Empire Made Me
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.25 (680 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0141011955 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 360 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-12-30 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
He has published extensively on Chinese history. Robert Bickers is Senior Lecturer in History at Bristol University.
'This is a biography of a nobody that offers a window into an otherwise closed world. Threatened from within by communist workers and from without by Chinese warlords and Japanese troops, and governed by an ever more desperate British-dominated administration, Shanghai was both mesmerising and terrible.Into this maelstrom stepped a tough and resourceful ex-veteran Englishman to join the police. It is a life which manages to touch us all' Empire Made Me Shanghai in the wake of the First World War was one of the world's most dynamic, brutal and exciting cities - an incredible panorama of nightclubs, opium-dens, gambling and murder. It is his story, told in part through his rediscovered photo-albums and letters, that Robert Bickers has uncovered in this remarkable, moving book.
At the margin of empire: a socio-pathology of Shanghailanders A British historian reconstructs the life of a young man, who served as a small wheel in the machinery of the empire, as policeman in Shanghai in the 1920/30s. The story is based on documents that Maurice Tinkler's family made available, and on material from British and Chinese archives. Part of the attraction of this book is its character of a 'procedural'. Not police procedural, but historian's. Almost the same thing.Through the focus on this man we receive a history of Shanghai in the period, of the changes in the relations between the groups: the 'locals', the Brits. James Windle said Ode to the Imperial Everyman. This is brilliant theatre of the absurd. It captures the pathos of the imperial everyman Maurice Tinkler toiling away for a small pay at the distant edge of empire - and his decline which mirrors and echoes the decline of the British Empire in the far east in the 19Ode to the Imperial Everyman This is brilliant theatre of the absurd. It captures the pathos of the imperial everyman Maurice Tinkler toiling away for a small pay at the distant edge of empire - and his decline which mirrors and echoes the decline of the British Empire in the far east in the 1930's - faced by the surge of Asian nationalisms.Maurice Tinkler is falling apart, emotionaly, mentaly, spiritualy and physicaly - and so is the Brittish Empire which he loves and to which he has devoted his life.He died an imperial martyr - it was the only way he wished to go.. 0's - faced by the surge of Asian nationalisms.Maurice Tinkler is falling apart, emotionaly, mentaly, spiritualy and physicaly - and so is the Brittish Empire which he loves and to which he has devoted his life.He died an imperial martyr - it was the only way he wished to go.. Excellent history of pre-world war two Shanghai Mr. Leong Wai Hong This is the story of Richard Maurice Tinkler an ordinary Englishman who after fighting for his country in World war one found that his country has no job for him. He saw an ad of a policeman in Shanghai- Applicant must be unmarried, with good teeth, about 20 to 25 years of age. Salary is Taels 85 per month equivalent to 13 pounds per month.He was given free passage to Shanghai. Sailed from Glasgow and arrived in 1919 via Port Said, Penang, Singapore and Hong Kong. ( See p 31-33 Bickers )Coming from poverty-stricken England Tinkler was taken in by the prosperity he saw i
"'This is a biography of a nobody that offers a window into an otherwise closed world. It is a life which manages to touch us all' Empire Made Me"