Abstract
This chapter attempts to examine the processes involved in implicating a colony into a colonial world system by studying the case of Hong Kong and its first Chinese newspaper, a monthly periodical called Gems from Near and Afar, published between 1853 and 1856. Drawing on the concept of ‘world-weaving’, a variation of Pheng Cheah’s concept of ‘world-making’, and analysing the periodical in both its form and its content, the chapter argues that Gems from Near and Afar fulfilled a function of ‘world-weaving’: it weaved Hong Kong, a newly founded British colony at the time, into a world of circulation of capitals, serving not only the people of Hong Kong, but more broadly those in China and East Asia. Two senses of world-weaving are discussed: first, to weave its Chinese readers into the world by providing knowledge about the world as cultural capital necessary for imagining a life beyond the Chinese context they lived in; and second, to weave Hong Kong into the world by showing that the ‘world-weaving imagination’ in the first sense was enabled by an understanding of the colony as a curiously different place from the rest of China.
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Notes
- 1.
In this chapter, I refer to the publication as Gems from Near and Afar, which is a direct translation from its Chinese name, Haaji Gwunzan in Cantonese and ** Rebellion refers to the rise of a rebellion group called the Tai** Heavenly Kingdom (Tai** Tianguo), founded by a self-proclaimed Christian called Hong ** Rebellion, and was estimated at 86,941 (albeit including Europeans) by 1859, right before Hong Kong underwent its second phase of colonisation when the Kowloon peninsula was ceded to Britain after the Second Opium War (see Fan 1974).
- 11.
These are my translations from the Chinese titles in the first issue. Gems only began supplying an English index of contents from the second issue onwards.
- 12.
The Chinese were using their own calendar system at this point, based on lunar cycles. Hence, a chant about the Common Era, a calendar from the West, was necessary.
- 13.
According to Zhou Weichi (2016), an alternative translation of these regulations was ‘Gold Mining Rules in American California for Chinese’. The translation in Gems was only an excerpt.
- 14.
For a selection of these stories and a useful introduction to the genre, see Karl Kao (1985), available in full online on the publisher’s website.
- 15.
He Tianhu (2015) is a lot more conservative in claiming that this edition is ‘the first’ ever Chinese translation of an English poem, but still regards it a highly accomplished translation, commending in particular its use of ancient Chinese poetic forms as a correspondence with Milton’s use of the Petrarchan sonnet rhyme scheme.
- 16.
According to Shen Guowei (2005), these two articles were possibly written by Rev. Joseph Edkins, LMS (1823–1905) and Chinese poet Jiang Dunfu (1808–1867).
- 17.
The English title is my translation, as it was omitted in the English index of contents of that issue.
- 18.
For more about currency systems in British colonies, see Narsey (2016).
- 19.
No wonder, then, that it was in Europe and North America where the international silver panic of 1873 began, and that the ripple effect of devaluation eventually hit European colonies around the world.
- 20.
These 14 categories are: Governmental Announcements; Demographics and Population; Legislation and Laws; Finance and Revenues; Trade and Currencies; Diplomatic Relations; Defence and Public Order; Suppression of Pirates; Judicial Trials; Overseas Labourers; Matters of the [Victoria] Harbour; Sea Accidents and Incidents; Society and Customs; and Advertisements and Notifications.
- 21.
This was one of the etymologies of the name ‘Hong Kong’, which literally means ‘fragrant harbour’. The other commonly accepted origin is the aromatic incense exported from the island.
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Note:
In this list, I have followed the convention often adopted in the field of East Asian studies for East Asian names, that is, to not introduce a comma after surnames. This is because in bibliographies, the usual comma after a surname alerts reader to an inverted surname contrary to the Western naming convention. However, in East Asia, names naturally follow the ‘surname–given name’ convention, so adding a comma is unnecessary and is considered by some as an Orientalist practice.
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Unless otherwise specified, all translations in this chapter from the Chinese are mine, including the main texts of articles in Gems from Near and Afar. As will be made clear below, however, from the second issue of Gems onwards each issue came with an English index of contents, so the majority of the article titles are taken from these indices, unless specified. Words in Mandarin are rendered in standard pinyin system, while words in Cantonese are Romanised in the Jyut** system. I thank the editors for their insightful comments on earlier drafts of the chapter. I also thank Pikki Leung for drawing my attention to the quotes on weaving.
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Tsang, M. (2023). World-Weaving in Nineteenth-Century East Asia: The Case of Hong Kong’s Earliest Chinese Newspaper, Gems from Near and Afar (Chinese Serial). In: Bhattacharya, A., Hibbitt, R., Scuriatti, L. (eds) Literary Capitals in the Long Nineteenth Century. Literary Urban Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13060-1_3
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