Chinese Film Industry (Note: This article provides a good
overview of the film industry in China, but some information
is a bit out of date).
Film:The Opium War (鸦片战争;Yāpiàn
zhànzhēng; 1997; 150 min.): A historical film about
the first Opium War between China and
Great Britain (1839-1842). The timing of the film is symbolic and of
great significance as 1997 was also the year Great Britain returned
control of Hong Kong to China.
Film clip from Lin
Tse-Hsu, a 1959 Chinese film about the Opium War
Background
Although China and
Western nations such as the United States are on generally good
terms nowadays, China still harbors some resentment toward the
West. Most Americans probably have no idea why
since they are unaware of a period of history during which
Western nations were trying to carve up China, if not by
military conquest, by economic conquest.
By the late 1800s, the
Qing Dynasty (or Ch'ing) Dynasty (大清;
the Great Qing) which had ruled China since 1644 was in
very bad shape for various reasons (huge population growth,
economic stagnation, natural disasters, etc.). The Qing had always
been resented by most of the Chinese population since the Qing
Dynasty originated when the Manchus (an ethnic group from
Manchuria)
invaded China and overthrew the
Ming Dynasty(大明国;
Dà Míng Guó). The Manchus ruled China successfully for about 200
years, but by the late 19th century had become complacent and
largely corrupt which led to poor governance and even greater
resentment among the native
Han Chinese (汉族;
hànzú). Chinese resentment of the
Qing Dynasty fueled revolts such as the
Taiping
Rebellion (1851-1864)
discussed last week, the
Nien
Rebellion (1853-1868),
several Muslim Rebellions and the
Boxer
Rebellion (1900-1901).
The Empress Dowager
Part of the
problems the Qing Dynasty were experiencing was due to a lack of
effective leadership. Some of the emperors during the
early part of the Qing Dynasty were successful rulers such as
Emperor
Kangxi (康熙帝)
who increased China's military, political and social influence.
However, by 1850 when
Emperor
Xianfeng took the throne at age 19, Imperial rule had been
weakened by internal corruption, revolts and foreign
interference. Emperor Xianfeng was overwhelmed by the
problems he faced and died in 1861. His son,
Emperor Tongzhi
was only 6 years old at the time and, after a
coup
over who would control the empire during Tongzhi's childhood,
Tongzhi's mother
Empress Dowager Cixi(慈禧太后),
a
concubine of Emperor Xianfeng became
the behind-the-scenes ruler of China. Cixi ended up ruling China
for 47 years until 1908 during the reigns of Tongzhi and his
successor,
Emperor Guangxu (Cixi's nephew).
Empress Dowager Cixi
has been portrayed as a power hungry leader and
as responsible for the fall of the Qing Dynasty. It has been
rumored that before her death, she had Emperor Guangzu
poisoned. The truth is probably impossible to know, but
its likely that Cixi's
dragon lady image has been largely exaggerated. Much
of the information about her in the West may have been
made up while sources that knew her tend to have
the view that she was an uneducated woman who ended up in
a very difficult position and, although she made mistakes,
tried her best to keep China from being torn apart.
Additional Resources: Books About the
Empress Dowager
Western nations
started arriving in the East by sea in the 18th century in
search of riches and trade. The Portuguese arrived
first and established a presence on the southern island of
Macau (澳門; Aomen). They were followed by the Spanish,
British and French, all of which desired trade
with China. However, China was not very interested Western
goods. China reluctantly allowed trade, but limited it to
the city of
Canton (modern Guǎngzhōu;
广州) in southern China. In
addition to Western nations, Russia and
Japan were also eager to get a piece of China.
In addition to trade,
China was also believed to be fertile ground for Christian
missionaries. Beginning in the 13th century,
Roman
Catholic
missionaries went to China in an attempt to convert the huge
nation of heathens, although without great success. While China
wasn't overly interested in Western religion, it was
interested in Western science and technology (astronomy,
geography, mathematics, cartography, music, and art) and much of
its knowledge of these fields came from
Jesuit missionaries.
Clip from CNN
Documentary on the Opium War
In the 18th century, the
demand for tea in England and America increased dramatically as
well as demand for Chinese silk and porcelain. This led to an
unfavorable balance of
trade for Western nations, especially
England, since the only thing China really wanted from them was
silver. By this time England was the major world power and had
colonized many nations including
India. The British found that there was some demand in China for
cotton grown in India as well as a more controversial product -
opium. Although opium was illegal in China, it quickly
became the main British
import. England as well as other
Western nations including the United States were making huge
profits selling opium in China. Opium addiction became
widespread in China and the opium trade ultimately reversed the
balance of trade, threatening China's
economy.
Opium Use in China
In 1838, the Qing
government decided to get tough and crack down on the illegal
use of and trade in opium (a bit like the
UK's Say No To
Drugs campaign, but with harsher penalties). The government issued a decree that
made opium dealing a
capital offense for Chinese dealers.
However, the imperial government was based in Beijing in the
north of China while opium was being smuggled into China from
the southern city of Canton so in 1839, the emperor sent a
commissioner,
Lin
Zexu (林则徐;
Lín Zéxú), to Canton to
suppress the opium trade.
Lin made it clear that the illegal opium smuggling was to end
and when the British refused, he imposed a trade
embargo. He
even wrote a nice
letter to
Queen Victoria asking her to "say no to drugs" although it
apparently never reached her. He
also pressured Western traders into turning over the opium
stored in their warehouses which included 20,000 chests of
mostly British opium. Lin had the confiscated opium destroyed
which infuriated the Western traders.
Not everyone in England
supported the opium trade and one of its harshest critics was
William
Gladstone, who spoke out against it in the
House of Commons:
"The great
principles of justice are involved in this matter. You
will be called upon, even if you escape from condemnation
on this motion, to show cause for your present intention
of making war upon the Chinese. They gave us notice to
abandon the contraband trade. When they found that we
would not, they had the right to drive from us from their
coasts on account of our obstinacy in persisting in this
infamous and atrocious traffic. I am not competent to
judge how long this war may last, but this I can say, that
a war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated in
its progress to cover this country with permanent
disgrace, I do not know, and I have not read of."
Lin
Zexu
Destroying Opium in Canton
The First Opium War
(1839-42)
The British ultimately
responded to Lin Zexu's ban on opium trading by sending a naval force and army of British
soldiers) to China to defend
free trade
and the honor of the
British empire (or
at least its illegal drug pushing profits). At this time,
England was the greatest military power in the world while China
was technologically inferior and unprepared for war. British
warships bombarded coastal towns and
Chinese junks with their powerful guns and pushed north
along the
Yangtze river. British soldiers were armed with modern
muskets and canon while Chinese had few and much older guns and
many soldiers had only swords and knives. With their great
military superiority, the British were able to easily defeat the
Chinese, often with little resistance.
British
Warships destroy Chinese Junks
Unable to effectively
respond to the British attacks, China reluctantly signed the
Treaty of Nanjing in 1842 which ended the First Opium War.
This was the first of a series of treaties with Western nations
that China considered to be
unequal
treaties it was forced to sign. The Treaty
of Nanjing:
Required China to pay a large
indemnity to Britain
Opened 5 additional ports to trade
Limited the tax China could charge
on foreign imports
Forced China to give England the island of
Hong
Kong (香港; Xiānggǎng).
Not wanting to be left out, France and
the United States insisted on the same trading rights the British
received in the Treaty of Nanjing. This relationship, based on
most
favored nations status, was a feature of China's relations
with Western nations for the next century and severely
restricted China's right to govern its own territory.
Understandably, China found this to be exceptionally
humiliating, especially considering that it had been one of the
most advanced nations throughout most of its long history. This
humiliation is one of the main reasons for the ultimate collapse
of the Qing Dynasty, the end of Imperial China and China's
resentment and lack of trust of Western nations.
The Second Opium War
(1856-1860)
It didn't take long,
after the First Opium War, for the Western powers to want even
more that what they'd received in their first treaties with
China. The French and American treaties entered into with China
after the First Opium War allowed for renegotiation after twelve
years. Under the
most
favored nations system, England also
made additional demands. China was not thrilled by
the idea of giving up more than the concessions it had already
been forced to make and considered very unfair. Consequently,
the Qing government had the gall to refuse the demands of
Britain, France, and the United States.
Well, of course this
refusal in the face of overwhelming military superiority of the
Western powers could not be tolerated so the Western nations
decided it was time to teach the Chinese another lesson. Thus
began the
Second
Opium War (or the Arrow War as the British
prefer to call it). The Arrow was a Chinese ship which
was boarded by Chinese authorities who suspected it was being
used for smuggling. Twelve Chinese sailors were arrested and the
British demanded their release claiming that the ship was
registered to the British and that the ship had been sailing
with the British flag displayed (which was disputed by the
Chinese). Even though the Chinese returned the sailors and it
turned out that the British registration had expired, this
incident led to British attacks on southern Chinese forts with
some help from French forces.
Although the Qing
Court again reluctantly agreed to Britain's demands,
some important officials convinced
Emperor Xianfeng (咸豐帝) to continue
fighting the Western forces, believing that they would not stop
until China was totally under their control. The Emperor
therefore ordered a
Mongolian general to guard the
Taku
Forts in
Tianjin (天津;
Tiānjīn or Tientsin). A British naval force had sailed
north from
Shanghai (上海)to
Tianjin
with British and French envoys, who were to be escorted to
their new embassies in Beijing. The general in Tianjin directed
them to take another route, but the British refused and shelled
the Taku Forts. They encountered heavy resistance and withdrew
after losing 4 ships with cover fire provided by an American
warship (in violation of the U.S. policy of neutrality).
Angered at the first
effective Chinese resistance they'd encountered, the Western
powers decided to put together a much larger force. In 1860, 173
ships set out from Hong Kong and began bombarding and capturing
several port cities on their return to the Taku Forts at Tianjin,
which they captured after three weeks. From there, the troops
marched toward Beijing
(北京; Běijīng or Peking). Although negotiations for surrender by
the Chinese had begun, the arrest of a small group of British
diplomats who were imprisoned, tortured, and some killed
convinced the British that the Chinese must be punished
severely.
British &
French troops enter Beijing
The British and French
invasion continued with a major battle against the Mongolian
cavalry at the
Battle
of Palikao (八里桥之战; "Battle of the Eight-Mile Bridge"). In a final attempt to prevent
the foreign forces from proceeding to Beijing, 10,000 Chinese
troops were slaughtered after they made several charges against
the superiorly armed British-French forces. With his army
decimated, Emperor Xianfeng fled Beijing and the foreign forces
moved in. The French and British troops looted the
Forbidden
City (a huge palace complex where the emperor and his many
servants and concubines lived), taking many
valuable works of art and then looting and burning the
Summer Palace (颐和园;
Yíhé Yuán; "Gardens of Nurtured Harmony"), a beautifully
constructed complex of buildings and gardens where emperors
often spent part of the summer.
Battle of
Palikao
French &
British Looting of Summer Palace
Old
Summer Palace
Old
Summer Palace Ruins
China was again left with
no alternative, but to agree to the demands of the Western
nations and ratified the
Treaty
of Tianjin (天津条约, Tiānjīn Tiáoyuē) in 1860, ending the
Second Opium War. Concessions made by China under the treaty
included:
Payment of a large indemnity
Making the opium trade legal
Opening 10 additional trading ports
Giving foreigners the right to
travel in China beyond the treaty ports, a concession largely
for the benefit of Christian missionaries who had been doing
this illegally for a long time
Opening foreign consulates with
ambassadors in Beijing
Giving England the territory of
Kowloon (九龍;
"Nine Dragons") which borders Hong Kong.
If the First Opium War
wasn't bad enough for China, the second made matters much worse.
The easy defeat of the Qing Imperial Army by the relatively
small British-French force, causing the emperor to flee from the
capital and the subsequent looting of the Forbidden City,
looting and burning of the Summer Palace, and humiliating treaty
concessions was a devastating blow to the Qing Dynasty. As
we will see next week, it would not survive for much longer.
by Sterling Seagrave
by Anchee Min
by Anchee Min
by Jonathan Spence
