A Brief Review of the English Lessions

 

(This review was first written in January 2005)

　

Shunhong Zhang

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Email: zhang_sh@cass.org.cn

　

　

English Lessons: The Pedagogy of Imperialism in Nineteenth-Century China. By James L. Hevia. [Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2003; Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2003. XVIII + 387 pp. Cloth, ￡74.00, ISBN 0-8223-3151-9; Paper, ￡18.50, ISBN 0-8223-3188-8]

 

       Britain was not the first Western power to impose military challenges to China, but the first one to defeat China in a war, the First Opium War. It is at least as early as this time that Britain started to ‘give lessons’ to China. Yet, James L. Hevia examines the ‘English lessons’ only from the time of the Second Opium War to the time of the Boxer Uprising. Hevia believes that Britain designed a project to teach the Qing government and the Chinese people how to behave in a world dominated by Western colonial powers. British imperial pedagogy had two sides, a soft one and a hard one, or ‘the violence of arms and the violence of language’ (p.4). He argues that to realize the ‘indirect form of influencing Qing China, a pedagogical project was undertaken, one that was itself a form of colonization. European diplomats and advisors to the Qing government proposed to teach the Qing elite and the Chinese people in general through various means of coercion and enticement how to function properly in a world dominated militarily and economically by European-based empires.’ (p.13)  The imperial pedagogy is explored with wide investigation and illustrated vividly by photographs.

       The book is divided into three parts. Part one begins with a narrative of the events during the Second Opium War and then explores the processes of ‘deterritorialization and reterritoriolization’ that fundamentally reordered Qing China’s relationship with European empires. Part two deals with the ‘reordering of China’ in the decades between 1860 and 1900 and the ‘location of the Qing Empire within the larger global framework of the new imperialism’. The third part takes up the occupation of Beijing and north China in 1900 and 1901.

       For his studies of Sino-Western relations, Hevia has paid various visits to China. In writing his English Lessons: The Pedagogy of Imperialism in Nineteenth-Century China, the author consulted a great deal of material in Chinese. This is essential for a Western historian to reach fairer conclusions in examining Sino-Western relations. He also made certain investigations on the spot of historical events and photographs taken apparently by himself are very revealing. Different from current mainstream historians in the West, the author devoted large space to the examination and description of the actions of looting and ransacking by Euroamerican arms in China. This of course shed doubts on the contemporary Euroamerican claim of superiority over China in civilization.

       Colonial empires collapsed decades ago, yet apology for colonialism has not died down in academic circles; rather it is rising recently. In this context of Western mainstream historiography, Hevia’s English Lessons is in a sense a ‘breakthrough’ in the assessment of the historical role of Western empire building. The author is undergoing a rethinking of the established views of Sino-Western relations in the nineteenth century. In his words, ‘One way of inscribing new meanings of the past in the present, as the Oberlin example also suggests, is to compose visible alternative versions of the events of the nineteenth century, ones that highlight suppressed or marginalized elements of dominant historical narratives. Much of this book has undertaken that project, and it has tried to do so in the same spirit as recent postcolonial studies of other parts of Asia and Africa.’ (p.349) Indeed, he makes explicit criticisms on British colonial behavior. For one example, here is a quotation, ‘Nothing exemplifies this combination of British savagery and sanctimony more than the destruction of the Summer Palace’ (p.103).

       Another merit of the English Lessons is the author’s consideration of the global context in examining Sino-Western relations. One purpose of his study ‘is to place developments in China within a broader global framework’ (p.11). This is a good attempt to look into the history of Sino-Western relations from a wider angle.

       On the other hand, however, the English Lessons does have its limitations in the analyses of Sino-Western relations of the period. Largely influenced by the established views of Western historical circles, Hevia took the view that Britain’s empire building was ‘both destructive and constructive’. Thus no matter how many negative aspects did empire building have, it did have positive ones as it was also ‘constructive’. This is an appreciation of colonialism and imperialism and a way of absolving the imperialist and colonialist from guilt and blame. Though the author criticizes the action of looting and ransacking of Euroamerican troops, he does not recognize that looting was an integral component of the nature of colonialism; he should not be surprised to find vast evidence of looting and plundering by Euroamerican troops in China in the second half of the nineteenth century as colonialists did the same things everywhere and as European colonialists, for instance, the Portuguese and the Dutch, had done so on the coastal areas earlier in China. Nor is it well grounded to argue that British leadership ‘did not want China to become another Ottoman Empire’ or another India. (pp.24-25) This is untrue historically as Britain, like any other colonial power, had designs to divide China and had, as it did, adventures of colonization in the country. The colonialists did not realize the full goal of colonizing China not because of their lack of intension, but because of Chinese people’s unyielding resistance. Britain launched the First Opium War and imposed the first unequal treaty on China. During the Second Opium War, Britain, together with France, destroyed the Summer Palace, the Yuanmingyuan, and forced China to sign a new unequal treaty. Yet Hevia asserts that in 1860, Britain made China ‘perfectly equal’. One would wonder what is the meaning of the word ‘equal’. It is easy to find such plausible statements in the work. One more example is that, as the author argues, ‘English lessons had taught the Qing not only the proper sort of intercourse with powerful Euroamerican nation-states, but how to transfer itself into a power like them’. (p. 154) No colonial power ever intended to teach China to become a country as powerful as itself, and the bare truth is that China, having been ‘taught lessons’ by colonialists, indeed tried to strengthen itself to avoid being further taught.

       In the one hundred years that followed the First Opium War, Britain and other colonial powers indeed taught China too many lessons. One of them, Hevia does not stress, is that when backward, one would be beaten in a time of colonialism and imperialism. There is indeed still a quite long way to go for historians to reach fairer conclusions concerning nineteenth century Sino-Western relations. Nonetheless, English Lessons is no doubt an outstanding contribution to studies in this field. James L. Hevia has already become known among Chinese historians for his Cherishing Men from Afar: Qing Guest Ritual and the Macartney Embassy of 1793 which has been translated into Chinese. The English Lessons will surely have many readers in China.

　

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