ABSTRACT
Raquez’s time in Shanghai and trip into the interior of China; excerpts of his book In the Land of Pagodas supplemented by other period sources. Critical contextualization around ideas of flâneur and Exote, as defined by Victor Segalen, provide a framework for readers to grasp Raquez’s writing style and aesthetic sensibilities; turmoil of politics of China at the time: Self-Strengthening Movement, Empress Dowager Cixi’s crushing of the Hundred Days Reform; Raquez’s interview with the victims; French Shanghai: their presence in the trading entrepot and interaction with local peoples; the wenren of Shanghai, a group of intellectuals who mingled sensual pleasures with belles lettres; profile of Chen Jitong, whom Raquez befriended; opening of the frontier to European interests and complicity of Chinese backers, with focus on Raquez’s journey on a houseboat up the Yuan River into remote Guizhou on an expedition to survey Qingxi ironworks and the mercury mines located at nearby Wanshan.
