Within the mid-nineteenth century Ye Minchen was one of many senior Chinese language officers within the empire. The Governor of the Two Guang provinces – Guangdong and Guangxi – he was the official with whom representatives of the western powers mostly interacted, and really generally disliked. In January 1858, when the British and French stormed Guangzhou, he was captured and shortly thereafter despatched to Calcutta. Chaloner Alabaster was appointed to be his interpreter and stored a diary of his time in India as much as and together with Ye’s loss of life and the repatriation of his physique to China. This seminar is an examination of surviving supplies, together with Alabaster’s diary, to hint Ye’s life after his seize and the circumstances of his loss of life, about which there was some dispute.
In regards to the Speaker
Benjamin Penny is Professor of Chinese language Historical past and Faith within the Faculty of Tradition, Historical past, and Language, and Head of the ANU Taiwan Research Program. His most up-to-date ebook is A Younger Englishman in Victorian Hong Kong: The Diaries of Chaloner Alabaster 1855-56. Different present initiatives he’s engaged on embrace research of Taiwanese new religions, nineteenth century Bible translation, and Track dynasty Daoist textual content historical past.
The ANU China Seminar Collection is supported by the Australian Centre on China within the World at ANU School of Asia and the Pacific.
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