain. He also continued to write about these issues, and this collection of translations and essays, published in 1822, reflects Staunton's varied interests - ranging from a translation of the Chinese history, Tung-wha-loo to his own writings on the Company's trade disputes with the Emperor - making this work a unique and valuable source of information on British cultural, economic, and diplomatic relations with China in the early nineteenth-century.

Published in 1844, this extraordinary book consists of the diaries of Robert Gully and Captain Denham, the Commander of the merchant vessel Ann, who were imprisoned in China in 1842, and notes exchanged between the two men (who were held captive in separate places). After some months of imprisonment, Gully was murdered, but Denham survived and was eventually released. The book, edited by 'a barrister', was designed to inform the British public of 'matters of which hitherto they have had slender but doubtful accounts', and to apply political and diplomatic pressure on the Chinese government, whose official account of the incident denied any wrong-doing by its representatives. Gully had distinguished himself in the taking of Ningpo during the Opium War of 1841-2, and later boarded the Ann to return to Macao. The vessel was subsequently wrecked off Formosa (Taiwan), where events related in the book occurred.

William Jardine Proudfoot (c.1804-1887) published his critique of Sir John Barrow's Travels in China (1804; also reissued in this series) with the agenda of exposing the latter as unreliable and unjust. Barrow had accompanied Lord Macartney on the first British mission to the Chinese Imperial Court (1792-4), in a party that also included the official astronomer, Dr James Dinwiddie, Proudfoot's grandfather. Comparing Barrow's account to that found in other records, Proudfoot concludes that the earlier work was 'a great humbug', ascribing to Barrow the 'powerful motive' of self-promotion. In a work full of vitriol against its subject, Proudfoot's concern is to honour the memory of the mission's members, whom he felt Barrow belittled and vilified, and also to point out factual inaccuracies, accusing him of seeking amusement rather than truth in his anecdotes. Read alongside Barrow's work, it makes for an interesting, scornful, and often entertaining counter.

During his last voyage back to England, the ship of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) caught fire, consuming many of the papers from which future biographers might have worked. When he died two years later, the task of sifting through the surviving materials and recording his life and career fell to his widow Sophia (1786-1858). Her substantial biography, first published in 1830, remains an essential source of information about one of the key figures of British colonialism in the East Indies. At the centre of the book, interspersed with many of her husband's letters, is Raffles' struggle against his Dutch opponents, with whom he clashed on ideological grounds - he noted with distaste their mistreatment of the local population and their advocacy of slavery. It was this rivalry which convinced Raffles to found Singapore as a trading post. His two-volume History of Java (1817) is also reissued in this series.

Jean-Baptiste-Barthelemy de Lesseps (1766-1834), a French diplomat, served as an interpreter on La Perouse's voyage around the world, which sailed from Brest in 1785. In 1787, on the eastern coast of the Kamchatka peninsula, he was tasked with an overland mission to get reports back to France as La Perouse proceeded to Australia. This two-volume work, reissued here in its English translation of 1790, is a compelling account of the one-year journey from Russia to France, and a tale of endurance and resourcefulness in the face of forbidding conditions. More than a mere journal, it also relates the author's observations on the way of life in Kamchatka, its institutions and trade. Rich in detail, the work will appeal to historians and readers with an interest in transcontinental adventure. Volume 2 covers his journey from the north-eastern extremity of the Sea of Okhotsk all the way back to France.

Jean-Baptiste-Barthelemy de Lesseps (1766-1834), a French diplomat, served as an interpreter on La Perouse's voyage around the world, which sailed from Brest in 1785. In 1787, on the eastern coast of the Kamchatka peninsula, he was tasked with an overland mission to get reports back to France as La Perouse proceeded to Australia. This two-volume work, reissued here in its English translation of 1790, is a compelling account of the one-year journey from Russia to France, and a tale of endurance and resourcefulness in the face of forbidding conditions. More than a mere journal, it also relates the author's observations on the way of life in Kamchatka, its institutions and trade. Rich in detail, the work will appeal to historians and readers with an interest in transcontinental adventure. Volume 1 covers his journey from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the north-eastern extremity of the Sea of Okhotsk.

Ending centuries of isolation, the Meiji era opened Japan to the world in the late nineteenth century, revealing a rich and sophisticated culture. Largely unknown until then, it proved an object of fascination to the West, and the delicacy of its art inspired such figures as Van Gogh, Manet, Whistler and the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. French painter Felix Elie Regamey (1844-1907) was one of the few Europeans who had travelled to Japan, and his deep respect and understanding of the country's art and customs soon established him as an expert. Appearing first in French in 1891, his observations were published in this English translation in 1893. Offering an artist's perspective on Japan and its mores, it also contains 100 illustrations drawn by the author using Japanese techniques. Readers will find much of interest in this valuable contribution to the study of Japanese culture.

In 1860, James Bruce (1811-63), the eighth Earl of Elgin, embarked upon a second embassy to China which aimed to obtain ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin and finally conclude the Second Opium War on terms favourable to the British. Accompanying Elgin as his private secretary was the enterprising army officer Henry Brougham Loch (1827-1900). Originally published in 1869, Loch's first-hand account of the mission reflects sustained concern over Britain's strained trading relationship with China in the nineteenth century. Notwithstanding his views regarding the need for European influence to shape China's future success in government, his clearly written narrative illuminates contemporary diplomacy and the events surrounding the Convention of Peking in October 1860. Prior to this outcome, Loch had been captured, imprisoned and brutally tortured by Chinese officials. His chapters detailing this experience and his eventual release are especially noteworthy.

A noted historian of Burma and a founder of the Burma Research Society, John Sydenham Furnivall (1878-1960) supported Burmese independence and freedom from colonial rule. However, he has been considered as Eurocentric and in favour of colonialism, in part because he saw it as a necessary stage in the improvement of certain societies. Stemming from a request in 1942 by the colonial government for Furnivall's views on reconstruction, this influential study was published in 1948. Using the Dutch East Indies as a case study for comparison, Furnivall assesses the effects of the different systems of colonial rule, framed within general surveys of their colonial policies and practices. The book is driven by the goal of consolidating and stabilising Burma's plural society, focusing on the importance of the welfare of the native population. Furnivall's Netherlands India (1939) has also been reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.

Alicia Little (1845-1926) was a prolific writer who moved to China after her marriage to missionary Archibald Little (1838-1907) in 1866. She published many accounts of Chinese culture and society before founding the successful campaign against foot-binding in 1895. This volume, first published in 1903, contains her biography of the eminent Chinese statesman Li Hung-Chang (1823-1901). Li was a towering figure in late nineteenth century Chinese political life, exerting a profound influence over Chinese foreign policy and relations and overseeing China's development of western style industrialism until his dramatic fall from power following China's defeat in the 1894 Sino-Japanese War. Using contemporary newspaper accounts, eyewitness descriptions, and interviews with his contemporaries, Little describes Li's life chronologically, describing his rise to prominence following the Taiping Rebellion in 1851. This volume was the first extensive account of Li's life to be published in English.

British academic and diplomat Reginald Fleming Johnston (1874-1938) published Twilight in the Forbidden City in 1934. The work is a memoir of Johnston's time in Beijing between 1919 and 1924, at the court of the Qing Dynasty, where he served as tutor to Aisin-Gioro Puyi (1906-1967), last emperor of China. Johnston was one of only two foreigners who were permitted to enter the imperial palace, and so his account provides a unique Western perspective on the epochal events of the period. The work has a preface by the emperor Puyi and includes detailed descriptions of palace rituals, including Puyi's wedding ceremony; translations of key documents; Johnston's perspective on the revolution of 1911 and the 1917 restoration; his observations on Chinese society as a whole; and eye-witness accounts of the political intrigues of the palace. The memoir was dramatised in Bernardo Bertolucci's cinematic masterpiece, The Last Emperor.

Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston (1874-1938) was a colonial administrator and scholar with a lifelong fascination with China who was appointed tutor to the young Puyi (1906-1967), who became emperor at the age of two. Johnston was highly favoured by the emperor, receiving several imperial titles and residing in the Forbidden City. His account of his time as Puyi's tutor, Twilight in the Forbidden City, also reissued in this series, was dramatised in the film The Last Emperor. Previously, Johnston had served in a variety of colonial service positions, including three years as commissioner of the British-held territory of Weihaiwai. This book, first published in 1910, is Johnston's examination of Weihaiwei, which he considered to be a microcosm of Chinese life. Writing with obvious affection, Johnston outlines the history, culture, festivals and local folklore of Weihaiwei and explores what the future could hold for the city.

Sir George Thomas Staunton (1781-1859), sinologist and politician, was a key figure in early nineteenth-century Anglo-Chinese relations. Staunton secured a post as a writer in the East India Company's factory in Canton in 1798 and was the only Englishman at the factory to study Chinese. He translated China's penal code and was promoted to chief of the Canton factory in 1816. He was a member of Britain's Amherst embassy to Peking in 1816-1817 to protest against mandarins' treatment of Canton merchants. The embassy failed to obtain an imperial interview but, despite being threatened with detention by the Chinese, Staunton insisted that the British should not submit to the emperor. Staunton returned to England in 1817, and served as a Tory MP between 1818 and 1852. Staunton's Memoirs, which were printed privately in 1856, provide a unique insight into nineteenth-century British perceptions of China.

A classic study of the subject and one of the major works in English on Dutch colonialism in Indonesia, Furnivall's magisterial history was published on the brink of the Second World War when Dutch power was waning in the archipelago. This study traces the economic and social development of Netherlands India from the arrival of the Dutch to 1939. It illustrates the geographical, economic and social features of the colony, and how Dutch and native Indonesian inhabitants co-existed within a unique, now lost, society and culture. Furnivall (1878-1960) served as a British colonial administrator in Burma for many years, and went on to become Professor of Burmese Studies at Cambridge University. The breadth and scope of this book make it an often cited and influential book in southeast Asian studies to this day.

This 1866 two-volume history of the Taiping Rebellion in China (1850-64) is both a defence of the rebels and a savage indictment of Britain's imperial policy and apathetic attitude to its consequences. It is an important and passionate account by a British soldier and participant.

In 1857 Laurence Oliphant (1829-88), lawyer, journalist, diplomat and sometime spy, became private secretary to Lord Elgin, accompanying him on a diplomatic mission to Japan and China, aimed at extended British trading interests. His 1859 account provides a highly informative analysis of the negotiations from a privileged vantage point.

Invited to advise on Japan's naval expansion, Sir Edward Reed (1830-1906) spent three months in the country. Published in 1880, this book gives an insight into Japan during a key period in her history and is an informal yet informed assessment of her people, customs, history and geography.

George Leonard Staunton (1737-1801) was part of Lord Macartney's delegation to China in 1792, intended to improve relations with Britain. The talks failed, but Staunton kept a detailed account of his time there, which was published in two volumes in 1797. Volume 1 describes the nine-month voyage to China.

From 1868 to 1879 former French naval officer Jean Moura was administrator of the recently established French protectorate of Cambodia. He thoroughly researched Cambodia's history, geography and society, and on his return to France compiled this two-volume illustrated reference work, published 1883, the first of its kind in the West.