Ian Wotherspoon

The Scots and China 1750-2000: Issues Ideas and Identities Ian Wotherspoon

Why people from Scotland, one of the smallest countries in Europe, came to have such an influence on one of the world?s largest nations, China, is the focus of this pioneering study. As Scotland rapidly industrialised in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Scots sought fame and fortune throughout the British Empire ? and beyond. China was no exception. Scots came to China to trade in tea, opium, silks and spices and tried to prise open the doors of the Celestial Empire to foreign influence. With them, came strange new ideas about politics and religion which, often as not, ran contrary to traditional beliefs. They became involved in the government of China, not just in Hong Kong, but through a variety of now forgotten Chinese institutions like the Chinese Maritime Customs. Scottish interests also covered the scientific exploration of China?s environment, flora and fauna, plus seriously determined efforts to harvest souls for Christ in a largely Confucian culture. Scots tried to influence enquiring Chinese minds along western lines. The first Chinese to graduate in western medicine from any British, indeed European, university was educated in Edinburgh. Mao Zedong?s mentor, and future father-in-law, was educated at Aberdeen University. Whether Chinese or Scots, they were a disparate, if eclectic, group. Here were businessmen, opium traders and travellers; saints, students, and scholars. Arrogant, greedy and racist, they could be humble, compassionate, and kind. In a period of unprecedented change, their lives came together as China emerged slowly, and painfully, to confront, not just the demons from its own past, but the real challenges from beyond its borders which threatened the very survival of a Chinese identity and, even, of China itself.