Status Updates From The Yellow Peril: Dr. Fu Ma...

‘The glorious Summer Palace, the great complex of residencies, temples, gardens, a thousand bridges of the Manchu dynasty… burned in 1860 after the Second Opium War to 'punish' the Manchu court, and in 1900 after the Boxer rebellion. On both occasions with boatloads of plunder finding their way to the British Museum, the London antiques market and assorted stately homes.’ Chinoiserie craze with ashes in its mouth.

‘In Britain and the rest of Europe, however, the repertoire of 'Chinese characteristics' also reflected anxieties about the decline of Empire and the rising dragon. The stories were about 'us' - they were not really about China at all.’
Yess!! Someone applying Said's theory of Orientalism to China. (Said barely mentioned China in a book which is so often referred to on this subject.) V good book but about MENA.

Chapter 6: 'The World Shall Hear from Me Again'

Chapter 3: At the Sign of the Swinging Cymbal

Chapter 2: Charles Dickens and Princess Puffer

I wish Limehouse really was like this.