Book Review – White Lotus Rebels and South China Pirates: Crisis and Reform in the Qing Empire

This book studies the Qianlong-Jiaqing transition (1796–1810), a relatively neglected period in modern Chinese history. It probes some key factors that led to the rise of High Qing in the 18th century and its subsequent decline in the 19th century. It is widely known that the Qianlong emperor, in his last years, was responsible in weakening his powerful empire, but there have been arguments on the extent to which his successor's careful and conservative reforms helped restore order to imperial governance. The author, Wang Wensheng goes further than previous studies in identifying not only the White Lotus Rebellions of 1796–1804 but also the South China pirate attacks of 1802–1810 as relevant events in understanding the limits of Jiaqing's reforms. He points to the desultory but not insignificant attempts by some of the leaders of both groups to link their respective anti-regime causes. Using the two sets of events, the author suggests that the end of this period was neither the beginning of a dynastic decay nor the lull before the storm. The study shows that Emperor Jiaqing, subtly and cautiously, did reorganise the administrative machinery and regain credibility for the Qing regime. The emperor also recognised that changes in the external environment brought about by British and French interests along China's maritime frontiers required adjustments to traditional ideas of inter-state relations

Keynote Address Southeast Asia: Imperial Themes

A celebratory conference of this kind should allow the keynote lecture to be somewhat more personal than normal. It is with that in mind that I have linked the theme, 'Southeast Asia: Past, Present and Future', to the person whose birthday we are celebrating. I do not know if I can do that successfully but will try by pursuing some of Nick's [Nicholas Tarling] and my own life and professional experiences with imperial themes in Southeast Asian history. Why 'imperial themes'? Would not that be too much of a bias towards the past? It would seem to ignore the conference theme to include both the present and the future. Of course, I have an historian's weakness for what is past; in this case, even 'privileging' a past paradigm that Southeast Asians today might prefer to forget. My excuse is that the party is for Nick, who is even more the historian than I am, and this is a rare opportunity for me to connect with him in the Southeast Asian context. But I shall not only talk about the past. I also hope to show that there are imperial themes in different contexts and different kinds of empires. Many of us wish to see the end of empires forever, and indeed some kinds of empires may have come to an end. But imperial themes are pervasive and resilient and may be more present than we think, and more relevant for the future than we would want. I recall suggesting a few months ago, when commemorating the end of the Second World War in Asia, that the kind of empire that the Japanese had tried to establish in Southeast Asia between 1941 and 1945 was gone and never to return

Writing in London. Home and Languaging in the Work of London Poets of Chinese Descent

This essay discusses literary works produced in London by poets of Chinese descent who are foreign-born or London native. Some of these works are written in English, and some in Chinese. The aim is to discuss poetry that has emphatically or reluctantly embraced the identity narrative, talking of home and belonging in substantially different ways from each other, according to each poet’s individual relationship with movement, migration, and stability. Therefore, through the use of the phrase ‘London poets of Chinese descent’, I do not aim at tracing a shared sense of identity, but instead I am interested in using London as a method for an oblique reading that recognises the variety of angles and approaches in these poets’ individual experience, history and circumstances that can range from occasional travel to political exile

China's crisis: the international implications

China has always been important to countries in the Asia/Pacific region, whether as a vortex of disarray and discontent or - as it has appeared to be, particularly over the last decade - as a modernising great Asian power. In this latter context, China was increasingly accepted as a responsible participant in regional and global affairs. Although China's military capabilities and its political ambitions were regarded with residual distrust by some neighbouring countries, such misgivings were increasingly overshadowed by expectations of a new China possessing the largest potential market remaining in the world today. The Tiananmen affair, as it is now known, seemed to shatter any assumptions about China's stability, its economic potential and certainly some of the illusions about China's political system. This unique collection of papers begins with an analysis of the political situation in China, as seen from Beijing and Canberra. It provides detailed assessments of the way in which countries throughout the Asia/Pacific region, including Australia, responded or did not respond. There is an overview on Hong Kong and its governability and extensive discussion on the strategic and economic implications, if any, for China and for neighbouring and regional states, of events in Beijing in June 1989