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RE: JV and China

From: LEI BIAO <BIAO_LEI~at~NYMC.EDU>
Date: Sat, 4 Jan 2003 11:53:18 -0500
To: "'Jules Verne Forum'" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

Hi, Angel,
Thanks for bringing up such an interesting topic.
Here is just a paragraph from Around the World in 80 Days, Chapter 19, about
Hong Kong,
Hong Kong is an island which came into the possession of the English by the
Treaty of Nankin, after the war of 1842; and the colonising genius of the
English has created upon it an important city and an excellent port. The
island is situated at the mouth of the Canton River, and is separated by
about sixty miles from the Portuguese town of Macao, on the opposite coast.
Hong Kong has beaten Macao in the struggle for the Chinese trade, and now
the greater part of the transportation of Chinese goods finds its depot at
the former place. Docks, hospitals, wharves, a Gothic cathedral, a
government house, macadamised streets, give to Hong Kong the appearance of a
town in Kent or Surrey transferred by some strange magic to the antipodes.
You may find more in this chapter.Clearly his knowledge was far from
accurate from our points of view now. First, the river is called the Pearl
River, not the Canton River. The war happened during 1839~1842, which was
called the First Opium War because the British sale of opium into China
through Canton. The Nanking (not Nankin) Treaty was signed in 1842 after
China was defeated.
Amazingly Verne was calling the English "colonising genius". He seemed to be
positive about that. The British Opium War and the sieze of Hong Kong was
the beginning of the dark age in Chinese history when the western powers
including Japan lauched series of shameless robbery of China. May I quote
part of the Nanking Treaty as follows:
This treaty between Britain and China ended the first opium war, fought
between 1839 and 1842. The occasion for the war was the destruction in May
1839 by the Chinese emperor's 'drug tsar', Lin Zexu, of thousands of casks
of Indian opium, without compensation, that were destined to be sold by the
private British traders operating in Canton harbor to Chinese dealers in
defiance of a ban placed on the illegal substance by the Chinese government.
Despite the ban, the British government supported the traders on the
specious grounds that suppression of the drug was China's responsibility
only and that it should not proceed by an assault on the property (i.e.,
opium) of British subjects.
http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob24.html
<http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob24.html>
What a justification for the blatant colonists! This is just saying " I have
the right to sell WHATEVER in your country becausse I'm stronger than you!"
Actually through many of his works I had the feeling, that even though a
great writer, Verne was a racist. He was positive about colonism everywhere,
all colonists appeared brave and benevolent, not did he shed a single word
about the misery that colonism brought to the native people.
I'm glad the dark age of colonism is gone, and China is strong and nobody
dares to bully us!
Biao
Received on Sat 04 Jan 2003 - 18:56:03 IST

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