ABSTRACT

This book presents a wide range of new research on the Chinese treaty ports – the key strategic places on China’s coast where in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries various foreign powers controlled, through "unequal treaties", whole cities or parts of cities, outside the jurisdiction of the Chinese authorities. Topics covered include land and how it was acquired, the flow of people, good and information, specific individuals and families who typify life in the treaty ports, and technical advances, exploration, and innovation in government.

chapter |22 pages

Introduction

Law, land and power: treaty ports and concessions in modern China

chapter 1|20 pages

Extraterritoriality in China

What we know and what we don't know

chapter 2|18 pages

Who ran the treaty ports?

A study of the Shanghai Municipal Council

chapter 3|17 pages

The land system of the Shanghai International Settlement

The rise and fall of the Hardoon family, 1874–1956

chapter 7|19 pages

Interport printing enterprise

Macanese printing networks in Chinese treaty ports

chapter 9|22 pages

‘Throwing light on natural laws'

Meteorology on the China coast, 1869–1912

chapter 10|19 pages

From Terra incognita to Garden of Eden

Unveiling the prehistoric life of China and Central Asia, 1900–30

chapter 11|23 pages

The French Concession in Hankou 1938–43

The life and death of a solitary enclave in an occupied city

chapter 12|18 pages

The Communists and the Kailuan mines

Eliminating the legacies of the treaty ports