CHINESE IN BRITAIN: A History of Visitors and Settlers

Today more than 400,000 Chinese live in Britain, many attending British universities, on business or as tourists. But until now, yet it is not so long ago that sight of a Chinese person in Britain was a remarkable event. This book examines the history of Chinese travellers to Britain over the 300 years from the first recorded visitor in 1687. Those who came included seamen, students, cooks, brides, diplomats, jugglers, servants, sportsmen, bureaucrats, writers and 'curiosities'. Some stayed for days, others many years and a number became permanent residents. The primary focus of the book are the Chinese from the area that is now the People's Republic of China, including Hong Kong, drawing on accounts by visiting Chinese, newspaper articles, memoirs, royal diaries and other contemporary sources and using the original spellings of names and placenames. It encompasses the sailors who worked on British ships and lodged briefly between voyages, the emergence of Chinatowns in London and Liverpool, servants, links to missionaries, exhibitions relating to China, ambassadors and British royalty's engagement with visiting Chinese. It also includes extended biographies of some of the most significant Chinese to settle in Britain, and deals with suspicion and prejudice particularly due to the Chinese different physical appearance, dress and culture, and now the beneficial impacts these visitors have had on British cultural life over three centuries. As China becomes a pre-eminent world power again in the 21st century, this book uncovers our long relationship with the country and its people. 288pp, illustrations plus eight pages of colour and other photos.