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RE: JV and China

From: angel lui <angelpslui~at~hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 05 Jan 2003 02:15:34 +0000
To: jvf~at~Gilead.org.il, BIAO_LEI~at~NYMC.EDU

Hi Biao,

Thanks for your reply. While I think you make some interesting points, I cannot agree with two of the thrusts of your arguments.

First, the English translation you cite is inaccurate: for instance, it omits "Victoria Harbour" (the very name is, of course, a sign of British colonialism). I would agree that "Nankin" would be inappropriate in a modern translation. But Jules Verne can hardly be blamed for an unauthorised 19th C. English translation which does not conform to 21st C. usage! Incidentally, the "Canton River" was a normal usage in the 19th C. See for example "Tai-Wang-Kow" on http://www.oldprints.co.uk/prints/cn/images/cn107.htm.

I think it is essential to refer to the French texts, or at least a good English or Chinese translation (I suspect the Chinese ones are not so accurate, but am willing to stand corrected).

I also think it is simplistic to say that in his works "all colonists appeared brave and benevolent, not did he shed a single word about the misery that colonism brought to the native people". If you wish I can quote chapter and verse about Verne on his perception of the evils of colonialism in general and British colonialism in particular. 

Thanks again for the opportunity to air these issues.

Angel

; BIAO_LEI~at~NYMC.EDU

>From: LEI BIAO

>Reply-To: Jules Verne Forum

>To: "'Jules Verne Forum'"

>Subject: RE: JV and China

>Date: Sat, 4 Jan 2003 11:53:18 -0500

>

>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

>

>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

---

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