The 'fan Kwae' at Canton Before Treaty Days, 1825-1844

by William C. Hunter

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1882

Reviews

[Michael Brough]

This book is a personal account by the clerk Hunter, who worked for Russell & Co. This details his time in Canton, focusing on capturing the events of about 1830-1840. (References to events in the 20s).

The book is very "stream-of-consciousness," and uses a disarrayed chronological order, connecting ideas more by themes. The purpose of the book is to give a snapshot into the past for this very specific part of history before the Treaty of Nanking and what it meant to live in Canton. He accomplishes that well. Most of the book revolves around the benevolent relationships with the Hong merchants, though the last part of the book does mention important parts about being a "prisoner" in 1839 when they were required to turn over the opium to Lin (they couldn't cook and had bread and other foods snuck in at night).

While he does state that he didn't see evidence of opium abuse or was convinced of its absolute deleterious effects on the nation, he recognized that it was illegal and the foreign traders continually ignored warnings and edicts to stop.

Overall, this is a worthwhile book to supplement understanding of the first opium war and what life in Canton was like.

[Robert Palmer]

William C. Hunter, the author of this book, describes the Old China Trade from first-hand experience. Originally published in 1882, this volume is a reproduction of a 1911 edition, published after the author's death. During his lifetime, the work was anonymous, being attributed to "An Old Resident." But this anonymity helped the author to frankly describe how the trade really worked. Even the title -- with its use of the Chinese words "fan kwae" (or "foreign devils") -- suggests that frankness is just what the author intended. However, the nature of the discourse reveals a conflict in Hunter's mind between confessing and excusing the opium trade. But one thing is absolutely clear -- that American and British merchants had little respect for Chinese lives or laws: "The Imperial edicts were considered as so much waste paper. Opium was imported and sold, while the 'oozing out of fine silver' went on as usual." p.65.