Extraordinary and Unaccountable Customs: British Observations on Population, Infanticide, and Footbinding in China

Abstract

From the mid-1700s through the late 1830s, Britons in China were confined to a tiny section of the city of Canton (Guangzhou). This encounter is known best for resulting in the Opium War (1839-42) and the 'opening' of China. But it also generated a massive corpus of writings. Frustrated with the restrictions on trade and unable to live or travel elsewhere in China, these Britons devoted thousands of pages in journals, memoirs, and books trying to understand China, its people, and their culture. They discussed almost everything they saw, and speculated about much of what they could not see. This talk examined three interrelated aspects of this enterprise: determining the size of China's massive population, the extent of infanticide, and the origins and meanings of footbinding. These were all part of a larger project of understanding China, and represented some of the difficulties and complications inherent in doing so. These discussions also coincided with an emerging belief in Europe that a nation or culture's level of civilization depended on the condition of its women. They reveal a sophisticated level of interest in China, admittedly to help open it to foreign trade and Christian evangelization, but also to understand it on its own terms. In the face of ever-increasing publications on China in the West, often based more on speculation than on fact, they were also a way for Britons who spent time in China to distinguish themselves as experts on the Middle Kingdom.