The French in Macao in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries: Literary, Cultural, and Historical Perspectives (Chinese Literature and Culture in the World) 9783030946647, 9783030946654, 3030946649

Citation preview

CHINESE LITERATURE AND CULTURE IN THE WORLD

The French in Macao in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Literary, Cultural, and Historical Perspectives Jingzhen Xie

Chinese Literature and Culture in the World Series Editor Ban Wang Stanford University Stanford, CA, USA

As China is becoming an important player on the world stage, Chinese literature is poised to change and reshape the overlapping, shared cultural landscapes in the world. This series publishes books that reconsider Chinese literature, culture, criticism, and aesthetics in national and international contexts. While seeking studies that place China in geopolitical tensions and historical barriers among nations, we encourage projects that engage in empathetic and learning dialogue with other national traditions. Imbued with a desire for mutual relevance and sympathy, this dialogue aspires to a modest prospect of world culture. We seek theoretically informed studies of Chinese literature, classical and modern - works capable of rendering China’s classical heritage and modern accomplishments into a significant part of world culture. We promote works that cut across the modern and tradition divide and challenge the inequality and unevenness of the modern world by critiquing modernity. We look for projects that bring classical aesthetic notions to new interpretations of modern critical theory and its practice. We welcome works that register and analyze the vibrant contemporary scenes in the online forum, public sphere, and media. We encourage comparative studies that account for mutual parallels, contacts, influences, and inspirations. More information about this series at https://link.springer.com/bookseries/14891

Jingzhen Xie

The French in Macao in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Literary, Cultural, and Historical Perspectives

Jingzhen Xie University of Macau Macao, China

ISSN 2945-7254        ISSN 2945-7262 (electronic) Chinese Literature and Culture in the World Under the research project supported by the Institute of European Studies of Macau (IEEM) Academic Research Project Grants 2018 ISBN 978-3-030-94664-7    ISBN 978-3-030-94665-4 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94665-4 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Ian Trower / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

In the dawn of a promising new era for foreigners in China, Macao found, alas, that it ushered in her darkest days. —C. A. Montalto de Jesus Historic Macao (1902)

Preface

In 1867, when Ludovic de Beauvoir arrived in Macao, he recounted that “après trois heures et demie de route, nous doublons le mouillage de Typa, et la presqu’île de Macao nous apparaît sous les derniers rayons du soleil.” The statement offers an image of Macao bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun. It shall not be purposeful that Ludovic de Beauvoir selected to arrive in the Portuguese settlement one evening. However, the image strikingly reflects Macao’s political and economic status in the second half of the nineteenth century: a declined ancient Portuguese colony living in the past glory. In the eyes of the French, Macao was an interesting, pretty, and small city. From the French perspective, this book endeavors to provide a multi-­ folded image of Macao in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Because many studies rely on documents in Portuguese, Chinese, and English to study Macao, a study based on French literature invites new explorations of Macao’s history and the interactions between the East and West. Being the oldest European settlement in China, Macao’s identity was ambiguous. The Portuguese came to the small peninsula as traders in the sixteenth century. They then settled and created in the Far East a Portuguese city, commonly referred to as such by the French authors studied in this book. Three centuries later, the settlement evolved into a Portuguese colony in the meaning of modern political science, when China gradually declined into a semi-colonized country. However, as a political unit, Macao’s nature was undefined during most periods of its history, even in the nineteenth century. The ambiguous status remained vii

viii 

PREFACE

until it was handed over to China late in the twentieth century: it was often viewed as a colony administered by the Portuguese with its sovereignty resting in the hands of the Chinese. The French authors sojourned in Macao, observed the city, and reflected on specific issues of the Portuguese settlement. A global image is that Macao was a European city with the beautiful Praia Grande, picturesque colorful houses, churches and Cathedrals, fortifications, and so on. However, Macao had a second image: it was divided into two parts and the Chinese part of the city, where the majority of the Chinese residents lived and low houses and dirty streets could be found, resembling almost everywhere in China’s interior. These were two tangible macro images of Macao. Then, Macao was in decline, a struggling city that was no longer a trading center but relied on gambling, opium trade, and even coolie trade to generate revenue. And the Portuguese residing in Macao were seen as those who had been transformed from the great explorers to small clerks working for big American and British firms. As a result, they became unfamiliar and even somehow “other” to the French. For the French authors, they took as their responsibilities reflecting on the decline of Macao. Therefore, they analyzed the external and internal reasons. Changes, such as the opening of China and the rise of Hong Kong, were the external factors. There were internal reasons. The Portuguese adopted protectionism of the trade before Macao became a free port. The shallow inner harbor became Achilles’ heel of Macao, rendering it too small to be an actual political unit. These weaknesses prevented Macao from becoming a modern port, a port large and deep enough to accommodate bigger warships and commercial vessels and a new trade center to attract British and American firms. Despite its decline, Macao was still important for Western powers and Western civilization. For example, Macao was still a center for mission work. The French used it as a stronghold to negotiate the Treaty of Whampoa (黃埔條約) with China and established navy hospitals to serve its colonial expansion in Cochinchina. Another importance is that Macao perfectly represented the outstanding achievement of Western exploration. The symbolic meaning and legacy were far-reaching. Macao’s splendid and glorious past was acknowledged and admired by all the French authors in their writings. Therefore, they all went to worship the grotto of Camões and paid their respect to the poet. The poet’s epic work Os Lusíadas symbolized the Portuguese settlers’ adventurous spirit and all Macao’s glories. In other

 PREFACE 

ix

words, the French authors lamented Macao’s irreversible fall in the nineteenth century on one side and venerated its splendid past on the other. If the French authors outlined an image of Macao that was not promising and even described Macao as a dying city, they were wrong in some sense. Macao was one of the last colonies that returned to their motherlands late in the twentieth century. Therefore, as a Portuguese settlement, Macao had a long life that endured from 1557 to 1999. The reasons behind its long existence invite reflections. For example, Georges Bousquet once commented that the Portuguese adopted a more suitable governance style than the British to administer Macao. In his eyes, the Portuguese used persuasion while the British used violence in encountering China and Chinese culture, and thus the results obtained in Macao were preferable. The comparison expresses a thought-provoking viewpoint. Looking back, the Portuguese and the Chinese must have learned how to live together on this small land for centuries. And the outcome today is multicultural Macao, a city as colorful as the Portuguese-styled houses which are still standing on the hills. Macao, China

Jingzhen Xie

Acknowledgments

This book grew out of my research project generously supported by the Academic Research Project Grants 2018 of the Institute of European Studies of Macau (IEEM). I was one of the two awardees who received the funding to complete an individual research project related to Macao studies. Therefore, first and foremost, I am deeply indebted to the IEEM, an institution focusing on building the bridge between Europe and the Asia-Pacific Region. I feel incredibly grateful to Dr. José Luís de Sales Marques, President of the IEEM, for his feedback and comments on my research project and encouragement. Special thanks to Mr. Benjamin Fong, Project Coordinator at the IEEM, for providing me with timely and effective administrative support when I was completing the project. My heartfelt thanks to Dr. Stephen Nichols, a James M. Beall Professor of French and Humanities and Research Professor at the Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Jacques Neefs, Professor Emeritus of French and Humanities at the Johns Hopkins University, and Dr. Bin Yang, Professor of History at the University of Macau, who acted as commentators at large and provided precious guidance on my research on East-West interactions and Macao’s history. I am very grateful to Dr. Abigail Alexander, Assistant Professor of French at the Kennesaw State University, and Dr. Kat Haklin, Assistant Professor of French at the Colorado College, for their detailed comments on some sections of this book. I have to express my gratitude to Mr. Luis Crisostomo Lopes, Research Librarian at the Macao Public Library, for locating important information related to the census data of Macao in the nineteenth century. He also generously shared with me his ample knowledge of Portuguese language resources. I also want to thank xi

xii 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Dr. Jianzhong Wu, University Librarian at the University of Macau, and Dr. Jie Xu, Distinguished Professor of Linguistics and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Macau, for their support and encouragement. A special note of thanks goes to Mr. Emmanuel Pavy, Département des cartes et plans, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Mr. Pierre-­ Emmanuel Judas, Département de la coopération, Bibliothèque nationale de France, for their great assistance in locating and providing documents and maps needed by the book. I shall also express my sincere gratitude toward Ms. Pascale Kahn and Ms. Syrine Saltaji for informing me that scholars can use all the illustrations available at the National Library of France for academic publications without permission. It was my good fortune to have benefited agreeably from this massive national library and librarians working there. My sincere thanks to Mr. François Lauginie, who graciously permitted me to use his photo in my book at no cost. I must also thank Ms. Anne Blanchet, Section of the Collections and Documentation, Musée du Berry, Orléans, France, for her help in putting me in direct contact with Mr. François Lauginie. This project has benefited from the expertise of the anonymous reviewers, who provided important and valuable advice on how the manuscript could be improved in several regards. In addition, this book could not have been completed without the assistance of Ms. Rachel Jacob, Ms. Allie Troyanos, and Ms. Chandralekha Mahamel Raja, Mr. Brian Halm, Mr.  Vipin Kumar Mani, and other editors at Palgrave Macmillan and Springer Nature, with whom I have been so fortunate to work. I would also like to express my deep gratitude to my supportive husband, Dr. Changbin Wang. He was the first to encourage me to write a book on Macao’s history and contributed with many helpful suggestions.

Contents

1 Introduction: History Is Made of Details  1 References  10 2 Historical Background 13 References  17 3 What Was Macao and Who Were the Macanese? 19 References  28 4 Views of Europeans Other Than French 31 A Commercial Port Reduced to a Calm Harbor and Supporting Point  31 A European City-State  33 Declining Prosperity Versus Good Economy  34 Different Social Status of the Portuguese, Chinese, and Europeans  38 References  41 5 Theoretical Reference 43 References  55

xiii

xiv 

Contents

6 The Scope of the French Views 57 Authors, Texts, and Social and Historical Contexts  58 Images and Comparisons  58 The Portuguese in Macao and the Macanese  62 References  63 7 French Views of Macao 65 In Retrospect  65 An Imaginary Macao in an Opening China  69 Macao in the Eyes of Chonski and Montigny and Their Explanations of Its Decline  75 Vénard’s Macao, a Missionary’s Indefensible Perspective  83 A Young French Nobleman’s Criticism of Macao  88 English Colonialism Is Different Than French Colonialism  93 Macao and Hong Kong: Two Different “Colonial Cultures”  95 Count Joseph Alexander von Hübner’s Testimony  96 La Campagne du Cassini in Macao and a Witness of Fou-­ Tchéou Arsenal Academy 100 The Past and Present of Macao 106 Life in Macao Was Slow 108 Macao in the Country of Pagodas 109 Escayrac de Lauture: Prisoner of War and His Negative Opinion on Macao 113 Macao, Home for a French Army Doctor 118 The Distinct Portuguese Community and the Chinese Community: One Macao, Two Towns 120 Macao During the Sino-French Negotiations in 1844 124 Auguste Haussmann’s Writing, a Diplomat’s Testimony 133 Macao, the Political Stage Behind the Sino-French Negotiations 138 Macao and France: Misery Loves Company 144 References 148 8 Macao’s Status and Importance in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries153 Macao, a Cosmopolitan Enclave, Preserved Its Importance as a Western Establishment 155 France’s “Interest in Macao” and How Macao Served It 157 Macao, an Impoverished City 161

 Contents 

xv

Macao, a City of Gambling, Opium, and Coolie Trade 162 Macao, a Brand of Quality Opium 165 Macao, Still a Center for Catholic Mission Work 166 Inter-Racial Marriage Par Excellence 167 References 167 9 Conclusion171 References 178 Appendices179 Bibliography183 Index191

List of Images

Image 3.1

Image 5.1

Image 6.1

Image 7.1

Image 7.2

Macao—Planta da península de Macau, 1/5000, reduzida e desenhada (Macao. Macao Peninsula Plan, 1/5000, reduced and drawn) by Antonio Heitor, Macao, March 15, 1889. Format: 82 × 57 cm. (Source: gallica.bnf.fr/Bibliothèque nationale de France. Courtesy of the National Library of France) Vue d’un grand temple chinois à Macao (View of a Great Chinese Temple in Macao) by Auguste Borget. (Source: Notice d’œuvre, Musée du Berry, Réseau des Musées de Bourges. Courtesy of Musée du Berry, Réseau des Musées de Bourges, Orléans, France) Marché à Macao (Market in Macao) (Source: La Chine ouverte: aventures d’un Fan-Koueï dans le pays de Tsin by Old Nick (Paris: H. Fournier, 1845), 90–91, gallica.bnf.fr/ Bibliothèque nationale de France. Courtesy of the National Library of France) Plan de la ville et des environs de Macao (Map of the City of Macao and its Surrounding Areas) (Source: Manuel du négociant français en Chine: ou, commerce de la Chine considéré au point de vue français by Charles Louis de Montigny (Paris: Imprimerie de Paul Dupont, 1846), 282–83, gallica.bnf.fr/Bibliothèque nationale de France. Courtesy of the National Library of France) Note explicative du plan ci-joint de la ville de Macao (Explanatory Note of the Enclosed Map of the City of Macao) (Source: Manuel du négociant français en Chine: ou, commerce de la Chine considéré au point de vue français by

23

48

60

80

xvii

xviii 

List of Images

Image 7.3

Image 7.4

Charles Louis de Montigny (Paris: Imprimerie de Paul Dupont, 1846), 284. Gallica.bnf.fr/Bibliothèque nationale de France) Carte de visite chinoise du P. N.-B. Cothonay (Cothonay’s Chinese card of visit) (Source: Deux ans en Chine, extrait du journal d’un missionnaire dominicain by Marie Bertrand Cothonay (Tours: Alfred Cattier, 1902), 29. gallica.bnf.fr/ Bibliothèque nationale de France. Courtesy of the National Library of France) Recenseamento geral de 31 de dezembro de 1878 (General census of December 31, 1878) Supplemento ao “Boletim da Provincia de Macau e Timor,” no. 52 de 25 de dezembro de 1880. Boletim da Provincia de Macau e Timor, sexta-­feira, 31 de dezembro de 1880 [Macao]: [Imprensa nacional], 1880). Courtesy of the Macao Public Library)

81

105

123

CHAPTER 1

Introduction: History Is Made of Details

History is made of details. No details, no account. History is recorded in the documents that provide the essential resources or details to examine human beings, the societies they lived, and the civilizations they built. Macao was a place where the East met the West, and precisely, the Far East met the West. No location was more important to the Sino-Western encounter than Macao from 1500 to 1800.1 Over the four centuries with its vicissitudes, Macao has built an image of many folds, making it an integral part of world civilization. Macao’s picture is created out of the most disparate details and elements. Those who had lived or sojourned on this small peninsula were deeply interested in it as observers. They tried to understand Macao through all its aspects: political status, economy, population, mission work, etc. With their writings, we realize that Macao had long been one of the few ports where the Europeans were granted permission to do business with Asian countries. For centuries, it had been the only place where missionaries could freely land before entering the destination of their mission work in China and other sites of Asia. Amid all the importance that Macao carries regarding the spread of Christianity in China, the first Jesuit mission in China was established here. In 1582, the noted Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1522–1610) landed on this small peninsula 1  David Emil Mungello, The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500–1800, 3rd ed. (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009), xiii.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Xie, The French in Macao in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Chinese Literature and Culture in the World, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94665-4_1

1

2 

J. XIE

and approached the Chinese people first through sharing mathematical knowledge and a world map translated into Chinese.2 Ricci’s work significantly contributed to the introduction of Christianity and Western ideas in Ming Dynasty China. Above all, Macao had been a stronghold of great importance from where missionaries spread the seeds of Christianity onto different soils of East Asia. Economically, Macao was prosperous, as recorded in detail in some of the writings by the French. António Bocarro (1594–1643?), chronicler-in-chief of the State of India in the first half of the seventeenth century, described the Portuguese settlement as it was in the heyday of its prosperity in 1635. He pointed out, “it is one of the noblest cities in the East, on account of its rich and noble traffic in all kinds of wealth to all parts; it has all kinds of precious things in great abundance, and more and wealthier citizens than any other in this State.”3 He said that Macao might be justly considered the best, most robust, and most profitable Portuguese settlement in the Indies. In Macao, the trade-driven consisted of various precious goods, such as gold, refined silver, raw white silk, manufactured goods, gold lacquers, pearls, rubies, musk, quicksilver, zinc, fine china-ware, china-root, and rhubarb.4 In the nineteenth century, a unanimous observation was that Macao had become an impoverished place. In reality, Macao’s situation became worse late in the seventeenth century. When the East India Company’s ship Macclesfield arrived in Macao in 1699, the British on board the vessel noted that “this city is att present miserable poor.”5 For eighteenth-­ century Macao, Jean-Baptiste du Halde recorded an image of a declining city. Two details indicate this. He wrote that the Portuguese in Macao, in reality almost all of them were Metis and were born in India or Macao, were not wealthy, and the local Chinese did not care much about them. The fortifications were suitable, and there were lots of canons. However, the garrisons were poorly maintained because the Chinese, who provided

2  Rémi Anicotte, “Mathématiques occidentales en Chine du XVIe au XXe siècle,” in Maths express: au carrefour des cultures, eds. Marc Moyon, Marie-José Pestel, and Martine Janvier (Paris: CIJM, 2014): 67, https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01052435/document 3  C.  R. Boxer, ed., trans., Seventeenth Century Macau in Contemporary Documents and Illustrations (Hong Kong: Heinemann (Asia), 1984), 14. 4  Boxer, Seventeenth Century Macau, 80. 5  Hosea Ballou Morse, The Chronicles of the East India Company, Trading to China 1635–1834, Vol. 1 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926), 87.

1  INTRODUCTION: HISTORY IS MADE OF DETAILS 

3

the provisions, did not consider themselves the masters of these garrisons.6 In the mid-nineteenth century, particularly with the rise of the cities, such as Shanghai and Hong Kong and China’s continual opening of its ports to the West, the economy in Macao became worse. So, when the French writers of this study reached out to Macao in this period, Macao had long lost its golden age. Setting foot in Macao, the French arriving from Europe revealed their admiration and reverence toward this old Portuguese imperial outpost. At the same time, they severely criticized its decline, which seemed irreversible. Thus, the French authors’ writings overall pronounce praises yet a lament of the ancient Portuguese settlement. Macao engendered respect and controversies. It has become a multicultural place of unique importance where different cultures mingled and a distinctly new culture belonging to the city emerged. Time, history, and culture shaped its macro images. At the same time, it also had salient characters in the different periods, be it a commercial port, a center of mission work, or a cultural meeting point. These characters formed Macao’s “micro images,” portrayed through the descriptions, narratives, and commentaries of different levels of authors who visited Macao or were interested in studying Macao’s history and culture. It is worth noting that some authors who had never been to Macao produced its imaginary images by quoting or borrowing heavily from first-hand accounts. These vivid pictures, all together, provide details and perspectives on Macao and offer to understand it through an extensive landscape. To research the images into which the literature is translated is to study Macao’s history and society and the cultural exchange between the East and the West from a uniquely French perspective. The representations provided by the writings, composed by those who reported on what they observed in Macao, constitute the primary materials of this study. Study Macao is to study how Macao witnessed the tangible encounter between the East and the West and examine the glorious accomplishments achieved by the early Western exploration, represented by the Portuguese effort in the Far East. The French people had a long connection with Macao. Although the Portuguese were the first to land in Macao and founded an establishment 6  Jean-Baptiste du Halde, Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l’Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise: enrichie des cartes générales et particulières de ces pays, de la carte générale & des cartes particulières du Thibet, & de la Corée, & ornée d’un grand nombre de figures & de vignettes gravées en taille-douce (Paris: P.G. le Mercier, 1735), 234.

4 

J. XIE

on this small island, French missionaries were among those who set foot in Macao in the early days. Like the missionaries from other European countries, they had to land in Macao first before heading to the mainland of China or other places of Asia to preach Christianity. In this regard, French missionary figures include Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628) and Abbe Huc (Évariste Régis Huc, 1813–1860). Trigqult sojourned in Macao in 1610 and 1619 before going to other locations in China, such as Nanjing (formerly Nanking, 南京), to perform missionary work. Abbe Huc spent about eighteen months in Macao from 1839 to 1840 to learn Chinese and better prepare himself in other regards before heading to Canton for missions. Alexandre de Rhodes (1591–1660), Jesuit missionary and the first Frenchman to visit Vietnam, arrived in Macao in 1630 after being expelled from Vietnam. He then stayed in this small city for a total of twelve years as a professor of philosophy. French explorers sojourned in Macao as well. Jean François de Galaup, the Count of La Pérouse (1741–1788?), was a French explorer and naval officer. He arrived in Macao on January 3, 1787, while leading an expedition around the globe under the orders of the French king, Louis XVI. For La Pérouse and his crew, one significance of Macao amid others was the function of a warehouse and a retreat: in Macao, the vessels were repaired, the new sailors were hired, the sick members of the crew were treated, and the team had a good rest. It was also a place through which the French explorers were put into connection with their motherland. They delivered the letters and reports on the expedition to the ships leaving for Europe and received those sent by the ships coming from Europe. In the era of La Pérouse, that is, in the late eighteenth century, China was already doing a business of fifty million dollars (French francs) each year with the West. However, the French considered that China did not have much intercourse with the Europeans and held, probably with profound blindness, its power in very high regard. On the other hand, the Portuguese in Macao were like under the fence and the settlement could not provide European merchants with much protection.7 The West increased its interest in China in the nineteenth century. Macao was a window or a venue. In his book published in 1854, Abbe Huc said that Europeans were eager to write about China either from 7  Gabriel Marcel, La Pérouse: récit de son voyage, expédition envoyée à sa recherche, le capitaine Dillon, Dumont d’Urville, reliques de l’expédition, éd. du centenaire (Paris: Librairie illustrée, 1888), 136–37.

1  INTRODUCTION: HISTORY IS MADE OF DETAILS 

5

Macao or any other coastal places of China. They strongly felt the need to let the world know about China. Sometimes they may not see much in China, but this did not prevent them from writing zealously on China.8 Thus, numerous books on China, in the form of travel accounts, diaries, correspondence, and reports, were produced on China by the Europeans. In the previous centuries, it was hard to travel from Europe to a distant country like China and to learn about it and its people by one’s own eyes, and knowledge of a particular far country had to be acquired through books and accounts. It was easier for Europeans to travel to China and observe it with the advancement of navigation technology. On the other hand, Europeans considered that they needed good books on China and even voluntarily took writing them as their responsibility. For example, the Count d’Escayrac de Lauture commented in his book La Chine et les chinois that, although the writings of M.  Huc on China had considerable success in Europe and even in Macao, much information was copied directly from other books (e.g., the works of Jean-­ Baptiste Grosier and Adriano Balbi).9 By M.  Huc Escayrac de Lauture referred to Évariste Régis Huc, whose book on China harvested considerable success in Europe. And Escayrac de Lauture also pointed out that the books written by the Jesuits did not provide European readers with much new information on China. For this reason, authors in the nineteenth century should continue to write about China for the European public and provide new yet reliable information on the country. Ernest Michel is an additional example of these European authors. In the preface of his book, he clearly stated he endeavored to tell the European public a country witnessed with his own eyes.10 To put it simply, Europe was eager to know about China through reliable writings. The First Opium War aroused France’s most significant interest in expanding its influence in China. After the war broke out, the French government organized the Dubois de Jancigny mission to the Far East (La mission Dubois de Jancigny dans l’Extrême-Orient, 1841–1846). France’s intention can be seen in Henri Cordier’s explanations in his book La Mission Dubois de Jancigny dans l’Extrême-Orient (1841–1846): 8  Evariste Régis Huc, L’Empire chinois: faisant suite à l’ouvrage intitulé Souvenirs d’un voyage dans la Tartarie et le Tibet, tome premier (Paris: Librairie de Gaume frère, 1854), XIV. 9  Pierre Henri Stanislas d’Escayrac de Lauture, La Chine et les Chinois, illustrée de 120 dessins et cartes (Paris: Adolphe Delahays, libraire-éditeur, 1878), Vol. 1, 2–3. 10  Ernest Michel, Le Tour du monde en 240 jours (Limoges: Eugène Ardant et Cie, éditeurs, 1893), 10.

6 

J. XIE

La France, qui avait porté son plus grand effort en Algérie, ne restait pas cependant indifférente aux événements qui se déroulaient dans l’Extrême-­ Orient, et des esprits avertis s’inquiétaient des débouchés nouveaux que pourraient offrir à notre commerce l’ouverture de la Chine.11 (France that had made its most outstanding effort in Algeria did not, however, remain indifferent to the events unfolding in the Far East, and well-informed minds were worried about the new opportunities that an opening China might offer to our trade.)

He meant that although France had been preoccupied with expanding its settlement in Algeria, it was not indifferent to what was happening in the Far East. From this starting point, in 1840 after returning to France from India, Dubois de Jancigny was selected by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to lead a political and commercial expedition which was the Dubois de Jancigny mission to the Far East. The mission’s primary purpose was to examine India and China from political and commercial perspectives. However, the mission had another intention in reality: to observe what the British expedition had accomplished or was carrying forward in the Far East. After examining the situation in China, Dubois de Jancigny considered that Macao seemed to be the first and most important place to visit. For him, Macao was the best place to observe and acquire knowledge of the situation in China. However, the French Ministry of the Navy and the Colonies disagreed with him. They indicated their preference of Manilla over Macao, based because “à cause des soupçons qu’inspire généralement aux Chinois la présence prolongée d’un navire de guerre dans leurs ports” (because of the suspicions usually inspired to the Chinese by the prolonged presence of a warship in their ports).12 In other words, France was still cautious regarding its military and political encounters with China during this period. Dubois de Jancigny left France from Brest on June 28, 1841, with the French vessel L’Erigone, of which Jean-Baptiste Cécille (1787–1873) was the captain. After visiting places such as Rio de Janeiro, Singapore, and Manilla, he arrived along with his crew in Macao on December 7, 1841. In Macao and Canton, Dubois de Jancigny positioned himself as the official representative of the French government and approached and even met with Chinese officials regarding how the French could help China in 11  Henri Cordier, La Mission Dubois de Jancigny dans l’Extrême-Orient (1841–1846) (Paris: Edouard Champion; Emile Larose, 1916), 6. 12  Cordier, Mission Dubois de Jancigny, 2.

1  INTRODUCTION: HISTORY IS MADE OF DETAILS 

7

its war with the British. His efforts helped France obtain the same commercial advantages as England did with China. At the same time, the French government was sending its first consul Ulysse de Ratti-Menton (1799–1879) to Canton. However, once the French consul had settled in Macao, he quickly entered into conflict with Dubois de Jancigny. Each proclaimed himself as the representative of the French government before the Canton authorities. The result was that Dubois de Jancigny was soon called back to France. He left Macao on May 26, 1844. Many details of this expedition can be found in Henri Cordier’s work La Mission Dubois de Jancigny dans l'Extrême-Orient (1841–1846), which provides important primary sources, such as letters exchanged between the key personages involved in the Dubois de Jancigny’s mission. The mission greatly impacted the development of Sino-Foreign relations. Although the undertaking ended up with the withdrawal of Dubois de Jancigny from the scene, France successfully signed the Treaty of Whampoa with China in October 1844. For the negotiations of this treaty, Macao was the central place. France’s expansion in China was a good example indicating that the conflict between China and Britain took an international character due to the involvement of other Western powers in China’s affairs. Gradually, all Western powers started to explore their interests in the country and negotiate with the Chinese government because Britain seemed to defend a general cause. Therefore, after the two Opium Wars Western powers signed a series of treaties with China that the latter reconsidered unequal and entered into major military conflicts with China. Indeed, France actively participated in the so-called semi-colonization of China and played an essential role in shaping the history of modern China. Britain launched the First Opium War but did not become the only country to control China. Among others, France actively participated in the colonialization of China with other Western powers. What strategic role did Macao play in the eyes of the French? After Britain successfully used military pressure to force China to open its door, France also planned its presence on the China Seas, drew up ambitious plans, and regarded Macao as a foothold and station. In his letter to Théodore de Lagrené (1800–1862) in November 1843, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs François Guizot (1787–1874) said that the French king decided a naval division should station on the China Seas and in India in order to protect French political and commercial interests in

8 

J. XIE

this area.13 This station should be permanent where French warships could obtain supplies, repair the damages they sustained, and drop off sick soldiers. The French could use the Portuguese settlement in Macao, the British establishment in Hong Kong, or the Spanish possession in Luçon as such a foothold. But the French king considered this was strategically not sufficient. Macao, Hong Kong, and Luçon could become the “supporting points” as they were the establishments of the French’s allies. However, France should plan more to support their expansion in the Far East.14 In the late nineteenth century, France considered cultivating an enormous and urgent interest in understanding the matters in the Far East and paying more attention to Cochinchina. However, the political and social results produced in the colony were not satisfactory. Cochinchina was jerkily formed for the French government, did not have sufficient social cohesion, a productive administration, and a good railway network. It thus remained a type of “colonie en l’air” (a kind of colony in disorder) regarding the military defense or offensive, and industrial and commercial development. Therefore, France should strengthen the administration of its colonies and continue to explore new expansion opportunities in the area. One suggestion that some Frenchmen made to their government was to occupy Hainan (海南) and turn the island into a French base. In 1900, Claudius Madrolle (1870–1949) published his work entitled Hai-­ nan et la côte continentale voisine: l’empire de Chine, a book which contains a bibliography of texts written on Hainan published until the nineteenth century, including texts in Chinese and the translations in French, the descriptions of the voyages to Hainan made by Westerners until the early eighteenth century, and an outline of Hainan’s history until 1280.15 This is a good example of France’s interest in China during this period, and Macao shall play a role. The images and representations of Macao through the eyes of the French authors provide a different but additional perspective to understand Macao and its history and culture. In the nineteenth century, 13  Théodore de Lagrené later concluded the Treaty of Whampoa with China in 1844 as the envoy extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the French government. 14  François Guizot, introduction to Narrative of the Earl of Elgin’s Mission to China and Japan in the Years 1857, ’58, ’59, by Laurence Oliphant (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1860), 59. 15  Claudius Madrolle, L’Empire de Chine: Hai-Nan et la côte continentale voisine (Paris: A. Challamel, 1900), 1–122.

1  INTRODUCTION: HISTORY IS MADE OF DETAILS 

9

Macao’s history intertwined with European expansion in Asia. Letters, accounts, and reports record history. Many documents contain essential information on the events happening in Macao or discuss Macao. Many scholars focused on substantial literature in Chinese, Portuguese, and English to study Macao’s history. Although very important in terms of the number of available documents and their historical value, documents in French are sometimes ignored or not referred to for various reasons, such as language barrier and lack of awareness. Studying this part of the literature on Macao will provide new knowledge and a better understanding of Macao’s political and historical importance in the nineteenth century. Because scholars have not thoroughly studied the French views of Macao in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this research will be the first one. It will provide a unique angle to understand Macao and European settlements and colonial activities in Asia and discover different facts or reasons to explain the facts. It is known that the West started its expansion at the Age of Discovery, that is, at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Portuguese were the leading colonial powers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, along with the Spanish and the Dutch. Settling in Macao is certainly irrefutable evidence of the Portuguese colonial success. It indicates that the Portuguese played a role model for the Europeans in the overseas adventures in the past centuries. However, in the nineteenth century, the Portuguese colonial influence decreased considerably and was not comparable to the other colonial powers, for instance, the British and the French. Notably, in terms of colonial expansion, Portugal was in lamentable yet sharp contrast with Britain, the rising colonial power in the nineteenth century. And British colonialism performed exceptionally well in China. The establishment of Hong Kong at a short distance from Macao was an excellent illustration of the rapid expansion of British colonialism in the Far East. The attempts to control China were representative of Western imperialism in this part of the world. The decrease of the Portuguese colonial activities was perfectly reflected in the quietness of the streets in Macao that the French travelers observed and recorded in their texts. The international political background was that from 1870 onward, European colonialism was deeply marked by imperialism, a symbol of rising Western colonization worldwide.16 The slow pace of life in Macao, the decline of its economy, and the 16  D. K. Fieldhouse, Colonialism 1870–1945: An Introduction (London: George Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981), 1–10.

10 

J. XIE

reduced influence of Portugal as a former colonial power were recorded by the French sojourners in Macao. In its relationship to triumphant Western colonialism at this time, Macao was regarded as discordant notes. However, being marginalized, it quietly played its role, for example, in the political negotiations between China and Western powers. And its decline was also worth investigations and reflections. However, researches on the history of colonialism in this period often ignore Macao nor include it in the analysis. To some degree, this study of the French views of Macao fills the gap as the French arrivers represent the European colonists in the age of triumphant Western colonialism. Through their writings, they expressed their views of Macao and reflections on the Portuguese expansion in Asia.

references Anicotte, Rémi. “Mathématiques occidentales en Chine du XVIe au XXe siècle.” In Maths express: au carrefour des cultures, edited by Marc Moyon, Marie-José Pestel, and Martine Janvier, 65–69. Paris: CIJM, 2014. https://hal.archives-­ ouvertes.fr/hal-­01052435/document. Boxer, C.  R., ed. and trans. Seventeenth Century Macau in Contemporary Documents and Illustrations. Hong Kong: Heinemann (Asia), 1984. Cordier, Henri. La Mission Dubois de Jancigny dans l’Extrême-Orient (1841–1846). Paris: Edouard Champion; Emile Larose, 1916. Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste. Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l’Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise: enrichie des cartes générales et particulières de ces pays, de la carte générale & des cartes particulières du Thibet, & de la Corée, & ornée d’un grand nombre de figures & de vignettes gravées en taille-douce. Paris: P.G. le Mercier: 1735. Escayrac de Lauture, Pierre Henri Stanislas de. La Chine et les Chinois, illustrée de 120 dessins et cartes. Paris: Adolphe Delahays, libraire-éditeur, 1878. Fieldhouse, D.  K. Colonialism 1870–1945: An Introduction. London: George Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981. Guizot, François. Introduction to Narrative of the Earl of Elgin’s Mission to China and Japan in the Years 1857, ’58, ’59, by Laurence Oliphant. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1860. Huc, Evariste Régis. L’Empire chinois: faisant suite à l’ouvrage intitulé Souvenirs d’un voyage dans la Tartarie et le Tibet, tome premier. Paris: Librairie de Gaume frère, 1854. Madrolle, Claudius. L’Empire de Chine: Hai-Nan et la côte continentale voisine. Paris: A. Challamel, 1900.

1  INTRODUCTION: HISTORY IS MADE OF DETAILS 

11

Marcel, Gabriel. La Pérouse: récit de son voyage, expédition envoyée à sa recherche, le capitaine Dillon, Dumont d’Urville, reliques de l’expédition. Ed du centenaire. Paris: Librairie illustrée, 1888. Michel, Ernest. Le Tour du monde en 240 jours. Limoges: Eugène Ardant et Cie, éditeurs, 1893. Morse, Hosea Ballou. The Chronicles of the East India Company, Trading to China 1635–1834, Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926. Mungello, David Emil. The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500–1800. 3rd ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009.

CHAPTER 2

Historical Background

From the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, China was undergoing significant changes, particularly in its political relations to Western countries in the second half of the nineteenth century. Europe was rising rapidly as the world’s superpower, and its direct colonial dominion expanded from about 35% of the earth’s surface to about 85% of it between 1815 and 1914.1 On the contrary, China was in continuous decline losing its political and cultural importance to Western powers. The Qing army lost the First Opium War (1840–1842), the Second Opium War (1856–1860), the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) with its Northern Fleet destroyed by the enemy, and the Battle of Peking (1900) with its capital occupied by the Western alliance forces. At the same time, the Qing had to deal with several internal rebellions, including the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864) and the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901). One result of these defeats was that the Qing Dynasty (1636–1912) signed unequal treaties with Western powers. In the mid-nineteenth century, as observed by Western witnesses, the state of China had made the country wander away from a true civilization.2  Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (New York: Vintage, 1989), 150.  Pierre Dobel, Sept années en Chine: nouvelles observations sur cet empire: l’archipel Indo-­ Chinois, les Philippines et les îles Sandwich, traduit du russe par le prince Emmanuel Galitzin, nouv. éd. (Paris: Librairie d’Amyot, éditeur, 1842): 49. 1 2

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Xie, The French in Macao in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Chinese Literature and Culture in the World, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94665-4_2

13

14 

J. XIE

Exposed to the changes in the global geopolitical paradigm, Macao itself was encountering changes as well. Externally, the rise of Western countries such as Britain and France and the success of their colonization had made Portugal’s old exploits cast into the shade. The rise of Hong Kong, the British colony, had made Macao of little importance as a commercial port. It was no longer a vital stop connecting the West and Asia and was not able to compete with new ports: after the West forced China to open its door after the Opium Wars, other trade ports, such as Shanghai, Ningbo, and Xiamen, were established and performed well. As a result, Macao was no longer the only doorway to Asia that missionaries, traders, travelers, and explorers must take in the previous centuries. Internally, the decline of Macao was caused by the incompetency and inability of the Portuguese. It was also because Portugal was no longer a maritime power. The Portuguese were struggling with building a new and prosperous Macao. As correctly pointed out by a French traveler, Macao fell along with the fall of the strength of its founders, namely the Portuguese settlers.3 In reality, Macao started to lose its maritime importance about one century ago, as mentioned at the beginning of this study. The political status of Macao was changing during this period. An important fact was that in the mid-nineteenth century, Macao gained its “official status” as a Portuguese colony in the Far East. However, the mandarin of the Casa Branca still exercised authority over the Chinese in Macao, even in the 1870s.4 The Chinese and Portuguese governed Macao 3  Just-Jean-Étienne Roy, Un Français en Chine pendant les années 1850 à 1856 (Tours: A. Mame, 1857), 62. 4  Jules Itier pointed out that the term “mandarin” was derived from the Portuguese word “Mandaor” and was used by the Portuguese to refer to all Chinese officials, whether civil or military. He explained, “est-il nécessaire de répéter ici que le mot Mandarin dérivé du mot portugais Mandar commander, n’est nullement une expression chinoise. C’est la désignation donnée par les Portugais à tous les officiers, civils et militaires de l’empire chinois, en d’autres termes, à tous les dépositaires de l’autorité, désignés en Chine sous la dénomination de Quâm” (Jules Itier. Journal d’un voyage en Chine en 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846. Paris: Chez Dauvin et Fontaine, libraires-éditeurs, 1848, Vol. 1, 258). Where did the Portuguese take this term from? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term “mandarin” is “Menteri” in Malay or “mantrı ̄” in Sanskrit in origin. For the entry “mandarin,” the dictionary states that “The Sanskrit word was the usual term for a counsellor or minister of state in pre-Islamic India. It was widely adopted in South-East Asia, and especially in the Malay-­ speaking states. The Portuguese were the first to apply it to Chinese officials, for whom the Chinese term was guān.” Here guān in Chinese is 官, meaning official. Itier used “Quâm” in his text and this is likely a mistake due to lack of knowledge of Chinese language.

2  HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 

15

together in the previous centuries, with the Chinese authorities playing a more significant role. The European superiority was not evident during this period, and instead, there was Chinese superiority as China was still a superpower at that time. According to the French explorer Jean François de Galaup, Count of La Pérouse, when he arrived in Macao in January 1787, the French explorers had to bear humiliations when doing business with the Chinese in Macao. As observed by him, the social status of the Europeans in Macao was humble: a Chinese individual who killed a Portuguese may not have to receive punishment; However, if a Portuguese individual killed a Chinese, the former must be sentenced to death.5 Things changed. After the First Opium War, the Chinese authorities were no longer respected and obeyed by the Portuguese residing in Macao. In 1849 the then Portuguese governor João Maria Ferreira do Amaral (1803–1849) expelled all the Chinese officials from Macao, ordered to destroy the Chinese customs, and refused to pay the annual ground rent to the Qing government. These decisions and actions marked an attempt to cut political ties with the Chinese rule of Macao and generated consequences. Amaral was quickly murdered by Chinese villagers in Coloane, an island near the Macao peninsula. Many texts written on Macao during this period commented the murder of Amaral was a critical event in Macao’s history because the relationship between the Portuguese and China thus changed categorically. This relationship was so friendly, especially in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). In the nineteenth century, the rise of Western powers enabled the Portuguese in Macao to be less subject to interference from the Chinese authorities.6 Because geopolitics in China changed significantly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the representations of China and Macao became different in the writings of the French. More Frenchmen came to visit or resided in Macao for various reasons and were more diversified, including missionaries, military officers (in particular, naval officers), diplomats, sailors, writers, painters, artisans, travelers, and people in business. For example, famous French diplomats include Baron Alexandre Forth-­ Rouen (1809–1886), the first French ambassador to China who resided in Macao from 1851 to 1856, the Count René de Courcy (1827–1908), chargé d’affaires of France in China who lived in Macao from 1856 to  Marcel, Pérouse, 136–39.  G.  Hunter William, Bits of Old China (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co., 1885), 151–52. 5 6

16 

J. XIE

1858, and Alphonse de Bourboulon (1809–1877), French ambassador to China who resided in Macao from 1851 to 1859. To name other profiles, Georges Bousquet (1845–1937) was a French legal scholar who assisted with the drafting of Japan’s civil code, and Napoléon François Libois (1805–1872), who served as assistant procurator and procurator of the Paris Foreign Missions Society in Macao respectively between 1837 and 1841 and from 1842 to 1847. It is worth noting, with the rise of Hong Kong, Napoléon François Libois transferred the procure of the Paris Foreign Missions Society to the British colony in 1847 and later founded the procures respectively in Singapore in 1857 and Shanghai in 1864.7 Other personages such as Ludovic de Beauvoir (1846–1929), the French admiral Anatole Amédée Prosper Courbet (1827–1885), François de Plas (1809–1888), the Count Pierre Henri Stanislas d’Escayrac de Lauture (1826–1868), Victor Tissot (1844–1917), Evariste Régis Huc (known as Abbe Huc, 1813–1860), Alfred Raquez (1865–1907), Henri de Chonski (1809–1881), J.  Théophane Vénard (1829–1861), Paul-­ Emile Daurand-Forgues (1813–1883), Joseph Alexander von Hübner (1811–1892), Jules Itier (ca. 1805–1877), Charles-Hubert Lavollée (1823–18??), Charles Louis de Montigny (1805–1868), Auguste Borget (1808–1877), and Théodore Duret (1838–1927) were among those who wrote upon Macao in their accounts or depicted Macao in their paintings. Most of them recorded their observations, experiences, and reflections based on the on-site visits. For example, Joseph Marie Callery (1810–1862) was the interpreter to the French legation when France was negotiating the Treaty of Whampoa and his diary Journal des opérations diplomatiques de la légation française en Chine recorded how the negotiations were carried out in Macao. On the other hand, there were imaginary descriptions of Macao, such as La Chine et les chinois le compte rendu d’un récit de voyage imaginaire (1842) illustrated by Auguste Borget and published by Honoré de Balzac in the form of four articles appearing in the French magazine La Législature, and La Chine ouverte: aventures d’un Fan-Koueï dans le pays de Tsin (1845) by Paul-Emile Daurand-Forgues (1813–1883, pseudonym Old Nick), a French literary critic who did not set foot in 7  Louise Fauduet, “Napoléon François Libois, procureur de la Société des Missions étrangères de Paris à Macao et Hong Kong (1837–1866)” (Diploma thesis, Ecole nationale des chartes, 2007), Introduction, para 2, http://theses.enc.sorbonne.fr/2007/fauduet; A.  Villion, “Réminiscences d’un ancien, en procure de Kong Kong (1866–1868),” in Bulletin de la Société des Missions étrangères de Paris (Hong Kong: Imprimerie de Nazareth, 1 janvier 1923), 206.

2  HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 

17

Macao and was normally focused literary criticism of British and American novels. The third category of writings on Macao are based on other works, that is, that the authors of these writings did not travel to Macao, but they borrowed considerable information from other accounts to write their own. La Chine, d’après les voyageurs les plus récents (1885) by Victor Tissot is such a work par excellence. All these writings constitute important resources for studying Macao from a unique perspective and for deriving knowledge of Macao and China during this particular period.

references Dobel, Pierre. Sept années en Chine: nouvelles observations sur cet empire: l’archipel Indo-Chinois, les Philippines et les îles Sandwich, traduit du russe par le prince Emmanuel Galitzin, nouv. éd. Paris: Librairie d’Amyot, éditeur, 1842. Fauduet, Louise. “Napoléon François Libois, procureur de la Société des Missions étrangères de Paris à Macao et Hong Kong (1837–1866).” Diploma thesis, Ecole nationale des chartes, 2007. http://theses.enc.sorbonne. fr/2007/fauduet Kennedy, Paul. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. New York: Vintage, 1989. Marcel, Gabriel. La Pérouse: récit de son voyage, expédition envoyée à sa recherche, le capitaine Dillon, Dumont d’Urville, reliques de l’expédition. Ed du centenaire. Paris: Librairie illustrée, 1888. Roy, Just-Jean-Étienne. Un Français en Chine pendant les années 1850 à 1856. Tours: A. Mame, 1857. Villion, A. “Réminiscences d’un ancien, en procure de Kongkong (1866–1868).” In Bulletin de la Société des Missions étrangères de Paris. Hong Kong: Imprimerie de Nazareth, 1 janvier 1923: 205–11. William, G. Hunter. Bits of Old China. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co., 1885.

CHAPTER 3

What Was Macao and Who Were the Macanese?

For a long time, Macao had been one of the most critical European establishments in the Far East and was considered the only “point de contact” (contact point) between Europe and the Far East.1 The first research question to investigate thus concerns the territorial, cultural, and political identities of Macao. What was Macao and who were the Macanese? First of all, Macao was considered “a holy place” by both the Portuguese and Chinese. Its beautiful designations impressed those who had ever handed on this tiny settlement. Its Chinese name and name in foreign languages contain a religious connotation. Macao was “la Cité du Nom de Dieu en Chine” (the city in the Name of God in China), which “mène une vie à part et comme hors de Chine” (leads a life apart and like being outside of China).2 After their settlement in this small city, the Portuguese called Macao “Cidade do Santo Nome de Deos de Macao” (City of the Holy Name of God of Macao).3 According to Seventeenth Century Macau in Contemporary Documents and Illustrations, the Portuguese authors in 1  Charles Boissay, “Notes sur l’Extrême Orient, d’après les derniers voyageurs,” Journal des économistes: revue de la science économique et de la statistique, 3ème série, 9ème année, tome trente-quatrième, janvier à mars (1874): 281. 2  Joseph Dehergne, Répertoire des jésuites de Chine de 1552 à 1800 (Roma: Institutum historicum Societatis Iesu; Paris: Letouzey & Ané; Roma: Istituto storico S.J. 1973), xi. 3  M. de Chonski, Établissement portugais de Macao: Chine (Paris: Impr. de Pommeret et Moreau, 1850), 2–3.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Xie, The French in Macao in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Chinese Literature and Culture in the World, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94665-4_3

19

20 

J. XIE

the book all called Macao “the City of the Name of God in China” (City of Nombre de dios en China) to demonstrate their respect for the settlement. Further, they remarked that the name “Macao” was merely a vulgar denomination of the Portuguese territory.4 Over two centuries later, this naming still impacted European visitors to Macao. When the young French nobleman Ludovic de Beauvoir (1846–1929) arrived in Macao, he was surprised to see that the inscription “Cidade do Nome de Deos. Nao Ha Outra Mais Leal” (City of the Name of God—There is no one more loyal) had been carved on the arch of the City Hall of Macao since 1654.5 This phrase told Macao’s origin and sang praises to Macao, a city protected by God, and committed to the Portuguese royal house during the sixty years of Spanish rule (1580–1640). As witnessed by another French author in the seventeenth century, “Macao” was the combination of “Ama” (阿媽) and “Gao” (澳). Ama was the goddess that local Chinese worshipped, and Gao, in Cantonese, expressed that the harbor was proper and valuable to receive ships. It was by “contraction, ou corruption” (contraction, or corruption) that the term was gradually written as “Amacao” and even “Makou.”6 Macao was also spelled as “Macan” in Spanish, “Machuon” in Latin, “Macone” in Italien, and sometimes was spelled as “Amaquan,” “Amacano,” and “Amacao.”7 According to the statement of Charles Louis de Montigny made in the mid-nineteenth century, Macao was famous long before the Portuguese were allowed to settle here: it became a prominent place because of the Ama-goa Temple (A-Ma Temple, 媽閣廟), known as the Pagoda of the Rocks and located near the Barra Fort, where local Chinese worshiped the famous idol “Ama.”8 The place later called Macao was probably already known by people before the Portuguese officially settled here in 1557. According to 蒼梧總督軍門志 (1552), there had been foreigners living on the current Coloane island. 全廣海圖 in the fifth volume  Boxer, Seventeenth Century Macau, 68.  Ludovic de Beauvoir, Java, Siam, Canton. Voyage autour du monde (Paris: Henri Plon, imprimeur-éditeur, 1870), 352. 6  Johannes Nieuhof, L’Ambassade de la Compagnie orientale des provinces unies vers l’empereur de la Chine, ou Grand Cam de Tartarie, faite par les Srs. Pierre de Goyer, & Jacob de Keyser (Leyde: Pour J. de Meurs, 1665), 60–62. 7  Paul Pelliot, “Un Ouvrage sur les premiers temps de Macao,” T’oung Pao 31, no. 1/2 (1934): 67. 8  Charles Louis de Montigny, Manuel du négociant français en Chine: ou, commerce de la Chine considéré au point de vue français (Paris: Imprimerie de Paul Dupont, 1846), 281. 4 5

3  WHAT WAS MACAO AND WHO WERE THE MACANESE? 

21

of this book, says 十字門澳, 夷船泊此澳內 (in the Cross Gate Bay, foreign ships docked here).9 夷船 (alien ships) should include the vessels of the Portuguese settling in the area. Based on these statements, a virtual image of Macao is that it had been a place linked to super-natural connotations since the beginning of its existence. For the Portuguese, it was Providence who sent them to this island and made the settlement possible. Macao was often called “the Peninsula of the Water Lily” because it took the shape of a lotus.10 The French thought it looked like a human footprint. For example, Ludovic de Beauvoir considered that Macao’s profile on the map resembled a human footprint. Its heel turned toward the ocean while the thumb ended up with a tongue of land connecting Macao to the big island of Xiangshan (also spelled Hsiangshan, Siangshan, Heungsan, and Heungsha, 香山). The heel referred to nine high rocky hills on which the settlers built the fortresses such as Bom-Parto, Barra, San João, and San Jeronimo. Located at the sizeable lateral arch of the foot were the cramped houses of Chinese people, that is, the Chinese community. The Portuguese lived on the opposite outer edge of the foot instead. On the instep of the foot was the wall separating the Portuguese town and the Chinese town. The wrinkled articulations of the toes were the rolling hills on the top of which the fortresses such as St. Francisco, La Guia, and San Paulo do Monte were built.11 If we look at a map of Macao drawn in the nineteenth century, as shown below, the image of Macao corresponded to the descriptions made by Ludovic de Beauvoir in his book. On this map Macao looks like a footprint overall. The map is composed of two distinct parts: one part is in pink, which refers to the Portuguese community, and the other is in grey, which is where the Chinese community lived. The two contrasting colors illustrate well the nature of Macao as a Portuguese settlement in China. And it is clear that the Portuguese community had a city planning, or in other words, Macao had the image of a city-state. Churches, cathedrals, ports, a theatre, hospitals, fortresses, A-Ma Temple, the palace of the Macao governor, etc. were spread out and can be easily identified on the map. In addition, because the Portuguese town was located at the end of the Macao peninsula, some 9  Jia Ying 應檟,蒼梧總督軍門志 Cangwu Zongdu Junmenzhi [Cangwu Governor’s Military Histories], Vol. 5 (長沙:岳麓書社 [Changsha: Yuelu Publishing House], 2015): 77–87. 10  Robert de Caix, “En Extrême Orient : Macao,” Journal des débats politiques et littéraires ([Paris] : Impr. de Le Normant, le 27 mardi, 1903): supplément. 11  Beauvoir, Java, Siam, Canton, 381.

22 

J. XIE

French authors made such a beautiful metaphor: the Portuguese community was like a lighthouse thrown at the end of a long dike (Image 3.1).12 On this map in Portuguese, released by the Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa and printed by the Lithographia da Imprensa Nacional in Macao in 1889, the Macao peninsula takes the shape of a human footprint. It is a map in color and has dimensions of ca 82 by 57 centimeters. The scale of the map is 1:5000 (E 113°32′47″/N 22°11′59″). It provides a panorama of the entire Portuguese settlement and identifies the ports, forts, barracks, gardens, and hospitals. Major streets and lanes are named. Important locations, such as the Palácio do Governo (the Palace of the Government), Hospital Militar de S. Januário (Military Hospital of St. Januário), Fortaleza do Monte (Monte Fort), and Quartel do Batalhão Nacional (National Battalion Headquarters), are highlighted in red. The map shows that the important urban features located in the south of the peninsula, frequently called the Portuguese town by the French authors in their texts. A big portion marked in grey of the northeastern part of the peninsula indicates the neighboring Chinese community was a cultivated area with farming fields. The emergence of two settlements is clearly shown on this map which was drawn after the 1887 Sino-Portuguese Treaty. And the map also shows the Portuguese were expanding urbanization toward the Chinese village, the area marked in grey. Antonio Heitor was the Civil Conductor of the Public Works in the Macao Government. Second, the identity of Macao, a territory of China or not, was confusing geopolitically. This question, in reality, remained until Macao’s history entering the twentieth century. In 2005, French scholars such as Philippe Forêt were still commenting on the ambiguous identity of Macao as a political unit. He argued that Macao remained a Portuguese colony with vague status and ill-defined boundaries until the last year of the twentieth century. He further pointed out that the Portuguese rented a peninsula from China but never realized the annexation of the land, where they began to live and trade as settlers hundreds of years ago. Portuguese  Victor Tisso, La Chine, d’après les voyageurs les plus récents (Paris: Jouvet, 1885), 15.

12

3  WHAT WAS MACAO AND WHO WERE THE MACANESE? 

23

Image 3.1  Macao—Planta da península de Macau, 1/5000, reduzida e desenhada (Macao. Macao Peninsula Plan, 1/5000, reduced and drawn) by Antonio Heitor, Macao, March 15, 1889. Format: 82  ×  57  cm. (Source: gallica.bnf.fr/ Bibliothèque nationale de France. Courtesy of the National Library of France)

24 

J. XIE

sovereignty was never genuinely acknowledged by China even though the Qing had to accept Portugal’s permanent occupation of Macao under the 1887 Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking (中葡友好通商條約). China considered the treaty only granted the administration rights but did not transfer sovereignty to Portugal. Divergent and convenient interpretations of the exact status of the city demonstrate that Macao was either an overseas province of Portugal or a free port. He continued to argue that from 1557 to 1999, Lisbon governed from afar a Cantonese population who were hardly integrated into the colonial order, had little knowledge of Portuguese, and seldom attended a church.13 Forêt is correct in this regard. Macao was regarded as part of the Chinese territory or an independent territory under the Portuguese administration. Western sojourners of the nineteenth century did not have a consensus in their writings, and indeed, many of them may not have a clear sense of sovereignty. On the one hand, Macao was considered part of China. For example, Théodore Duret wrote that Canton had long been the only place connecting Europe and China and then referred to Canton as where the Europeans built their first settlements and colonies on the Chinese land: the Portuguese came the first. They possessed Macao a long time ago while the English had occupied Hong Kong only for a short time.14 Therefore, according to his statement, Macao belonged to Canton. On the other hand, some found it hard to explain the relationship between Macao and China and used a qualifier to distinguish the two. For example, Ludovic de Beauvoir called the interior of China “la Chine pure” and used the adjective “pure” to qualify the rest of China, indicating Macao’s ambiguous territorial status indirectly.15 On the other hand, a book published by the Société de Saint-Augustin in 1889 is entitled La Chine et ses provinces, but its contents cover territories such as Hong Kong, Macao, and Korea. The author’s intention was to consider Macao as part of the Chinese territory based on the title. However, in the body of the book, the author called it “the Portuguese city of Macao” (la Portuguese ville de Macao).16 And the book should not 13  Philippe Forêt, “De la vertu au vice: l’espace des loisirs à Macao (1910–1930),” in Hans-­ Jörg Gilomen, Beatrice Schumacher, and Laurent Tissot, eds. Freizeit und Vergnügen / Temps libre et loisirs (Zurich: Chronos Verlag, 2005), 173. 14  Théodore Duret, Voyage en Asie. Le Japon – la Chine – la Mongolie – Java – Ceylan – l’Inde (Paris: Michel Lévy frères, 1874), 158. 15  Beauvoir, Java, Siam, Canton, 406. 16  Société de Saint-Augustin, La Chine (Lille: Société de Saint-Augustin, 1889), 43.

3  WHAT WAS MACAO AND WHO WERE THE MACANESE? 

25

be the only book that treats Macao in such a confusing way. The Europeans first considered Macao as part of China and then separated it from China for a long time due to the strengthened Portuguese presence on this small Chinese land. The Europeans’ reaction was as follows: setting foot on Macao meant that they had arrived in China and the Far East; even they knew they only arrived in Macao, they did not want to correct themselves immediately. As pointed out below by a French traveler to China in a book published in 1862, Macao was almost China but not precisely China. Nous étions bien sur le territoire chinois, dans une ville habitée presque en entier par des Chinois; mais ce n’était pas encore la Chine; car Macao appartient de droit, sinon de fait, aux Portugais, dont le pavillon flotte encore au haut des murailles.17 (We were indeed in the Chinese territory, in a city inhabited almost entirely by Chinese people, but it was not China yet; for Macao belongs by right, if not in fact, to the Portuguese, whose flag still floats at the top of the walls.)

Third, Macao was not considered as China, but a Portuguese colony or even a commonplace suitable for all European arrivals. Among the evidences, Macao was listed as a separate location in the Répertoire des jésuites de Chine, de 1552 à 1800. In the seventeenth century, when the French king Louis XIV sent the Jesuit mathematicians to China, Macao was unanimously considered as an entrance to China, the only way leading to China. When this path was open, the French Jesuits could enter China. If not, “personne ne peut entrer dans la Chine” (No one can enter China).18 However, this still does not mean that Macao was categorically not China. On the contrary, it was sometimes referred to as the equivalent of China. For example, when Joseph Dehergne (1903–1990), author of the Répertoire, reported that he wrote from China, the reality was that he wrote from Macao.19 But Macao was much often referred to as a Portuguese colony in the second half of the nineteenth century. Many writers directly used the term “colonie” (colony) to refer to Macao. The change was because the success of Western colonialism helped Macao gain the actual political status of a European colony, as mentioned in different places of this book.  Roy, Français en Chine, 62.  Isabelle Landry-Deron, “Les Mathématiciens envoyés en Chine par Louis XIV en 1685,” Archive for History of Exact Sciences 55, no. 5 (2001): 427. 19  Dehergne, Répertoire, 6. 17 18

26 

J. XIE

Examined from the perspective of modern political science, according to Peter Borschberg, Macao was typical of an extra-territorial arrangement that existed in the pre-colonial period. He argued that in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, “across Southeast Asia China and the Indian Subcontinent, the different trading communities – including later the early colonial powers – lived according to, and were in turn governed by, their own laws in what today may correspond to an extra-territorial arrangement.”20 Early European colonial powers such as the Portuguese, the Spanish, and later the Dutch adopted this self-­government. For him, “Macao offers one of the most intriguing pre-­colonial arrangements, selfgoverned by the Portuguese, originally undefined in its size and hardly understood by the Europeans in the period before 1800.”21 In September 1699, when Macclesfield arrived in Macao, he noted that “both Portuguese and Chinese officials came out at once and, both then and in the next few days, made them welcome and assured them of every facility for trade.”22 Robert Douglas, chief supercargo of the British ship Macclesfield, noted that in Macao “altho ye Portuguese have ye name of ye Government, yett ye Chinese have ye Chiefe Power, and all ye Customes of ye Port, excepting some small privileges yt ye Portuguese ships injoy.”23 The observation indicates that the Portuguese and Chinese co-governed Macao, with the former being self-governed and the latter having more power over this small territory for most of the time until late in the nineteenth century. Finally, whether Macao was considered part of China or not, it witnessed the Sino-European encounters and conflicts in the past centuries. For Ludovic de Beauvoir, Macao was the first milestone that Western navigators set on the outskirts of China, and its history was associated with almost all the war events taking place between Europe and China. Because it was likely hard to determine whether Macao was Chinese territory, a Portuguese city, or something else, it acted as a neutral or common space where different walks of figures could set foot. Forces from opposing camps could settle down and even use it as the most fitting place for political negotiations. During the Second Opium War, the British diplomats sojourning temporarily in Macao observed that the Portuguese 20  Peter Borschberg, Hugo Grotius, the Portuguese, and Free Trade in the East Indies (Singapore: Nus Press, 2011), 156. 21  Borschberg, Hugo Grotius, 156.​ 22  Morse, Chronicles, 87. 23  Morse, 86–87.

3  WHAT WAS MACAO AND WHO WERE THE MACANESE? 

27

settlement was a place to supply the Chinese army with weapons. The harbor was full of junks heading to Canton, and most of them were “heavily armed with 6, 9, and 12-pound guns, bearing the well-known initials B., P., & Co., of this year’s date, to be converted by Yeh [Ye Mingchen (葉 名琛, 1807–1859), the then Two Guangs viceroy] to his use when occasion required.”24 Another interesting fact was that the Portuguese saluted important visitors equally by cannons, for example, Chinese officials or British officers when military conflicts between China and Britain were surging. And then who were the Macanese?25 According to the Répertoire des jésuites de Chine, de 1542 à 1800, the Macanese were the descendants of non-Chinese parents whether or not they had Portuguese blood. This identity was determined in accordance with the following criteria: Quant à la nationalité, nous attribuons parfois une double nationalité selon deux plans différents. Le fils né à Macao, de parents japonais, ou portugais, est dit macaïste; il reste à un autre point de vue japonais, ou portugais (As to the nationality, we attribute sometimes a dual nationality according to two different plans. The son born of Japanese or Portuguese parents in Macao is considered as a Macanese; He remains Japanese or Portuguese from another point of view).26 Such records can be found in the Répertoire: “Costa, Bartolomeu da (macaïste) P. N. 1629 à Macao, de parents japonais -E. 1652 (JS 25, 172v)”27 and “Sᾴ (Saa), Jerόnimo (macaïste; anglais) fr. coadj. N. de parents anglais, Macao, 1659-E. 1682 (JS 25, 244v et 26, 41v)”28 This was a serious or “scientific” way to define and categorize who were the Macanese. In the majority of the texts which we will discuss in this book, from the perspective of blood the Macanese were considered in general as descendants of the Portuguese mixed with Asian ethnicities such as Chinese, Japanese and Malay. The corresponding French term “appartenance ethnique” or “ethnie” of the term “ethnicity” did not appear in the texts. Instead, the term “race” was frequently used to refer to the Chinese, French, Persians, etc. But the term “race” was not used to the Macanese. A term to distinguish the Macanese from others  Laurence Oliphant, Narrative of the Earl of Elgin’s Mission to China and Japan in the Years 1857, ’58, ’59 (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1860), 59. 25  French authors used the term “les macaïstes” to refer to the Macanese. 26  Dehergne, Répertoire, xiii. 27  Dehergne, 63. 28  Dehergne, 236. 24

28 

J. XIE

was “caste,” indicating these people formed a third category of population situated between the Chinese and the Europeans.29 Compared to the literature published in the previous centuries, these texts by the French in the nineteenth century comment more frequently on the Macanese from the cultural, economic, religious, and even physical appearance perspectives.

references Antonio, Heitor. “Macao. – Planta da península de Macau,” 1/5 000, reduzida e desenhada, March 15, 1889. Format: 82 × 57 cm. gallica.bnf.fr/Bibliothèque nationale de France. Beauvoir, Ludovic de. Java, Siam, Canton. Voyage autour du monde. Paris: Henri Plon, imprimeur-éditeur, 1870. Boissay, Charles. “Notes sur l’Extrême Orient, d’après les derniers voyageurs.” Journal des Economistes: revue de la science économique et de la statistique, 3ème série, 9ème année, tome trente-quatrième, janvier à mars (1874): 264–90. Borschberg, Peter. Hugo Grotius, the Portuguese, and Free Trade in the East Indies. Singapore: Nus Press, 2011. Boxer, C.  R., ed. and trans. Seventeenth Century Macau in Contemporary Documents and Illustrations. Hong Kong: Heinemann (Asia), 1984. Caix, Robert de. “En Extrême Orient : Macao.” Journal des débats politiques et littéraires. [Paris]: Impr. de Le Normant, le 27 mardi, 1903 : supplément. Chonski, M de. Établissement portugais de Macao: Chine. Paris: Impr. de Pommeret et Moreau, 1850. Dehergne, Joseph. Répertoire des jésuites de Chine de 1552 à 1800. Roma: Institutum historicum Societatis Iesu; Paris: Letouzey & Ané; Roma: Istituto storico S.J., 1973. Duret, Théodore. Voyage en Asie. Le Japon  – la Chine  – la Mongolie  – Java  – Ceylan – l’Inde. Paris: Michel Lévy frères, 1874. Forêt, Philippe. “De la vertu au vice: l’espace des loisirs à Macao (1910–1930).” In Freizeit und Vergnügen/Temps libre et loisirs, edited by Hans-Jörg Gilomen, Beatrice Schumacher, and Laurent Tissot. Zurich: Chronos Verlag, 2005. Landry-Deron, Isabelle. “Les mathématiciens envoyés en Chine par Louis XIV en 1685.” Archive for History of Exact Sciences 55, no. 5 (2001): 423–63. Lavollée, Charles Hubert. Voyage en Chine: Ténériffe, Rio Janeiro, le Cap, Ile Bourbon, Malacca, Singapore, Manille, Macao, Canton, ports chinois, Cochinchine, Java. Paris: Just Rouvier & A Ledoyen, 1852. 29  Charles Hubert Lavollée, Voyage en Chine: Ténériffe, Rio Janeiro, le Cap, Ile Bourbon, Malacca, Singapore, Manille, Macao, Canton, ports chinois, Cochinchine, Java (Paris: Just Rouvier & A Ledoyen, 1852), 240.

3  WHAT WAS MACAO AND WHO WERE THE MACANESE? 

29

Montigny, Charles Louis de. Manuel du négociant français en Chine: ou, commerce de la Chine considéré au point de vue français. Paris: Imprimerie de Paul Dupont, 1846. Morse, Hosea Ballou. The Chronicles of the East India Company, Trading to China 1635–1834, Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926. Nieuhof, Johannes. L’Ambassade de la Compagnie orientale des provinces unies vers l’empereur de la Chine, ou Grand Cam de Tartarie, faite par les Srs. Pierre de Goyer, & Jacob de Keyser. Leyde: Pour J. de Meurs, 1665. Oliphant, Laurence. Narrative of the Earl of Elgin’s Mission to China and Japan in the Years 1857, ’58, ’59. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1860. Pelliot, Paul. “Un Ouvrage sur les premiers temps de Macao.” T’oung Pao 31, no. 1/2 (1934): 58–94. Roy, Just-Jean-Étienne. Un français en Chine pendant les années 1850 à 1856. Tours: A. Mame, 1857. Société de Saint-Augustin. La Chine. Lille: Société de Saint-Augustin, 1889. Tisso, Victor. La Chine, d’après les voyageurs les plus récents. Paris: Jouvet, 1885. Ying, Jia 應檟.蒼梧總督軍門志 Cangwu Zongdu Junmenzhi [Cangwu Governor’s Military Histories], Vol. 5. 長沙: 岳麓書社 [Changsha: Yuelu Publishing House], 2015.

CHAPTER 4

Views of Europeans Other Than French

Macao received “sojourners” from European countries in the past hundreds of years. These sojourners observed Macao, recorded their observations, and disseminated their knowledge to the West and other parts of the world. Thus, a brief literature review focused on what constituted the salient characteristics of Macao in different periods contributes to a better understanding of the position of Macao in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

A Commercial Port Reduced to a Calm Harbor and Supporting Point Macao was a small village and inhabited by few human beings before the arrival of the Portuguese. After the Portuguese arrived, they built beautiful houses and transformed a desolate place into a commercial center of Asia.1 They created a new culture in a place far from their homeland. The early foreign visitors found that life in Macao was calm and quiet, its atmosphere was brilliant, and its climate was salutary and described Macao as a place with “Dolce far niente,” a perfect Paradise-like place.2 In addition, Macao became one of the most famous and commercialized places in Asia. 1 2

 Nieuhof, Ambassade, 60–62.  William, Bits, 147.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Xie, The French in Macao in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Chinese Literature and Culture in the World, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94665-4_4

31

32 

J. XIE

It was once also a highly self-defensive city. It was built on a mountain, surrounded by the ocean, and protected by fortresses and artillery such as cast-iron cannons. The reason was that as an island in the mid-seventeenth century, the water surrounding Macao was not deep and thus constituted a natural barrier preventing big ships from approaching and thus formed an additional layer of protection besides other protections such as fortresses and guns.3 However, this advantage became a severe hindrance when Macao wanted to develop its importance as a trading port in the nineteenth century. The shallow harbor prevented Macao from receiving bigger vessels, whether military or commercial and was hence relegated to a less critical settlement in meeting the needs of Western expansion. Laurence Oliphant (1829–1888) was a British author, traveler, and mystic. He was special secretary to Lord Elgin when he dealt with Chinese matters during the Second Opium War. Oliphant traveled with Lord Elgin in China and Japan from 1857 to 1859 and in 1859 published Narrative of Elgin’s Mission to China and Japan in the Years 1857, ’58, ’59. In the book, he described Macao, a Portuguese city in the mid-nineteenth century when Britain expanded its influence in China. In October 1857, he recorded an image of Macao which was, for him, a charming old Portuguese settlement. It was so well known to the British that describing the small settlement may not be necessary. He noticed the narrow streets, grass-­ grown plazas, handsome façade of the fine old Cathedral crumbling to decay, shady walks, fantastic caves, and the tomb of Camões.4 With all this combined, Macao produced a soothing and tranquilizing effect upon sensibilities irritated by the contemporary mode of life. Macao was antique yet solemn and respectable compared to new Hong Kong. Oliphant pointed out that “[Macao’s appearance] of respectable antiquity was refreshing after the somewhat parvenu character with which its ostentatious magnificence invests Hong Kong.”5 Then he stated that they refreshed themselves in Macao. Here, he used an example that was to have a good meal in a Chinese restaurant. Oliphant summed up this energizing Chinese meal as follows: We refreshed ourselves after the fatigues of our exploration at a Chinese restaurant, where I made my first experience in Chinese cookery, and, in  Nieuhof, Ambassade, 60–62.  It should be the Grotto of Camões because the poet was not buried in Macao. 5  Oliphant, Narrative, 59. 3 4

4  VIEWS OF EUROPEANS OTHER THAN FRENCH 

33

spite of the novelty of the implements, managed, by the aid of chop-sticks, to make a very satisfactory repast off eggs a year old preserved in clay, sharks’ fins and radishes pared and boiled into a thick soup, bêche de mer or sea-­ slugs, shrimps made into a paste with sea-chestnuts, bamboo roots, and garlic, rendered piquant by the addition of soy and sundry other pickles and condiments, and washed down with warm samshu in minute cups.6

Therefore, for the British colonists of the nineteenth century, Macao was a place for Europeans to pay their respect to the legacy of early European expansion and a supporting point to rebuild their strength. Moreover, Macao was a safe harbor for the female dependents of the Europeans as they were not allowed to live beyond the territory of Macao. In this sense, Macao constituted a family’s stronghold for male Europeans who were busy interacting with the Chinese mainland, particularly with Canton.

A European City-State In the nineteenth century, many descriptions of Macao by foreign visitors are focused on “the Portuguese community” and its political and cultural presentations in Macao: Portuguese architecture, Portuguese burial grounds, Grotto of Camões, ruins of the Saint Paul Cathedral, garrisons, churches, Senate House, Observatory, etc. Macao was considered a city-­ state with a government, constitution, foreign relations, suburban settlements, industry, and population. Geographically, it comprised two parts: the Macao peninsula and Typa (Taipa) island. On the Macao peninsula, there were parochial districts, public buildings, churches, convents, monasteries, hermitages, the Senate House, fortifications, the Monte, the Barrier, etc. On the other side, there were ports and an inner harbor.7 An image of Macao as a westernized city-state stood out. We can find more detailed descriptions of Macao as a city-state in numerous texts such as J. Dyer Ball’s Macao, the Holy City: The Gem of the Orient Earth (1905). In Ball’s text, besides the items which commonly constitute the subjects of the discussion, the hospitals, post office, markets, Chinese temples, schools, clubs, Colowan (Coloane), Taipa (referred  Oliphant, 59.  Andrew Ljungstedt, A Historical Sketch of the Portuguese Settlements in China (Boston: James Munroe & Co., 1836), 15–25. 6 7

34 

J. XIE

to as “Tamtsai”), monuments, the islands in the vicinity along with a short history of Macao are presented and commented. Ball depicted Macao as a small yet comprehensive community: tiny but with all the essential organs required. It is mentioned once again that Macao was no longer the sole Western territory in China: in its surrounding areas, Hong Kong had been built and was rising quickly. Comparisons between Hong Kong and Macao started to appear in the travelers’ observations and comments. Macao was quiet with little bustle, a place for “all lovers of poetry and literature” and constituted a retreat for merchants in Hong Kong and Canton looking for rest and peace and enjoying the area’s beautiful season. Macao was stocked with fish, meat, and vegetables, and several sites in the city were viewed as the most picturesque places in the world. The clean public buildings in Macao were in striking contrast to the dirty ones in Hong Kong.8 It served as a reference to mirror the characters of the English colony, which was not yet civilized to Macao’s level in some sense. If Hong Kong was rising and becoming a commercial center, Macao kept its advantages: calm, serein, and clean. Noticeable influences of Western Christian culture on Chinese culture in Macao were also observed and acknowledged. One example was that those wealthy Chinese individuals in Hong Kong, Canton, Macao, and other Chinese ports and cities set up charitable societies, including hospitals. The Chinese hospital in Macao, subjected to a strict quality inspection of the Portuguese authorities, maintained a clean and wholesome condition and was staffed with doctors trained in Western science.9

Declining Prosperity Versus Good Economy For historians, an economically depressed Macao was a reality in the nineteenth century. It was observed that both Macao and its settlers were no longer in economic prosperity. Benjamin Lincoln Ball (1820–1860), a graduate of the Harvard Medical School in 1844, completed a voyage in the world between 1848 and 1850. He first visited China, Java, Singapore, 8  J. Dyer Ball, Macao, the Holy City: The Gem of the Orient Earth (Canton: China Baptist Publication Society, 1905), 15, 27–28; Pierre Dobel, Sept années en Chine: nouvelles observations sur cet empire: l’archipel Indo-Chinois, les Philippines et les îles Sandwich, traduit du russe par le prince Emmanuel Galitzin, nouv. éd. (Paris: Librairie d’Amyot, éditeur, 1842): 10. 9  Ball, Macao, 36. The Chinese hospital that Ball mentioned in his book is the now Kiang Wu Hospital (鏡湖醫院) which remains the most active hospital in serving the local Chinese community.

4  VIEWS OF EUROPEANS OTHER THAN FRENCH 

35

Kamchatka, the Arctic Ocean, and the Sandwich Islands and then arrived in Macao in February 1950. In his letter written with essential details to a relative during his stay in Macao, Ball compared Macao to Nahant, Massachusetts: Macao to the people in China was in comparison with Nahant to the residents of Boston and its vicinity. Because major businesses had moved to Hong Kong, the influential businessmen from Canton and Hong Kong used Macao as a retreat due to its quietness and fresh air. Physically, even the houses in the Praia Grande were similar to those fronting Boston Common. However, since Macao was declining economically, the young American pointed out how the Portuguese there made a living was a mystery. Ball believed that the Portuguese in Macao suffered poverty, although trying to remain respectable.10 In addition, Macao was considered a city of vice in the nineteenth century. It was heavily criticized for facilitating Chinese slavery, opium trade, and gambling.11 The American view of Macao, exemplified by Ball’s impression discussed in the paragraph above, could be considered impartial and independent. It also revealed that Americans did not sympathize with the Portuguese in Macao, possibly due to their belated intercourse with Macao. A good contrast is that C. A. Montalto de Jesus (1863–1927), a local Macanese author born in Hong Kong, expressed a deep attachment to Macao in his known text Historic Macao (1902). He commented as follows: “As a municipality, Macao thrived for centuries, with the distinction of being the most loyal of the Portuguese colonies. As a modernized municipality thoroughly adapted to the requirements of the times, Macao may yet rise to be the Shanghai of South China.”12 In front of Macao’s decline, Montalto de Jesus cultivated a sentiment that was the hope for the rebirth of Macao. Early in the twentieth century, Macao had become a morally corrupted town in the eyes of Western observers: a paradise of vice. In China through the Eyes of the West from Marco Polo to the Last Emperor, Gianni Guadalupi commented as follows:

10  B. L. Ball, Rambles in Eastern Asia, including China and Manilla, during Several Years’ Residence: with Notes of the Voyage to China, Excursions in Manilla, Hong-King, Canton, Shanghai, Ningpoo, Amoy, Fouchow, and Macao (Boston: James French and Co., 1855), 411–17. 11  Austin Coates, Macao and the British 1637–1842 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009), 131. 12  C.  A. Montalto de Jesus, Historic Macao (Hongkong: Kelly & Walsh, Limited, 1902), 357.

36 

J. XIE

Portuguese Macao, the oldest and most cosmopolitan settlement on the Chinese coast, had been transformed from a trading emporium into a paradise of vice with gambling houses, brothels and opium dens. Every evening Britons from the excessively austere Hong Kong nearby arrived to amuse themselves in every possible way, legal or otherwise. Rich Chinese too came over from the mainland to enjoy the same pleasures as the “white devils.”13

With the expressions such as “a paradise of vice,” “gambling,” “brothels,” “opium dens,” and “devils,” a strikingly lamentable image of Macao is thus formed. The city had a glorious past but lived in a sinful present. The enormous yet nearly unbelievable changes it underwent invite the world to reflect. The contemporaries acknowledged an imminent issue that was the rejuvenation of Macao. However, they also pointed out that it was difficult because the city had lost the capacity to practice the trade. On the other hand, Macao was performing well economically in the eyes of some observers in the nineteenth century. But gambling played an essential role in this regard. Macao legalized gambling in the mid-­ nineteenth century, precisely in 1847, and became the only place where this type of activity was legal in China. Gambling, an essential component of Macao’s industry, made Macao an affluent city capable of supporting other Portuguese colonies with chronic deficits financially. It not only increased the city’s revenue but regularly yielded a surplus. Relying on the revenue from gambling houses, the city considerably improved the infrastructure in many regards under the governance of José Rodrigues Coelho do Amaral (1808–1873), significantly assisted with the enforcement of reasonable municipal regulations. The public facilities were enhanced, the streets were newly macadamized and lighted, forts and barracks were reconstructed, city gates were demolished together with some parts of the city walls and rural confines adapted for the city’s expansion. Modernization also benefited the Chinese neighborhoods, which, viewed usually by Europeans as unsanitary places, were rebuilt into neat and well-regulated districts.14 Macao was associated with the opium trade and was an essential venue for opium smuggling. The book written by the Russian diplomat Pierre 13  Gianni Guadalupi, China through the Eyes of the West: From Marco Polo to the Last Emperor, trans. A. B. A., Milan (Vercelli, Italy: White Star, 2004), 310. 14  Montalto de Jesus, Historic Macao, 343.

4  VIEWS OF EUROPEANS OTHER THAN FRENCH 

37

Dobel (1772–1852) reported that opium was transported in broad daylight publicly in the small street of Macao around 1833. Then it was transported from Macao to Canton in unique boats, called “opiumiers,” large armed ships crewed by thirty or forty men. Opiumiers were considered as a highly sure transport means. People used them to send considerable values in currency to Macao and believed the money would arrive safely at the destination. Macao was allowed to import ten boxes of opium for medical use purposes each year, but it, in reality, imported four thousand boxes annually. The smuggling of opium thrived in Macao, and unfortunately, Chinese mandarins, from the low-ranking ones to the powerful ones, participated in the fraud, although the Chinese government issued ordinances to punish with death penalty any individuals who carried opium.15 The observation was one of the general Western observations on the responsibility that the Chinese themselves should take concerning the opium crisis that the country suffered. Dobel also used an example to outline the relationship between the Chinese government in Guangdong and the Portuguese in Macao in the first half of the nineteenth century. The Chinese government intended to negotiate an amnesty with a famous pirate on the south coast of Guangdong and begged the Portuguese settlers to be the intermediary. Finally, the negotiations were conducted, and the pardon was accorded to the pirate who put down his weapons under the Portuguese’s guarantee.16 Numerous texts record that the Portuguese assisted the Chinese authorities with eliminating the pirates on the South China coast. This incident was an excellent example of this from a different perspective: the Portuguese settlers did not use forces but acted as an independent and credible third party. Collaborating with the Chinese to combat the pirates was critical because the Portuguese justified their settlement in Macao for centuries. Unfortunately, according to Dobel’s account, the pirate mentioned above was still sentenced to death after the surrender.17

 Dobel, Sept années en Chine, 23.  Dobel, 29. 17  Du Halde, Description géographique, 234. 15 16

38 

J. XIE

Different Social Status of the Portuguese, Chinese, and Europeans Starting from the mid-eighteenth century, the distinction between the emigrants from Europe and the Portuguese and others of mixed race became a salient social fact in Macao. The former formed a superior social class “which no longer mixed on terms of equality with the Portuguese and others of mixed race,” while the British had built a super-caste of their own in particular.18 But the observers kept a serene image of Macao and a good impression of friendly Portuguese. The city of Macao (public buildings and defenses) remained the same as they were initially about three hundred years ago, and the Macaistas (the Macanese) generally had good knowledge of English and were viewed as kind and hospitable. It happened that other European countries challenged the Portuguese’s political position in Macao. According to Benjamin Lincoln Ball’s account, there were about fifteen thousand Portuguese in Macao. Still, their ruling authority over Macao was at the risk of being contested by the Anglophone. But, of course, the number of fifteen thousand Portuguese provided by Ball is not correct. There were about four thousand Portuguese nationals in Macao based on most of the accounts studied in this book. Furthermore, according to the census count numbers from 1830 to 1899, the total of registered residents with Portuguese nationality was below five thousand for most of the years.19 Ball described how the British confronted the Portuguese authority and how the incident ended up as a comic scene. The British forced the Portuguese to release a British prisoner who had infringed upon the Portuguese laws by persistently keeping his head covered at a Catholic ceremony and ignoring the warnings. In trying to obtain grace for this prisoner, the British claimed that Macao was not a territorial possession of the Portuguese and thus made the Portuguese legal enforcement over other Western nations illegitimate. Ball discussed as follows: […] and for which he was taken to prison by the police. The next day, an English man-of-war landed a party of marines, made an onset, disarmed the guard, shot one man, and forcibly released the prisoner. They contended, in  Montalto de Jesus, Historic Macao, 56.  Custodio N. P. S. Conim and Maria Fernanda Braganca Teixeira. Macau e a sua populacao, 1500–2000: aspectos demograficos, sociais e economicos (Macau: Direccao dos Servicos de Estatistica e Censos, 1998): 106. 18 19

4  VIEWS OF EUROPEANS OTHER THAN FRENCH 

39

their defense that Macao did not belong to the Portuguese, – that they were on China ground, &c, – as if Macao was not allowed an acknowledged government. The general opinion in China about the affair is, that the man behaved foolishly in getting into prison, and that the English behaved foolishly in getting the man out.20

The confrontation between the Portuguese and the British discussed above indicated the British refused to take the former seriously to some degree. In the late eighteenth century, the comments of the British on the Portuguese in Macao had already been harmful. One representative view was that of Lord Macartney (George Macartney, 1737–1806). He acknowledged that the Portuguese used to be thriving in Macao, but luxury followed opulence. The spirit of the Portuguese nation lost its vigor. The settlers of Macao had already been irritated by the effects of the local climate. They had lost their trade in Japan, and other countries thus lost an essential part of their wealth. Some of them still armed their ships and sent the garrisons to neighboring countries, while others chose to lend their names to trade agents in Canton in exchange for a small amount of payment. Here we see that the Portuguese occupied only a secondary role in trade. They, unfortunately, could not be compared with those trade agents in capital, credit, relations, and boldness. The English diplomat analyzed the mindset of the Portuguese and pointed out that they were too proud and arrogant to embrace the state of being a farmer or artisan. His surprise was great because no single plowman, worker, or merchant in Macao was Portuguese or of Portuguese origin. The Portuguese held that navigation and trade were superior to the farming and craft industry.21 Lord Macartney’s views correspond to the observations made by the French authors who observed that the Chinese controlled the commerce in Macao. Ironically, the British people living in Macao became the mockery of the Americans sojourning in Macao. They were compared with the Chinese by American visitors. The American diarist Harriet Low Hillard (1809–1877) lived in Macao from 1829 to 1833. She considered the British people significantly resembled the Chinese in many ways the Europeans usually did not behave or want to admit. Considering Harriet  B. L. Ball, Rambles, 413.  Lord Macartney, Voyage dans l’intérieur de la Chine et en Tartarie: fait dans les années 1792, 1793 et 1794, traduit de l’anglais, avec des notes, par J. Castéra, tome 5 (Paris: Chez F. Buisson, imprimeur-libraire, 1799): 6–7. 20 21

40 

J. XIE

Low Hillard and her aunt were the first American women to travel to the interior of China, they had acquired a certain amount of knowledge of China and its people. In her diary, the young American lady from Boston stated that a man thoroughly English, somewhat aristocratic, liked old customs. In this regard, she considered that the English had features in common with the Chinese. The English tended to have the same mentality as the Chinese and Macao was a confusing city. These were some of the interesting conclusions that Harriet Low Hillard drew when staying in Macao. She considered that the English were like the Chinese, and “even though their reason tells them they are wrong, they [the English] stick to old habits.” She continued to denounce that a particular Englishman tended to have prejudice like all others, without knowing the specific thing, such as Unitarianism.22 As a young woman from the new continent who probably did not attach much to the old European tradition and European exploration, Hillard criticized both Portuguese and Englishmen residing in Macao. As to the Portuguese, Hillard commented that Portuguese and Lascars lived mixed with the Chinese and other races, spoke the mixture of languages, and were foolish people “content to live on the earth while they were permitted.” Hearing a variety of languages created another image that is “the confusion of Babel.” Hillard used the term “confusion,” which points to the identity of Macao as a Portuguese settlement yet listening to the Chinese authorities from time to time. As to the English, Hillard considered it necessary to “treat them with some reserve” as they were “a good-for-nothing set of rascals. […] but all they care about is eating, drinking, and frolicking.”23 On the contrary, she expressed more or less sympathy with the Chinese and considered that they appeared to be the most united people and would not “accommodate a foreigner by beating down their own people.”24 From a third perspective, utterly different from the Chinese one and the European one, this unique American view examined Macao and the people residing in Macao regardless of their races.

22  Harriet (Low) Hillard, My Mother’s Journal; a Young Lady’s Diary of Five Years Spent in Manila, Macao, and the Cape of Good Hope from 1829–1834, ed. Katharine Hillard (Boston: G. H. Ellis, 1900), 170. 23  Hillard, My Mother’s Journal, 40. 24  Hillard, 33.

4  VIEWS OF EUROPEANS OTHER THAN FRENCH 

41

In most of the literature written during this period, the inferiority of the Chinese was spotted and recognized. Chinese of the lower classes in Macao were miserable and dirty. Overall, the Chinese started to gamble young and became addicted to it nearly until the last hours of their lives. The Chinese referred to the foreigners as Fanqui (番鬼).25 In this regard, the Europeans’ opinions were various. They did not agree with each other as they took this epithet very differently. Some Europeans would instead interpret this term as a foreign spirit as they did not want to believe that the Chinese would apply the term “foreign devils” to foreigners and Fanqui meant foreign spirit or alien nature.26 On the other hand, others voluntarily and humorously called themselves Fanqui. For example, in his book The ‘Fan Kwae’ at Canton before Treaty Days 1825–1844, William C. Hunter referred to himself as a Fan Kwae. In La Chine ouverte, the narrator Old Nick also presented himself as a Fan-­ koueï who disguised as a Chinese student to travel in the interior of China safely. The latter’s attitude reflects a kind of Western confidence and humor. In the mid-nineteenth century, during the period after the Treaty of Nanjing (also Treaty of Nanking, 南京條約), China started to open its gates gradually, and Macao was no longer a commercial center but relegating its importance to Hong Kong as an outdated European colony. After that, however, it received more visitors, including those like Harriet Low Hillard. With more visitors arriving, more observations were made, more accounts on Macao were written, and more hybrid yet rich representations of Macao were formulated. And for some observers, Macao was still a place demonstrating the courage and entrepreneurship of early European explorers: silent yet a tangible witness of European qualities.27

References Ball, B. L. Rambles in Eastern Asia, including China and Manilla, during Several Years’ Residence: with Notes of the Voyage to China, Excursions in Manilla, Hong-King, Canton, Shanghai, Ningpoo, Amoy, Fouchow, and Macao. Boston: James French and Co., 1855. Ball, J. Dyer. Macao, the Holy City: The Gem of the Orient Earth. Canton: China Baptist Publication Society, 1905. 25  Fanqui, Fan-koueï, Fan Kwae, Fan-Kwae, Fan Kwei and Fan-kwei are variant spellings of the transliteration of 番鬼 (foreign devil). 26  B. L. Ball, Rambles, 411–17. 27  William, Bits, 152.

42 

J. XIE

Coates, Austin. Macao and the British 1637–1842. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009. Conim, Custodio N. P. S., and Maria Fernanda Braganca Teixeira. Macau e a sua populacao, 1500–2000: aspectos demograficos, sociais e economicos. Macau: Direccao dos Servicos de Estatistica e Censos, 1998. Dobel, Pierre. Sept années en Chine: nouvelles observations sur cet empire: l’archipel Indo-Chinois, les Philippines et les îles Sandwich, traduit du russe par le prince Emmanuel Galitzin, nouv. éd. Paris: Librairie d’Amyot, éditeur, 1842. Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste. Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l’Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise: enrichie des cartes générales et particulières de ces pays, de la carte générale & des cartes particulières du Thibet, & de la Corée, & ornée d’un grand nombre de figures & de vignettes gravées en taille-douce. Paris: P.G. le Mercier: 1735. Guadalupi, Gianni. China through the Eyes of the West: From Marco Polo to the Last Emperor, translated by A. B. A., Milan. Vercelli, Italy: White Star, 2004. Hillard, Harriet (Low). My Mother’s Journal; a Young Lady’s Diary of Five Years Spent in Manila, Macao, and the Cape of Good Hope from 1829–1834. Edited by Katharine Hillard. Boston: G. H. Ellis, 1900. Ljungstedt, Andrew. A Historical Sketch of the Portuguese Settlements in China. Boston: James Munroe & Co., 1836. Lord Macartney. Voyage dans l’intérieur de la Chine et en Tartarie: fait dans les années 1792, 1793 et 1794, traduit de l’anglais, avec des notes, par J. Castéra, tome 5. Paris: Chez F. Buisson, imprimeur-libraire, 1799. Montalto de Jesus, C. A. Historic Macao. Hongkong: Kelly & Walsh, Limited, 1902. Nieuhof, Johannes. L’Ambassade de la Compagnie orientale des provinces unies vers l’empereur de la Chine, ou Grand Cam de Tartarie, faite par les Srs. Pierre de Goyer, & Jacob de Keyser. Leyde: Pour J. de Meurs, 1665. Oliphant, Laurence. Narrative of the Earl of Elgin’s Mission to China and Japan in the Years 1857,′58, '59. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1860. William, G. Hunter. Bits of Old China. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co., 1885.

CHAPTER 5

Theoretical Reference

The world presents itself and images and words represent it. Representation is the source of knowledge and truth, even though it sometimes refuses to tend toward identity in the name of fiction.1 A whole theory of representation and mimesis lies behind the French views of Macao in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We also notice a type of orientalism mingled with colonialism in the representation. First, it is about how the West viewed the East, although Macao was a European settlement in the Far East, Macao contained lots of Asian elements primarily. Second, the image of Macao is about how the new rising European colonists in the nineteenth century viewed old European settlements in the Far East and their reflections on its decline and the reasons for its failure. Third, the image of Macao is about how the West, here represented by the French, considered the mingling of cultures which is in this study reflected in the particular category of the population of the Macanese, called a social caste by the French writers. Fourth, some writers repeatedly commented on the settlers in the texts, criticizing their helplessness or praising their virtues. Edward W. Said’s work Orientalism is probably the most critical work on Western views of Islamic culture in the Middle East and their intricate relations to the West. The essential question is how a particular culture is viewed, represented, and interpreted by a different culture. Cultural 1

 Alexandre Gefen, La Mimésis (Paris: GF Flammarion, 2003), 38.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Xie, The French in Macao in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Chinese Literature and Culture in the World, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94665-4_5

43

44 

J. XIE

understanding and interpretation certainly do not stop at the level of fictional or non-fictional writings in the real world. Orientalism involves the Western philosophy of learning and interpreting different cultures, or precisely cultures different than its own culture. Orientalism also involves colonialization and imperialism, which exported European ideologies and politics to the Orient. As a literary critique, Orientalism contains interpretations and commentaries of literary texts written by well-known Western authors such as Flaubert, Nerval, Chateaubriand, Ernest Renan, and Edward William Lane. These texts are essential to derive knowledge of the Orient. Meanwhile, Said argued: Orientalism acquired the Orient as literally and as widely as possible […]. The Orient, in short, would be converted from the personal, sometimes garbled testimony of intrepid voyagers and residents into impersonal definition by a whole array of scientific workers. It would be converted from the consecutive experience of individual research into a sort of imaginary museum without walls, where everything gathered from the huge distances and varieties of Oriental culture became categorically Oriental. It would be reconverted, restructured from the bundle of fragments brought back piecemeal by explorers, expeditions, commissions, armies, and merchants into lexicographical, bibliographical, departmentalized, and textualized Orientalist sense.2

This statement acknowledges that accounts and narratives of non-­ literary figures, such as explorers, merchants, diplomats, travelers, and missionaries, are equally important for understanding history. As discussed in the paragraphs above, Hillard’s My Mother’s Journal: A Young Lady’s Diary of Five Years Spent in Manila, Macao, and the Cape of Good Hope From 1829–1834 describes in considerable detail the life led by the Westerners in Macao in the nineteenth century. In the following chapters, we will argue that accounts, such as Ludovic de Beauvoir’s text, provide detailed and vital information on the coolie trade in Macao. In his travel account Le Tour du monde en deux cent quarante jours (1893), Ernest Michel affirmed that he wrote only the notes of a voyage taken on-site from day to day and the impression of the moment was all there. The notes more effectively made the reality come out even though they lacked the methodological arrangement.3 This book, based on various ­documents 2 3

 Edward W. Said, Orientalism (London and Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978), 166.  Michel, Tour du monde, 10.

5  THEORETICAL REFERENCE 

45

written by authors with different professional backgrounds, gives a meaningful overview of Macao at this particular time. What is profoundly different from Said’s study is that French views of Macao are not entirely views of the East by the West. This difference is due to Macao’s unique historical, cultural, and political positions as a Portuguese territory in over three hundred years, and precisely, a land rented to the Portuguese before 1849. Macao is long considered as a blending of Western and East elements. For this reason, we examined in the previous paragraphs what Macao was: China? Not China? A Portuguese colony? Part of Guangdong Province? Was it an independent city-state other than China? A Portuguese city? Macao’s identity was confusing sometimes. French authors wrote on Macao, examined it, and at the same time tried to probe the relationship of the West to the East. In almost every document, whether travel narratives or official reports, we see the commentaries on the Portuguese administration, its success, its failure, and its relationship with the Chinese. French views of Macao also have a sense of examining Western culture within Western civilization itself, which is different from Orientalism. In this regard, the concepts of le regard (the gaze), developed by philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Michel Foucault, constitute another theoretical basis of this study. The observations of Macao, made by the French, form a unique type of postcolonial gaze which, imbued with admiration, reminiscence and critique, illustrates how Western culture examined itself, here represented as Portuguese culture, or the outcome of this very culture, after being transplanted in a land far from the homeland. A significant number of the titles studied in this research are travel accounts. Travel accounts have historical values in presenting evidence derived from personal experience, and as historical sources travel accounts started as early as The Story of Sinuhe, an exciting adventure story set in ancient Egypt around 1850 BCE. The story tells a human being his life, passion, and emotion but yields important information on political and social conditions of the time. The observations made by travelers are usually recorded with meticulousness, objectiveness, and straightforwardness. But, the historical value of the travel account varies considerably. In the early literature introducing China to the West, travel accounts constitute unique sources of information on the actual circumstances those travelers lived during a particular period. A typical example is The Travels of Marco Polo, published in the late thirteenth century.

46 

J. XIE

Travel accounts invite the authors’ Western contemporaries and the posterity to undertake virtual travels or travel in spirit. The significance of travel accounts is highly recognized as they inform and educate and make the unknown known to those who did not see places on-site. For example, although Forgues’ La Chine ouverte: aventure d’un Fan-Koueï dans le pays de Tsin provides a relatively sketchy image of China, today’s scholars highly praise the contribution of Forgues and consider he was “a pioneer in the task of acquainting Europeans with her geography, climate, history, customs, politics” when “China was still a comparatively unknown land just over a hundred years ago.”4 The illustrations enhance travel accounts’ function of making the unknown known. Auguste Borget, the illustrator of La Chine ouverte, painted the southeast coast of China considerably. The contemporaries from Borget’s province considered that they were genuinely grateful to the painters who introduced all the unknown wonders to those who could not observe the world with their own eyes and pointed out that Borget ranked first among these talented artists who offered this service. The commentaries are as follows: Son crayon habile nous promène dans les Indes et nous ouvre la Chine, cette Chine que nous ne connaissons guère que par les paravents-Pompadour, et dans laquelle on ne songeait pas alors à faire une expédition. M. Borget a fait désormais justice des Chinois de convention, et nous connaissons aujourd’hui ce peuple oriental pris sur nature. […] En parcourant ainsi les œuvres de M. Borget, on arrive à croire qu’il n’y a qu’une contrée au monde, la Chine. […] Et plus tard on se surprend à y promener ses rêveries, comme on le ferait d’un pays qu’on aurait jadis visité soi-même. His skillful pencil walks us in the Indies and opens up China to us, this China that we hardly know except through the Pompadour folding screens and in which we did not yet think of mounting an expedition. Mr. Borget has from now then made the justice of conventional Chinese, and we know today this Oriental people taken from nature. […] In browsing Mr. Borget’s paintings in this way, we get to believe that there is only one country in the world, China. […] And later, we find ourselves walking in our reveries, as we would do with a country that we would once have visited ourselves.

The comments shed light on the importance of travel accounts and travel albums in making the West better understand China. The most important 4  Moira Anna (Curr) Helgesen, “Forgues: Nineteenth Century Anglophile” (PhD diss., University of Colorado, 1955), 23, ProQuest (AAT 0016937).

5  THEORETICAL REFERENCE 

47

painting on Macao that Borget finished is Vue d’un grand temple chinois à Macao, completed around 1840. It paints the A-Ma Temple (媽閣廟), the oldest temple in Macao, located in the Chinese town, north of Macao. The painting depicts a busy square where residents were gathering in groups for different business and leisure purposes. Flags were fluttering in the wind, and the colorful, majestic façade of the A-Ma temple stood near big trees typical of Macao. The four prominent Chinese characters (國庇 護民), literally meaning “the country putting the people under its wing,” symbolizes Chinese sovereignty over Macao. The sky was blue, decorated with beautiful white clouds. With a closer look, the far grey background represents Macao’s famous Penha Hill (Colina da Penha) and the Chapel of Our Lady of Penha (Capela de Nossa Senhora da Penha) on the hill. To the east of the church, there is a fortress located on a higher elevation. The chapel and the fort constitute a good indication of the Portuguese presence and involvement in Macao (Image 5.1). Painted by Auguste Borget around 1840, the oil painting Vue d’un grand temple chinois measures ca 75 by 135 centimeters and depicts the A-Ma Temple, the well-known Chinese temple located in the southwest of the Macao peninsula. The temple, built in the second half of the fifteenth century, was one of the oldest in Macao where the sacred sea goddess Mazu (媽祖) was worshiped. It was thus representative of Chinese architecture in Macao, and Borget was aware that painting this temple was drawing Chinese culture. In depicting the gateway of the temple and a variety of human activities taking place in the plaza in front of the temple in detail, the painting reveals the architectural style of a Chinese temple and restores a community life in nineteenth-century Macao. The artwork was exhibited at the Salon in 1841 and achieved enormous success. Due to its high artistic and ethnographic value, the French king Louis-Philippe purchased the painting for his own use. Borget’s meticulous observations and detailed descriptions have made him one of the most well-known Western artists who portrayed the south coast of China in the nineteenth century with their brushes. This painting is highly expressive. The unknown was immediately rendered known; the invisible became visible. The painting portrays the

48 

J. XIE

Image 5.1  Vue d’un grand temple chinois à Macao (View of a Great Chinese Temple in Macao) by Auguste Borget. (Source: Notice d’œuvre, Musée du Berry, Réseau des Musées de Bourges. Courtesy of Musée du Berry, Réseau des Musées de Bourges, Orléans, France)

parallel existence of two communities in Macao: the Chinese community represented by the A-Ma Temple and the Portuguese one with the Chapel of Our Lady of Penha in the background. The French painter’s sharp observation perfectly indicates the nature of Macao as a land settled by the Portuguese. Another work La Chine et les chinois (1842), a travel album by Auguste Borget, is typical in representing China. The album features two lithographs by Eugène Cicéri (1813–1890), based on Borget’s drawings: Macao vu des forts de Huangshan (Macao seen from the Forts of Huangshan) and Camp chinois près de la porte barrière de Macao (Chinese Camp near the Barrier Gate of Macao). The first lithograph Macao vu des forts de Huangshan depicts a burial scene of Chinese people at near distance, forts at a medium distance, and the city of Macao at a far distance, particularly the Praia Grande. The burial scene describes a Chinese man digging a tomb, several Chinese persons at different ages weeping and kneeling in front of a coffin, and sacrificial animals. Camp chinois près de la porte barrière de Macao depicts how Chinese soldiers were camping near the gate which separated Macao and Guangdong. The drawings provide

5  THEORETICAL REFERENCE 

49

vivid descriptions of Macao and particular activities being undertaken by local civilians at a specific location. Travel albums are a type of travel literature and are more expressive in discussing the unknown than travel accounts written merely in words. The authors studied in this book tried to draw a clear picture of Macao to their Western contemporaries through words and visual materials such as engravings scattered in the contents. However, like each type of historical document, the functions of travel accounts as historical documents are contested. The reasons are that the observations made by travelers could be partial, superficial, or even biased as the travelers usually were not able to see each aspect of the societies they visited. For example, the total population of Portuguese nationals reported in Benjamin Lincoln Ball’s book is incorrect. In addition, the observations could be influenced by the interests that motivated the observers’ travels. For example, the French authors studied in this book usually did not provide details on the Chinese part of Macao. It is quite probable that they were either not interested in knowing this part of Macao or could not penetrate the Chinese society. Thus, in their depiction, the Chinese section of Macao is hardly visible or presented with a veiled image, vague and mysterious. We cannot deny the representative power of travel literature by Western travelers in enacting over what they surveyed in the times of colonialism, “not to mention the Western imperial endeavors the travel genre is said to both express and facilitate.” Travelers of all kinds, past, present, and from many directions, comparatively produce knowledge about others and themselves.5 We believe that the political circumstances will influence accounts by French travelers in Macao at the time. In other words, the statements are not perfect. However, their opinions on the oldest “Western colony” in the Far East are priceless testimonies. They invite reflections on the vicissitudes of world civilization of which colonialism was undoubtedly a component: China was regarded as a powerful country and admired by the West. It then was in decline and later was colonized by the West. When these authors wrote about China and Macao, some adopted a more imperialist voice while others did not. In addition, as travelers are not professionally trained writers, which is the case with these French authors, their observations are from all perspectives. The natures of their texts and tones of their writings vary significantly. Overall, their accounts draw a relatively 5  Roxanne L. Euben, Journeys to the Other Shore: Muslim and Western Travelers in Search of Knowledge (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006), 8.

50 

J. XIE

impartial picture of the lands they visited and thus mitigate the insufficiency of individual accounts, which could be superficial, limited, and even biased. Travel accounts are powerful in representing the world. Furthermore, according to Roxanne L.  Euben, travel literature is “particularly transgressive of such generic boundaries, promiscuously traversing the literary and historical, fantastic and ethnographic, quite independent of the stated motivations or intentions of the writer.”6 For instance, La Chine ouverte: aventures d’un Fan-Koueï dans le pays de Tsin is such a book. It is composed of historical writings on China, a fictional travel story of a British medical assistant who traveled with a high-ranking Chinese official in China, and fantastic pictures illustrating the various aspects of Chinese society. For a long time, China had not permitted Western foreigners to travel freely in the interior of China. It was only after the 1858 Treaty of Tianjin (also Treaty of Tientsin, 天津條約) was signed between Britain and the Qing that foreigners were given specific permissions to travel in China. Article IX of the Treaty of Tianjin states that British subjects were authorized to travel, for their pleasure or purposes of trade, to all parts of the interior of China, under the passports issued by their Consuls and countersigned by the local Chinese authorities. As a result, more Europeans could come to China, and more travel accounts were written. The importance of travel accounts by the foreigners who visited China in the midnineteenth century in recording Chinese society in this period and transmitting the knowledge of the country is thus highlighted. But, as we know that gender plays a role in the power of representation of travel accounts, we did not see the voices of female French travelers among the texts we study here. The lack of travel literature written by female authors is because the Qing strictly prohibited European women from entering China. The European women were only allowed to stay in Macao. After the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing was signed, European women were able to stay in the five trade ports legally. For this reason, My Mother’s Journal: A Young Lady’s Diary of Five Years Spent in Manila, Macao, and the Cape of Good Hope From 1829–1834, completed by Harriet Low Hillard, an American woman of letters and diarist, is noticeably important regarding the function of travel literature from a female voice’s perspective. Colonialism must be addressed, although Macao could not be regarded as a colony in the sense of modern political science in nearly three hundred 6

 Euben, Journeys, 139.

5  THEORETICAL REFERENCE 

51

years, that is, from 1557 to the mid-nineteenth century. We understand that the origin of the term “colony” is traced back to the Latin word “colōnus,” which means “farmer.” The colonial practice involved the settlement of a population in a new territory or the emigration of people. The Portuguese settlement of Macao in the mid-sixteenth century can be viewed as a colony in this sense, and the Portuguese settled in Macao as traders. The meaning of the term “colony” evolved in the following centuries and gradually became a territory occupied by other states. A definition of colony outlined by A Dictionary of Politics is as follows: An area of land which, with its inhabitants, is entirely subject to the rule of an independent state, of which it does not form an integral part. It is not itself an independent state, though it may, according to its degree of political maturity, be given some self-government. A grant of self-government and of a representative legislature does not prevent the ruling state from disallowing any legislation of which it may disapprove. Colonies have usually originated in settlements by traders or explorers of territories unoccupied by any other independent states, or in conquests of territories already occupied by other states.7

The Portuguese traders and explorers set foot in Macao, a small fishing village in the Guangdong province. Macao was not a land uninhabited when it first welcomed the arrival of the Portuguese. In 1277, the emperor and soldiers of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279), chased after by the army of the newly established Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), retired to the Cross Gate Waters (十字門水域) in Macao, China’s southernmost point. The two armies then had a battle in this area, often referred to as the Battle of the Cross Gate Waters, and the Southern Song was defeated. The Southern Song continued to withdraw along the coast of Guangdong and fought several battles against the Yuan. Finally, on March 19, 1279, the Yuan defeated the last military defense of the Southern Song court in Yashan (崖山), Guangdong, marking the demise of the Song dynasty in Chinese history. In exile, the Southern Song court and its army resided temporarily in the area nowadays called Macao, and after that, this area started to receive inhabitants. The A-Ma Temple, the oldest temple in Macao, was built in 1488 during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Therefore, before the arrival of the Portuguese explorers, Macao was not 7  Florence Elliott and Michael Summerskill, A Dictionary of Politics (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1957), 67.

52 

J. XIE

an entirely uninhabited territory nor unoccupied by independent states. The Portuguese formed a colony in this small place which was so far away from the Chinese capitals, whether Beijing (alternatively Peking, 北京) or Nanjing (formerlly Nanking, 南京). In China, people hold that the heaven is high and the emperor is far (天高皇帝遠). This famous Chinese saying means that the Chinese emperor could hardly control his empire’s remote frontiers. For centuries, the Chinese central government had difficulty enforcing its foreign policies on the Portuguese settlers as Macao was located on the southern tip of the vast Chinese territory. Primarily due to this reason, the Portuguese were allowed to stay and use the small peninsula as a trading port. Paul Pelliot used the expression “un état dans l’état” (a state in the state) to describe the early days of Macao. After 1549, the Portuguese freely settled in Hao-king Ngao (濠镜澳), Macao’s real geographic Chinese name. In Hao-king Ngao, which was part of Xiang shan (香山), the Portuguese built walls and houses and constructed a state within the state.8 The statement of a state in the state quite truly reflected the political nature of the Portuguese settlement for centuries. It had administrative rights with the Portuguese governing the Portuguese community. The city had an organizational system, but they could be driven out of Macao at any time if their relationship with China became worse. Starting from 1573, China required the Portuguese settlers to pay an annual rent of five hundred taels in addition to fifteen taels of additional taxes (火耗銀 in Chinese). In 1849, the Portuguese governor João Maria Ferreira do Amaral (1803–1849) refused to pay it, encouraged by the advancing Western colonialism in China.9 In nearly two hundred and eighty years, Macao was rented to the Portuguese until the mid-nineteenth century. Therefore, the case of Macao was not a question of one territory occupied by other states, and the settlement did not involve colonial conquest by military power because the Portuguese and Chinese did not have military confrontations throughout history. The sovereignty over Macao was in the hands of the Chinese, and Macao was not a colony in modern political science. However, the Portuguese settlers had the right to autonomy or a particular type of self-government regarding the Portuguese community  Pelliot, “Ouvrage,” 67–68.  Qichen Huang 黃啟臣, “澳門主權問題的歷史審視 (1553–1999)” “Aomen Zhuquan Wenti de Lishi Shenshi (1553–1999)” [A Historical Retrospect of the Sovereignty over Macao], 中山大學學報 Zhongshan Daxue Xuebao, no. 3 (1999):15–24. 8 9

5  THEORETICAL REFERENCE 

53

in Macao. Scholars generally agree that 1557 to 1849 is the foundation of the Portuguese settlement in Macao, and from 1849 to 1974 is Macao’s colonial period. In 1974, the revolution of carnations took place in Lisbon, and Portugal became a democratic republic. The Portuguese Constitution of 1976 changed Macao’s political status to a Chinese territory under the Portuguese administration. In December 1999, Macao’s sovereignty was handed over to China. The above discussion gives a quick overview of the evolvement of Macao’s political status in history. It grew from an almost uninhabited fishing village welcoming the Portuguese traders in the sixteenth century to the Macao Special Administration of China late in the twentieth century. Certainly, Macao was tied closely to China and Portugal in many regards in the past four hundred years. In the nineteenth century, Macao’s political status changed significantly. Why? It was due to the change of the international political landscape, as noted earlier. Western colonialism gradually evolved into imperialism and gained imperialist characters. According to D. K. Fieldhouse, “in the nineteenth century ‘colonialism’ was used to indicate the general condition of overseas dependencies or the colonial system as a whole, but without any specifically favorable or unfavorable meaning.”10 When the colonial expansion of the British empire reached tropical Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, imperialism appeared and was used to characterize the colonial organization in this period. Fieldhouse also considered four reasons for the undertaking of complete, comprehensive colonial administration: the need to raise taxes, security, the ambitions of soldiers and administrators, and the civilizing mission.11 Did one of these statements apply to Macao? Macao’s situation was a different case in some sense. In nearly three hundred years before the 1887 Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking (中葡和好 通商條約), the Portuguese were the settlers of Macao. Still, they did not exercise the colonial administration of Macao, as discussed in the paragraph above. Shortly after taking office in 1846, the Portuguese governor Amaral seized the opportunity presented by the outcome of the First Opium War and claimed the entire colonial administration of Macao. He cut Macao’s political ties with China through the refusal of paying the annual rent in 1849, took other measures to strengthen Macao as a Portuguese colony, such as requiring Chinese residents in Macao to pay ground rent, poll tax,  Fieldhouse, Colonialism, 6.  Fieldhouse, 22–23.

10 11

54 

J. XIE

and property tax, expelling Qing officials from Macao, and harming Qing customs. These acts declared Portugal’s refusal to accept Chinese sovereignty over Macao. French authors recorded in their writings that the Chinese were not allowed to bury their dead fellow Chinese in Macao in the second half of the nineteenth century. Instead, their tombs had to be located on the side of Xiangshan (香山). Thus, Macao can be considered an overseas dependency of Portugal after the mid-nineteenth century, or precisely after 1887. And the Portuguese tried to infuse into the Chinese community the notion that Macao was foreign territory for the Chinese. But the Portuguese left the governance of the Chinese community in the hands of the Chinese. Probably it was due to the tradition that the Portuguese did not rule directly the Chinese. The governance style thus formed was the well-known Chinese-Foreign divide.12 French authors recorded in their writings two separate towns in Macao: one was the Portuguese, and the other was the Chinese. In other words, the Portuguese kept their own territory within the sphere of Macao. As a result, complete cultural and political assimilation did not happen. Alternatively, the Portuguese and the Chinese might have a tacit agreement that the Portuguese shall leave the Chinese affairs into the hands of the Chinese themselves even after 1887. This political approach marks a unique style of colonization. It also explains the peaceful co-existence of the two different cultures on this small island for most of the time after the aliens settled here. The French authors’ writings represent a role that the voice of ordinary people in the making of history, argued by Ginzburg Carlo and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Macao’s history is closely related to Western colonialization in a broad sense. Its existence honors the legacy of Western exploration at the Age of Discovery. It is in a cave in Macao that the great Portuguese poet Luís Vaz de Camões (ca. 1525–1580) wrote part of the Portuguese epic poem Os Lusíadas. Every French author worshiped the statue of the poet and admired his poetry. Pay their respect to Camões transmits a deep symbolic meaning to honor and remember the spirit and glory of Western exploration. On the other hand, the change in Macao’s political status in the nineteenth century echoes the evolvement of colonialism in this period and its impact on the ancient European settlement in Asia. 12  Jingzhen Xie, “The Octagonal Pavilion Library of Macao: A Study in Uniqueness,” Information & Culture 52, no. 1 (2017): 118.

5  THEORETICAL REFERENCE 

55

references Borget, Auguste. “Vue d’un grand temple chinois à Macao.” Notice d’oeuvre, Musée du Berry, Réseau des Musées de Bourges. Courtesy of Musée du Berry, Réseau des Musées de Bourges, Orléans, France. Elliott, Florence, and Michael Summerskill. A Dictionary of Politics. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1957. Euben, Roxanne L. Journeys to the Other Shore: Muslim and Western Travelers in Search of Knowledge. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006. Fieldhouse, D.  K. Colonialism 1870–1945: An Introduction. London: George Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981. Foucault, Michel. Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison. Paris : Gallimard, 1975. Gefen, Alexandre. La Mimésis. Paris: GF Flammarion, 2003. Ginzburg, Carlo. The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth Century Miller. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980. Helgesen, Moira Anna (Curr). “Forgues: Nineteenth Century Anglophile.” PhD diss., University of Colorado, 1955. ProQuest (AAT 0016937). Huang, Qichen 黃啟臣. “澳門主權問題的歷史審視 (1553–1999)” “Aomen Zhuquan Wenti de Lishi Shenshi (1553–1999)” [A Historical Retrospect of the Sovereignty over Macao]. 中山大學學報 Zhongshan Daxue Xuebao, no. 3 (1999): 15–24. Michel, Ernest. Le Tour du monde en 240 jours. Limoges: Eugène Ardant et Cie, éditeurs, 1893. Pelliot, Paul. “Un Ouvrage sur les premiers temps de Macao.” T’oung Pao 31, no. 1/2 (1934): 58–94. Said, Edward W. Orientalism. London and Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978. Sartre, Jean-Paul. L’Être et le néant. Essai d’ontologie phénoménologique. Paris : Gallimard, 1943. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Selected Subaltern Studies. London: Oxford University Press, 1988. Xie, Jingzhen. “The Octagonal Pavilion Library of Macao: A Study in Uniqueness.” Information & Culture 52, no. 1 (2017): 114–37.

CHAPTER 6

The Scope of the French Views

Literary studies, that is, textual analysis and close reading, will be used as the primary methodology to derive knowledge of Macao and the cultural exchange between the East and the West in a broad sense during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The authors who wrote on Macao should have located themselves regarding Macao. Each should have a position which, translated into his text, includes “the kind of narrative voice he adopts, the type of structure he builds, the kinds of images, themes, motifs that circulate in this text.”1 The items to study are background/setting, style, language, historical and social circumstances, and narration. The types of writing to examine include history studies, reports, fiction, travel accounts, and diaries. The aim of the study is not to research the correctness or accuracy of these writings vis-à-vis reality or history, but to examine the representations, the images, and truism as well as their significance in helping us understand the history of Macao, the cultural exchange, and colonialism during this particular period.

1

 Said, Orientalism, 20.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Xie, The French in Macao in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Chinese Literature and Culture in the World, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94665-4_6

57

58 

J. XIE

Authors, Texts, and Social and Historical Contexts The texts selected shall all address Macao directly. In this case, nearly all the texts—materials of the research—are primary sources. The authors’ backgrounds shall be explored and studied as they are linked to the purposes of their narratives: Who were they? Why did they come to Macao? For example, Auguste Borget (1808–1877), illustrator of La Chine ouverte: aventures d’un Fan-Koueï dans le pays de Tsin, was a French artist and a close friend of Honoré de Balzac. From 1836 to 1840, he traveled extensively to North America, South America, the East, the Far East, and Oceania and painted everything from observations, including Macao. In 1838, Auguste Borget landed in the Pearl River Delta region and stayed one year and a half in China, including eight months in Macao. Auguste Borget was one of the first European painters to draw Hong Kong, Macao, Canton, and other places. The pictorial value and ethnographic importance of his works were highly appreciated, as evidenced by the fact that in 1841 the French king Louis-Philippe purchased his painting Vue d’un grand temple chinois à Macao (View of a Great Chinese Temple in Macao). Auguste Borget himself appreciated Chinese culture and regarded the A-Ma Temple in Macao as one of the most beautiful architectural works in the world. August Borget’s drawings render Macao’s exotic yet realistic image and provide valuable information on life in Macao to contemporary Europeans due to their ethnographic value.

Images and Comparisons In the authors’ descriptions and commentaries, the images of Macao gradually took shape. Macao was essentially composed of two cultures, two towns (two communities), and two peoples. As affirmed by Auguste Haussmann, “Macao se divise en deux parties bien distinctes, la ville Portuguaise et la ville chinoise” (Macao is divided into two well distinct parts, the Portuguese town and the Chinese town).2 In the texts, the two towns were often referred to as the Portuguese town (la ville portuguaise) and the Chinese town (la ville chinoise). To be precise, the Chinese and Portuguese lived separately yet also together in Macao. Some French authors used the term “ville” to describe the two parts of Macao. Translating “ville” into “town” than “city” is more appropriate considering the size of 2  Auguste Haussmann, Voyage en Chine Cochinchine Inde et Malaisie. Première partie. – Voyage. – Du cap au nord de la Chine (Paris: Desessart éditeur; G. Olivier, 1847): 170.

6  THE SCOPE OF THE FRENCH VIEWS 

59

Macao. In this regard, others used the term “cité” which means “town” in English. Therefore, “town” shall be the appropriate term to describe the two parts of Macao. In La Chine ouverte: aventures d’un Fan-Koueï dans le pays de Tsin, the author first provided vivid descriptions that brought out a European city and then inserted a picture of a Chinese market in Macao. However, he did not point out explicitly that a comparison was made here. The engraving Marché à Macao (Market in Macao) designed by Auguste Borget shows a Chinese Macao only because the Portuguese are invisible on this market. No traces of a European city can be identified (Image 6.1). The illustration in black and white, completed by Auguste Borget, depicts a Chinese market in Macao and tries to represent a realist scene. However, the unrecognizable Chinese characters painted on the pillars and beam of the archway transmit a sense of surreal ambiguity. Overall, the market is portrayed as a crowded and noisy place. The drawing of such a scene corresponds to most of the descriptions of the Chinese community by the French authors studied in this book: the community was crowded and noisy and such an ambiance represented life and vigor, particularly compared to the quiet and lifeless Portuguese community. Used as an illustration in La Chine ouverte: aventures d’un Fan-Koueï dans le pays de Tsin which narrates a foreign devil’s travel in the interior of China, it represents the regard that a foreign traveler threw on this market. Sometimes both the Portuguese and Chinese towns were described, and a comparison was intentionally or unintentionally made. Other times, the Chinese town was wholly ignored or invisible. Even when both towns were described and discussed, more details were usually given to the Portuguese one. An important reason was that being Westerners, the French sojourned mainly in the Portuguese part and thus observed more of this part. Another reason was that the foreigner could not access each corner of Macao, as noted by Benjamin Lincoln Ball in his account, who stated that he visited all the places in Macao that were open to foreigners.3 This statement means that some areas were not accessible to the foreigner. The third reason might be that the Chinese community did not sufficiently draw the French authors’ attention. Some authors did not mention the Chinese community in their texts or briefly summarized its characteristics. 3

 B. L. Ball, Rambles, 411–17.

60 

J. XIE

Image 6.1  Marché à Macao (Market in Macao) (Source: La Chine ouverte: aventures d’un Fan-Koueï dans le pays de Tsin by Old Nick (Paris: H. Fournier, 1845), 90–91, gallica.bnf.fr/Bibliothèque nationale de France. Courtesy of the National Library of France)

6  THE SCOPE OF THE FRENCH VIEWS 

61

Macao was a declining city. This group of observers nearly unanimously perceived a Macanese city whose prestige as a Portuguese enclave had significantly declined. As discussed previously, in the nineteenth century, the West demonstrated itself as a superior civilization and deployed its strength at the door of China or inside China. However, although Macao possessed a rich Western tradition, it did not rise together with the West or Western colonies in the Far East such as Hong Kong. Instead, it was recognized as an old European settlement that had stopped its development and reduced to a place where opium trade, coolie trade, and gambling were legalized to sustain the economy. All these businesses had nothing to do with the advancement of Western technology nor showed case the benefits yielded by the advance of Western civilization. On the other hand, Macao was a city whose glorious past positioned itself as an ancient Portuguese settlement in China with a rich European legacy. A vivid image was that Macao conserved big beautiful houses mirroring Western achievements in this region. But they were in bad shape, or their ownership had changed. The houses were possessed either by the newcomers, such as the British or local Chinese. In contrast to the downfall, a shining image of Macao was the poet Camões, his poetry, the garden, and the grotto named after his name. This Portuguese legacy, admired in almost every piece of the writings, constituted the only thing left valuable in Macao in the eyes of some writers. For example, Charles Hubert Lavollée discussed as follows: “La grotte de Camões sera peut-être un jour le dernier de la domination portugaise: la poésie de l’exil survivra aux monuments de la conquête et de la foi” (The Grotto of Camões will probably be one day the last Portuguese domination: the poetry of the exile will survive the monuments of the conquest and the faith).4 Thus, Macao’s positive and negative images tangled together to represent a place for lamentation, reminiscence, reverence, and criticism. Internal reasons and external reasons are in contrast. There were different causes for Macao’s remarkable decline. Internally, the Portuguese governance was first of all criticized for its ineffectiveness and being narrow-minded. Macao was no longer a settlement of a maritime power. No trade, no navigation, no courage. Macao had lost its prosperity and did not know how to revitalize its economy and culture. In some texts, the French considered themselves the Portuguese allies and acted as advisors to the latter. The French wanted to help! They blamed their allies relentlessly, 4

 Lavollée, Voyage en Chine, 243.

62 

J. XIE

nevertheless. Externally, the opening of China and the establishment of Hong Kong were the main reasons. Therefore, once again, Macao’s history is closely tied to China’s.

The Portuguese in Macao and the Macanese It is thought-provoking that the observers blamed the Portuguese and their descendants living in Macao for the fall of Macao. In their views, it was due to their inability that Macao helplessly lost its importance. But the Portuguese should be the best Westerners to understand China since they had been in Macao for over three hundred years. Said says that “knowledge about and knowledge of Orientals, their race, character, culture, history, tradition, society, and possibilities” were effective in helping Britain govern Egypt.5 Is it fair to say that the Portuguese in Macao, who possessed the knowledge of this nature, nevertheless did not perform well in the governance of Macao? It is hard to answer this question. It is worth noting that Macao is one of the last colonies in the world, retroceded to China in 1999. So, there is a lot to think about and analyze. When criticizing, comparing is usually a good method to justify the criticism. The French authors frequently compared the Portuguese in Macao and other Europeans, for example, the British, other Latin nations, and Americans. For these French authors, if Westerners are “we” and the Chinese are “they” in the literature, it will be significant to investigate who the Portuguese in Macao or the so-called Macanese were. Their writings indicate the Macanese and Portuguese were not “they,” but were not exactly “we” either. Besides the image of the Macanese, there is nearly always an image of the Chinese lingering in the texts. In the nineteenth century, the demarcation between the East and the West was apparent in the making. This differentiation is reflected in the low opinion that Western literature generally gives to the Chinese. How were the Europeans viewed by the Chinese? The making of this image is indirect. It is built on the narration of Westerners about the Chinese opinion on Westerners. For example, Westerners were called foreign devils or white devils. On the other hand, how do these images mirror Macao? What are the internal links between these writings? Do they reflect a Portuguese Macao,

5

 Said, Orientalism, 38.

6  THE SCOPE OF THE FRENCH VIEWS 

63

a Chinese Macao, or a Macao that was neither Portuguese nor Chinese during that period? As pointed out by Said in Orientalism, since the middle of the eighteenth century, the essential relationship between the East and the West on political, cultural, and even religious grounds was “one between a strong and a weak partner.”6 We can see the affirmation of Western superiority and Eastern inferiority in the documents examined in his book. In addition, in the images of Macao formulated by these French writers, can a shadow of imperialism, historicism, Darwinism, and racism be perceived?

References Ball, B. L. Rambles in Eastern Asia, including China and Manilla, during Several Years’ Residence: with Notes of the Voyage to China, Excursions in Manilla, Hong-King, Canton, Shanghai, Ningpoo, Amoy, Fouchow, and Macao. Boston: James French and Co., 1855. Haussmann, Auguste. Voyage en Chine Cochinchine Inde et Malaisie. Première partie.  – Voyage.  – Du cap au nord de la Chine. Paris: Desessart éditeur; G. Olivier, 1847. Lavollée, Charles Hubert. Voyage en Chine: Ténériffe, Rio Janeiro, le Cap, Ile Bourbon, Malacca, Singapore, Manille, Macao, Canton, ports chinois, Cochinchine, Java. Paris: Just Rouvier & A Ledoyen, 1852. Said, Edward W. Orientalism. London and Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978.

6

 Said, 40.

CHAPTER 7

French Views of Macao

In Retrospect We start with the French views of Macao in retrospect to demonstrate again that France had a long connection with Macao. In the second half of the eighteenth century, Macao received an important group of French explorers—the La Pérouse expedition. Jean-François Galaup, the Count of La Pérouse (1741–1788) was a very important French naval figure. The arrival of the expedition team, including the Count of La Pérouse is quite symbolic to indicate the French presence in Macao in the previous century. The aim of this royal mission at the dawn of the French Revolution was to conduct a discovery expedition worldwide. The journey was supposed to complete important naval tasks, but in reality, it ended in a tragedy: La Pérouse and his crew did not return to France but vanished in the South Pacific in 1788. Planned and prepared under the French king’s ambition, it was a well-­ prepared mission of the French government. King Louis XVI considered that his navy should further the discoveries made by Louis Antoine de Bougainville (1729–1811), continue the work performed by James Cook (1728–1779) and William Clark (1770–1838), and find the passage to the North in the Bering Sea that the explorers did not discover. The king assigned Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu (1738–1810), who was considered the most competent explorer and hydrographer in France and tracked © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Xie, The French in Macao in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Chinese Literature and Culture in the World, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94665-4_7

65

66 

J. XIE

the discoveries operated by Kerguelen, Crozel, Marion, Surville, and Cook, to compose the instructions for the explorers. The maps were drawn by Jean Nicolas Buache (1741–1825), geographer and nephew and successor of the royal geographer Philippe Buache (1700–1773). Fleurieu instructed the expedition commander to collect all information valuable to French commerce and politics and samples of clothing, weapons, ornaments, furniture, and tools for ethnographic purposes. Each item should be cataloged with a label indicating its provenance and usage. The most critical information to collect was hydrographic information: the views of the targeted coasts and ports, drawings of all kinds of coasts and ports, all the historical and geographic notes of specific points of the region they visited. The French Academy of Sciences instructed to observe the locations which were usually difficult to access. The tasks assigned to the expedition included studying the length of the pendulum at different latitudes, determining the longitude, studying the phenomenon of the waves, the variation of the compass, and the temperature of the ocean at various depths. The French Society of Medicine suggested that the explorers carry out hygiene, diseases, anatomy, and physiology tasks. André Thouin (1746–1824), botanist and Head of the Garden of the Plants, drafted a memory to guide the acclimation tests of plants and shrubs from Europe and in the choice of making tropical species that the French desired to introduce in some of their colonies.1 Louis XVI and the French Secretary of State of the Navy appointed Jean-François Galaup, the Count of La Pérouse (1741–1788), Navy Commodore, to lead the expedition worldwide. La Pérouse was a distinguished naval officer and commander and was much respected by his colleagues because of his cheerful character. Born in Alby in 1741, La Pérouse was an experienced naval officer who attended the French marine at the young age of 15 and fought numerous battles for the French Navy, including victoriously leading the frigate L’Astrée in the naval battle of Louisbourg on July 21, 1781. During the American Revolution, with France having taken the side of the United States, La Pérouse successfully campaigned against the British in Hudson Bay in August 1782. The two vessels participating in the expedition, La Boussole and L’Astrolabe, had a tonnage of 1  Marcel, Pérouse, 3–10. Gabriel Marcel (1843–1909) was a librarian of the National Library of France and a geography historian. He was also the author of the books such as Un Texte ethnographique inédit du XVIIIe Siècle (1904) and Un Episode de notre histoire coloniale: l’expédition de Siam en 1687 [1883?].

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

67

200. The expedition aimed to complete the Pacific discoveries of James Cook, correct and complete the maps of the area, open new maritime routes, establish trade contacts, and enrich France’s knowledge of the sciences. On August 1, 1785, the two French vessels La Boussole and L’Astrolabe, left Brest, France. The expedition investigated Chile, Hawaii, Alaska, California, East Asia (including Macao), Japan and Russia, South Pacific, and Australia. On January 26, 1788, the expedition team arrived in Botany Bay, the British colony in Australia. On March 10, 1788, the French expedition left New South Wales. La Pérouse reported in a letter from Port Jackson that he would have been back in France by June 1788, but the vessels and the crew vanished in the Central and South Pacific. An image of Macao, outlined through the writing on the La Pérouse expedition, contains three pieces of important information: Macao being a European foothold, the interaction with the local Chinese including the Chinese mandarins (which was not very positive), the French naval activities in this area. According to Gabriel Marcel’s account, after crossing the Pacific Ocean in one hundred days, on January 3, 1787, La Pérouse arrived in Macao. Why did they come to Macao? What did La Pérouse and his men do in Macao? Gabriel Marcel, the author of a book on La Pérouse’s expedition, provided the main reason that La Pérouse needed to use the vessels leaving from Macao for Europe to send his reports to France. They were also expecting letters from France through a French ship. However, this vessel missed its voyage, and it was the only vessel among the thirty-­ nine European vessels that missed it. According to Novaresio’s study, in Macao, La Pérouse sold the furs acquired in North America.2 Gabriel Marcel recorded the same trade in his text and more details on La Pérouse’s stay in Macao. For example, the local guides that La Pérouse hired refused to guide the French people to the anchorage in Typa (Taipa). The reason was that they would have to undergo physical punishment from the Chinese mandarin of Macao and also would have to give half of the money they received to the mandarin. La Pérouse and his team noticed that in the anchorage in Typa, a French general stores issue ship was commanded by the French naval officer Joseph de Richery (1757–1798). Joseph de Richery was known for his military exploits in the French Navy during the American Revolutionary War and served in the Indian Ocean from 1781 to 1785. When La Pérouse’s team met this vessel, it had 2  Paolo Novaresio, The Explorers: From the Ancient World to the Present (New York: Stewart Tabori & Chang, 1996), 187.

68 

J. XIE

been navigating in the area for over a year. The French mission led by Joseph de Richery was to investigate the coasts of South Asia.3 It was during the Anglo-French rivalry in Southeast Asia in the second half of the eighteenth century. Macao was a stronghold for this expedition as well. In this letter to Thomas Conway (1733–1795), governor of Pondicherry, on April 9, 1788, Richery recounted that the storms and irritations forced the expedition team to sojourn in Macao for months. However, he complained that Macao was not able to provide necessary supplies for repairing the ship.4 In Macao, La Pérouse met with the Portuguese governor Bernardo Aleixo de Lemos e Faria (1754–1826; Macao governor, 1783–1788) and asked for assistance needed by his crew and the ships. The expedition also recruited twelve sailors to fill the places left by the French sailors who died during the voyage. La Pérouse and his vessels left Macao on February 5, 1787. The La Pérouse expedition recorded that Macao had about twenty thousand Chinese; however, only one hundred Portuguese, two thousand Metis, and the same number of slaves. The French explained that the Portuguese origin of Macao was that the Emperor Kangxi (康熙, 1654-1722 ) granted Macao to the Portuguese as they did the Empire a favor by wiping out the pirates in the Canton area.5 The social status of the Europeans in Macao was humble and the Chinese individuals, in contrast, were well protected. La Pérouse commented as follows: Les soldats, dit-il, sont armé de bâtons, l’officier a seul le droit d’avoir une épée, mais, dans aucun cas, il ne peut en faire usage contre un Chinois. Si un voleur de cette nation est surpris enfonçant une porte ou enlevant quelque effet, il faut l’arrêter avec la plus grande précaution, et si le soldat, en se défendant contre le voleur, a le malheur de le tuer, il est livré au gouverneur chinois, et pendu au milieu de la place du marché, en présence de cette même garde dont il faisait partie, d’un magistrat portugais et de deux mandarins chinois qui, après l’exécution, sont salués du canon en sortant de la ville, ainsi qu’ils l’ont été en y entrant. Mais si, au contraire, un Chinois tue un Portugais, il est remis entre les mains des juges de sa nation, qui, après l’avoir spolié, font semblant de remplir les autres formalités de la justice,

3  Henri Cordier, “La Correspondance générale de la Cochinchine (1785–1791).” T’oung Pao, second series 7, no. 5 (1906): 622. 4  “Copie d’une letter de Mr. De Richery Commandant la flute du Roy le Marquis de Castries à Mr. de Conway, gouverneur de Pondichéry.” In Henri Cordier, “La Correspondance générale de la Cochinchine (1785–1791).” T’oung Pao, second series 7, no. 5 (1906): 659. 5  Marcel, Pérouse, 136–39.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

69

mais le laissent s’évader, très indifférents sur les réclamations qui leur sont faites, et qui n’ont jamais été suivies d’aucune satisfaction.6 (He says that the soldiers are armed with sticks, and only the officer has the right to have a sword, but in no case can he use it against a Chinese. If a thief of this nation is caught on breaking through a door or taking away some clothes, he must be arrested with tremendous precaution. Suppose the soldier has the misfortune to kill him in defending himself against the thief. In that case, Two Chinese mandarins who, after execution, are greeted with cannon when leaving the city as they were when entering. But if, on the contrary, a Chinese man kills a Portuguese, he will be handed over to the judges of his nation. They pretend to fulfill the other formalities of justice after having despoiled him but allow him to escape, supremely indifferent to the complaints made to them, which have never been treated with any satisfaction).

This statement from the eighteenth century shows that Macao, once again, was not a territory politically controlled by the Portuguese. The superiority of the Chinese residents over the Portuguese ones was certain. The Portuguese were permitted to stay in Macao, use it as a trading port, and even organize an army, but their soldiers were poorly equipped, and their armed officers could not react against the Chinese. A particular type of co-governance existed in Macao, with the Chinese superiority over the Portuguese. The two peoples lived side by side, and the Chinese received more protection. This was the case in eighteenth-century Macao.

An Imaginary Macao in an Opening China La Chine ouverte: aventures d’un Fan-Koueï dans le pays de Tsin (1845) was written by Paul-Emile Durand-Forgues (1813–1883) under the pseudonym Old Nick and illustrated by Auguste Borget (1808–1877), a French painter better known for drawing Asia. Forgues was a literary critic, translator, and author of original works. In addition to La Chine ouverte, he wrote other works such as Les Petites misères de la vie humaine (1843) under the pseudonym Old Nick and Histoire de Nelson, d’après les dépèches officielles et ses correspondances privées (1860). Forgues also wrote under the pseudonym Tim; however, Old Nick was his primary pen name, indicating his close connections with English literature and culture. On April 8, 1838, his first literary series appeared in Le Commerce and used the 6

 Marcel, 138.

70 

J. XIE

pseudonym of Old Nick for the first time. Forgues endeavored to build a professional reputation as a respected and committed literary critic with this pen name: Old Nick (Vieux Nicolas), c’est le nom familier que les Anglais donnent au diable. Ce pseudonyme convenait bien à l’auteur pour sa compétence ès choses anglaises; sa petite allure satanique était à la mode, et il piqua la curiosité des contemporains (3), jusqu’au jour où il ne fut plus un mystère. Sous ce nom, qu’il garda toute sa vie, Forgues devait se faire une réputation respectée de critique spirituel, instruit et judicieux, souvent sévère, très sévère même, toujours indépendant.7 (Old Nick [Vieux Nicolas] is the familiar name that the British give to the devil. This pseudonym suited the author well for his competence in English matters. His slight satanic appearance was fashionable, and it aroused the curiosity of the contemporaries (3) until the day when it was no longer a mystery. Under this name which he will keep during his entire life, Forgues should build a respected reputation of a spiritual, educated and wise, often strict, even rigorous, and always independent critic).

Assisted with good English language skills, he became a prominent French literary critic of British and American literature and an important translator of works by English and American authors. He “sought to influence the taste of the age towards a liberal optimism,” which emphasizes more on the links between the traditions of France, England, and America.8 Regarding his contribution to the literary world, Forgues is considered one of those critics who “contributed to the diffusion of British novels not only through the various periodicals in which they wrote but also through the books they published on the subject.”9 Forgues was a literary critic who did not show a noticeable interest in China affairs before writing La Chine ouverte. But what stimulated this sudden interest? What linked a French critic obsessed with literature to China and even international politics? La Chine ouverte, published shortly after the First Opium War, is a suitable publication (publication de circonstance), echoing the victory of the British 7  Lucien Pinvert, Un Ami de Stendhal, le critique E. D. Forgues: 1813–1883 (Paris: Librairie Henri Leclerc, 1915), 6. 8   Christopher Heywood, “French and American Sources of Victorian Realism,” in Comparative Criticism: A Yearbook, ed. Elinor Shaffer (London: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 1:110. 9  Marie-Françoise Cachin, “Victorian Novels in France,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Victorian Novel, ed. Lisa Rodensky (London: Oxford University Press, 2013), 201.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

71

military activities in China and the conclusion of the Treaty of Nanjing. All this aroused the West’s more vital interest in China, and even a literary critic suddenly cultivated the ambition of writing a book on China. In 1840 Auguste Borget returned to France from China, La Chine et les chinois appeared in 1842, and a virtual salon of his original works was held in 1843  in Paris. The future collaboration between Forgues and Auguste Borget indicates that Forgues must have learned about Auguste Borget’s travel in China. The latter’s fascinating paintings about this country fired his imagination and led him to write a book on China. Forgues had never traveled to China but composed the travel account in the first person. Therefore, this account of China (and Macao) is based on imaginary travel. At the beginning of the book, the author acknowledged he borrowed the materials from the works by his predecessors.10 As mentioned above, Forgues wrote the book around the time the Treaty of Nanjing was signed. For Forgues, with the conclusion of the Treaty of Nanjing, China became open to the world, and the world should know more about China. If under the pen of the German poet Heinrich Heine (1797–1856), China was a country of flying dragons, an exotic country with curious people, it was time to look at the country when the old empire was opening to the West. In La Chine ouverte, the story was set in March of the 1830s, and the protagonist, a young medical assistant of the British army in China, first arrived in Canton and Macao. The title comprises the term “fan-koueï” (番鬼). As the text was written in the first person, the narrator, also the book’s protagonist, referred to himself as a fan-koueï. Fan-koueï, an umbrella term, represented Europeans in the eyes of the Chinese in the Canton area in the mid-nineteenth century. Gradually the term became an etiquette used to refer to all Westerners across China. In Chinese, “fan” (番) means aliens, foreigners, and minorities. The term tends to have an ironic, discriminative, or pejorative sense. “Koueï” (鬼) means “spirit,” “apparition,” “demon,” or “devil.” Whether “fan-koueï” means “foreign 10  The materials are from authors such as Marco Polo (1254–1324), Juan González de Mendoza (1545–1618), Father Alexandre de Rhodes (1593–1660), Theophilus Spicelius (1639–1691), Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680), Joseph de Guignes (1721–1800), Sir John Barrow (1764–1848), Sir George Leonard Staunton (1737–1801), Clarke Abel (1780–1826), Georg Timkowski (1790–1875), Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat (1788–1832), Sir John Francis Davis (1795–1890), Stanislas Aignan Julien (1797–1873), Théodore-Adolphe Barrot (1801–1870), C. Toogood Downing (?–?), Samuel Kidd (1804–1843), Karl Gützlaff (1803–1851), Robert Jocelyn (1816–1854), and sources such as The Chinese Repository.

72 

J. XIE

spirit” or “foreign devil/demon” depends on the interpretation of the Europeans as some of them would rather be regarded as “foreign spirit” than “foreign devil” due to the slight difference in the meanings of spirit and devil. But, in La Chine ouverte, the pejorative sense of fan-koueï is affirmed as a Tanka (疍家) girl used it to insult the Englishmen who made a malicious joke with her. Alternatively, this confrontation scene is a good illustration of the negative meaning of fan-koueï. The narrator, who voluntarily applied the term “fan-koueï” to himself, thus commented as follows: […] fan-koueï dominait toutes les autres injures, et j’appris alors le sens de cette expression outrageante, […] Le fan-koueï – littéralement l’étranger-­ démon – c’est l’Européen, le barbare, l’ennemi commun. Lorsque passe la barque du fan-koueï au-delà des limites où l’habitude empêche qu’on ne prenne garde à elle, une foule curieuse et souvent hostile accourt sur la rive et sur les ponts; les mères la montrent à leurs enfants, et leur apprennent à mépriser, à détester les barbares.11 ([…] fan-koueï dominated all the other insults, and I learned the meaning of this outrageous expression, […] The fan-koueï – literally the foreign-­ demon  – is the European, the barbarian, the common enemy. When the fan-koueï’s boat passes beyond the limits where habit prevents one from taking care of it, a curious and often hostile crowd hastens to the shore and to the bridges; mothers show it to their children and teach them to despise, to hate barbarians.)

A fan-koueï, literally a devil foreigner, was an appellation used to call the Europeans, the barbarians considered the common enemy by contemporary Chinese. Overall, with fan (番) meaning foreign, the Europeans were deemed despicable and different because the Chinese had the tradition of calling anything no-Chinese fan (番). With koueï (鬼), they were not viewed as humans but aliens. A close look at the etymology of the Chinese character 鬼 indicates that the oracle bone script of 鬼 is composed of two parts, as shown below.

11  Old Nick [pseud.], La Chine ouverte: aventures d’un Fan-Koueï dans le pays de Tsin, ouvrage illustré par Auguste Borget (Paris: H. Fournier, éditeur, 1845), 4.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

73

鬼, oracle bone script (Source: Han Dian (Chinese Dictionary, 漢典), zdic.net) (“鬼” [oracle bone script], Han Dian漢典, zdic.net)

The top part is a terrifying head and takes the shape of a mask, while the bottom part is a human being kneeling on the ground and praying. The pictogram depicts a sorcerer playing ghosts and gods and is sometimes interpreted as an imaginary monster or creature, resembling a human being but not a real human being. 鬼 has several meanings in Chinese. It can be used as a contemptuous term to qualify a stingy person, a miser. It also means “stupid” and “coarse” and describes persons with such negative characters. Therefore, when 鬼 was used to call the Europeans in the nineteenth century, it expressed several layers of meaning: the Europeans were despicable and rude creatures. They were human beings yet not the kind of human beings resembling the Chinese, and they were different from the Chinese, both physically and mentally. Despise and hate were the two attitudes that the Chinese took or were taught to take by their parents and neighbors vis-à-vis a foreigner. The difference or the unknown did not arouse the curiosity of understanding the other. However, knowledge enables one to understand, conquer, and govern. In Orientalism, Said argued that knowledge of the Orientals, their race, character, culture, history, traditions, society, and possibilities was effectively used by Lord Cromer in successfully governing Egypt.12 In dealing with foreigners, Chinese people’s typical attitudes were anger, contempt, hatred, or exclusion. Forgues criticized these attitudes and considered the attitudes of treating the difference, translated into resistance and hostility, reflected the Chinese people’s narrow mindset, and contributed to the slow modernization of China. On the other hand, Forgues reasoned that the Chinese people’s negative attitudes toward the West were well-grounded as most of them only  Said, Orientalism, 38.

12

74 

J. XIE

interacted with Western merchants. Merchants were considered worthy of scorn in traditional Chinese culture. Chinese people felt civilized while Westerners were perverted, incorrigible beings corrupted by their education in their home countries. In dominant conventional Chinese thinking, merchants were always viewed as a walk of people characterized by avarice, who were willing to sacrifice their family’s well-being, their practice of worshipping their ancestors, the attachment to the homeland, any inclination toward benevolence, etc.13 Similarly, foreigners were generally classified alongside other groups of people who were widely viewed as despicable members of an otherwise civilized society, including actors, beggars, criminals, enslaved people, executioners, low-ranking police officers, and vagabonds. Macao is the first place mentioned in this fictional travel account. However, the text addresses the religious worship of the sailors, pirates, sea, and islands surrounding Macao without talking about Macao itself. The protagonist (the fan-koueï) compared the Portuguese residential houses in Macao as a theater. He described the narrow and steep street stairs, Portuguese convents, the Grotto of Camões, Catholic bell towers, Chinese “pavillons aériens” (air pavilion), beautiful bay, and egg-boats used by the Chinese. The narration shows that the fan-koueï sailed along the coast of Macao but did not land on the peninsula. Macao’s impression came from the regard he threw on Macao from a reasonable distance on the water. However, the description is vague and never truly entered into details nor outlined a realist atmosphere. Lan-tao (大嶼山), Lin-Tin (伶 仃), the anchorage of Cupsi-Moon (Kapshwuy), Ty-Ho, Hong Kong were the other geographical locations mentioned. If we compared this part to some contents of Coast of China published in The Chinese Repository (Vol. V) in 1837, a certain number of contents are similar. This shows that Forgues probably referred to Coast of China to compose the imagery travel account. The descriptions project a beautiful image of Macao, although vague. This brief image of Macao indicates that the Europeans in this period were more interested in China. Macao became one of the stops on their way to China: they threw a quick regard on it and then continued their journey in China. As noted previously, La Chine ouverte was illustrated with fine woodcut engravings by Auguste Borget, a French painter, writer, and artist who traveled to Hong Kong, Macao, and Canton in 1838 and sojourned in  Old Nick [pseud.], Chine ouverte, 122.

13

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

75

this area for ten months. The short chapter on Macao provides eight engravings, respectively describing eight scenes: the Tankas (疍家) and egg-boats, a market in Macao, the goddess Tien-How (天后) in the shrine, a fishermen’s residence in Guangdong province, islands near Macao, the bandit Chin-Chelung, the female pirate Mei-ying, and an image of a phantom referring to Mei-ying after she retired from piracy.14 The narrative style is not realistic because the pictures show a certain level of exaggeration. However, most of them are close shots, and the personages’ gestures in the paintings are striking. The ambiance depicted is thus dynamic and even comic. Overall, the drawings represent an exotic Macao. If the Portuguese town was the core of the city, the surroundings were Chinese elements. Together with the text, the image of Macao described in this book is very different from others: Macao was abstract, unfamiliar, a little extravagant, and a place full of adventures as the legendary pirates are well represented in the text and drawings. The Portuguese presence is almost effaced, and Macao seems to be separate from its historical and cultural background: it is an actual location, but at the same time, abstract and vague—a distant, picturesque, and exotic land. Forgues did not visit Macao, and for this reason, his descriptions were literary but not factual.

Macao in the Eyes of Chonski and Montigny and Their Explanations of Its Decline The book Chine. Etablissement portuguais de Macao (1850) was composed when the Treaty of Nanjing was signed. The author, M. de Chonski (1809–1881), born in Kremenetz, Ukraine, moved to France in 1831 and later became a French citizen.15 His full name is Henryk Edward Chonski, and he is also referred to as Henri de Chonski. He was a special secretary to Dubois de Jancigny in the Jancigny mission (1841–1846) planned by the French government after the First Opium War.16 Chonski returned to France in 1844 and was appointed “rédacteur au Ministère de l’Agriculture  Old Nick [pseud.], 90–105.  Research Center for the Polish Estreicher Bibliography at the Jagiellonian University, “Polish National Bibliography – Stage II: Continuation of the printed edition and extension of the electronic version of the Estreicher Bibliography,” https://www.estreicher.uj.edu.pl/ xixwieku/baza/wpis/?sort=id&order=-1&id=15058&offset=94350&index=24 16  Frederic LaCroix, Annuaire des voyages et de la géographie pour l’année 1844–1845, par une réunion de géographes et de voyageurs, sous la direction de M. Frédéric Lacroix, 2ème année (Paris: Gide et Cie, libraires-éditeurs, 1845), 120. 14 15

76 

J. XIE

et du Commerce” by the French government.17 He left Manilla for Macao on November 8, 1841, and arrived in Hong Kong on January 23, 1842. His descriptions of Macao were considered detailed and comprehensive by the audience of his time.18 It is a full report of Macao concerning the size and the characteristics of its population, its governance, and why Macao stopped prospering. The report’s primary purpose was to gather intelligence on Macao as one of the significant tasks that Chonski was assigned to perform was collecting information on and analyzing various countries’ commerce and industrial statistics and the surrounding areas that the mission visited.19 First of all, in this observation, Macao was a Christian community and a cradle of sinologists. It was divided into three parishes: Bairo da Sé (the Cathedral Parish, 大堂區), Bairo de S. Lourenço (Parish of S. Lourenço, 風順堂區), and Bairo de San Antonio (Parish of San Antonio, 聖安多尼堂 區). The size of the clergy was big, and many members finally became good sinologists with their accumulated knowledge of China. Second, the inhabitants were composed of three distinct classes, and there were also slaves in Macao. The three classes were as follows: (1) Portuguese subjects, (2) Chinese subjects, and (3) foreign subjects. The first class comprised all the Portuguese, born either in Europe or in the colonies, and the Metis and their descendants, who “conservent à peine une goutte de sang européen dans leurs veines” (barely keep a drop of European blood in their veins). Surprisingly, Chonski considered that the Metis included the baptized Chinese and Chinese dressed in European-style clothes. The Negro slaves, including both male and female, from Portuguese colonies in Africa and Timor constituted the third component of this Portuguese class. Another group of this class was composed of soldiers, Indians, and Metis born in Goa. Only were the officers Europeans. In 1835 for each group, free white men and men of color were 1,487, free white women and women of color were 2,306, male Negro slaves were 469, and female Negro slaves were 831. The total population of the free people was 3,793, and the slave population was 1,300. Altogether there were 5,093 inhabitants. The number of women exceeded that of men over a quarter, which  Cordier, Mission Dubois de Jancigny, 32–34.  Charles Vogel, Le Portugal et ses colonies, tableau politique et commercial de la monarchie portugaise dans son état actuel avec des annexes et les notes supplémentaires (Paris: Guillaumin et Cie, libraires-éditeurs, 1860), 594. 19  Cordier, Mission Dubois de Jancigny, 25. 17 18

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

77

was striking for the author. The Macanese were physically ugly for both men and women and were mainly in trade and navigation. However, as they had very little capital, were sluggish, and did not have much education, they were not very successful in their enterprises.20 Third, the Chinese-foreign divide was evident in the governance. Macao had a total population of 30,000 to 40,000 Chinese residents, and their professions varied: artisans, merchants, shopkeepers, smugglers, boatmen, fishers, and porters. In addition, a large portion of the Chinese worked as domestic servants in the houses of the Portuguese or the foreigners. An inferior Chinese mandarin, Tso-tang (左堂, i.e., deputy governor of the Xiangshan County, 香山縣丞), belonging to the jurisdiction of Xiangshan (香山), governed the Chinese in Macao. Because the Tso-tang lived in a white house, the Portuguese called him “mandarin de Casa branca” (the Mandarin of the White House). In other words, Chonski observed two administrations operated in parallel in Macao: one was the Portuguese governance, and the other was the Chinese governance. The Portuguese one was exercised by the Municipal Council, the Governor, the Bishop, and the Judge or the Minister. The Judge had a certain level of authority over the Chinese in Macao and played an intermediary and official organ between the Municipal Council and the Chinese authorities. For all important matters, the judge had to prepare a letter or a report and send it to the Tso-tang, the Mandarin of the White House, to establish the communication and seek opinions. The latter then decided on a sentence per Chinese laws or customs: vice-versa, the Chinese filed complaints against the Portuguese with this judge. In case of homicides, the execution of the criminal was carried out in Macao. The Governor, the City Council, and the bishop each had their respective role to play. The author pointed out flaws in the Portuguese system, for instance, the limitless abuses that the government officials would commit when they dealt with the surplus of the government income. Why did Macao decline, and what were the possible solutions? According to Chonski, the rise of Hong Kong was a reason. Hong Kong grew into a more crucial British colony, overtaking Macao at economic and geopolitical levels. Starting from 1843, the important firms moved to Hong Kong and Canton. This change made Macao become a business desert and reduced it to a quiet location for tired people in business from the two new commercial cities to take a rest. The second reason was the  Chonski, Établissement, 6–7.

20

78 

J. XIE

monopoly policy that the Portuguese had been adopting in Macao. The Portuguese had been excluding other European countries from taking advantage of the benefits presented by Macao since their settlement in this place. The author called it “jalousie commerciale” (commercial jealousy) and “esprit d’exclusion” (spirit of exclusion) and held that this narrow mind finally ruined the establishment and ended its prosperity. The Portuguese’s selfishness, jealousy, monopoly mindset, and greed constituted important internal reasons for Macao’s decline. Third, the small shallow harbor was to blame as it was not able to accommodate bigger vessels. Chinese civilization was declining too. One demonstration was that China lacked honest and upright officials. Chinese mandarins were corrupt, which the Portuguese took advantage of when they intended to avoid bearing the consequences of violating the orders of top Chinese authorities. However, Chonski did not spare the Portuguese and notably criticized the Portuguese in Macao. For him, the Portuguese in the nineteenth century had lost the essential assets of the early Portuguese explorers, that is, the spirit of activity and enterprise. As to the Macanese (Macaïstes), they were viewed as lazy people lacking energy. So, how to regain the prosperity of Macao? In the wake of the Treaty of Nanjing on August 29, 1842, the Portuguese proclaimed Macao a free port in 1845. According to Chonski, the free port would help Macao recover its economic prosperity. The business with France would also make a positive contribution to rebuilding Macao’s future. But most importantly, the Portuguese had to become brave adventurers again, just like their energetic ancestors. Chonski certainly was not the only Frenchman who believed that the French could help Macao reestablish its prosperity. Charles Louis de Montigny was another person who considered that Macao could rely on France for its economic re-growth. Both Chonski and Montigny were sent to the Far East to collect commercial information for the French government. Indeed, Montigny was assigned another critical task: he was part of the French ambassadorship to negotiate the Treaty of Whampoa with the Qing. The French legation arrived in Macao with specific political, commercial, and religious goals. In this period, China was in military conflict with Britain, and the British and Americans had abandoned Macao in choosing Hong Kong, the new British colony, as the commercial center. Therefore, the French had grounds to consider that China and Macao could obtain assistance from France. This situation was what La Pérouse

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

79

believed at the political level when he tried to approach the Chinese government after he arrived in China. At the commercial level, both Montigny and Chonski considered that Macao could resume its greatness with the assistance of the French. In Macao, Montigny witnessed a deserted city: the shops were not doing business, and all were waiting for the rental. But after examining the tariff system and other commercial conditions in Macao, he concluded that Macao still kept certain advantages if it wanted to become prosperous again. He provided the following reasons: the inner harbor in Macao, becoming a free port in 1845, was vast and offered all security and received vessels with a capacity of four hundred to five hundred tons. For Montigny, easy entry and exit at all times, proximity to Canton, and low staple rights that goods needed to pay made Macao a meaningful locality relative to French commerce. Holding the same opinion as de Chonski, he considered that the French involvement in Macao would be significant: C’est au commerce français qu’il appartient de rendre à Macao son ancienne splendeur: tout l’y invite; le peu de cherté des locations et sa position près du centre du commerce chinois peuvent, à l’aide de l’activité française, en faire un marché très important.21 (It belongs to French commerce to restore Macao to its former splendor: everything there invites; the low cost of renting and its position near the Chinese trade center can make Macao an important market with the help of French activity.)

In Montigny’s lengthy book, the section on Macao—Notice descriptive sur Macao—has a total of sixteen pages. In addition, a long table entitled Tarif des droits de la Douane de Macao (Rate of the Duties at the Macao Customs), composed of seven pages, provides information on the merchandise, their unit, and values and duties in Chinese and French currencies. In this table, a total of 327 pieces of merchandise, classified under five categories, were enumerated. The five classes were as follows: the first class included wool, silk, linen, cotton, and their fabrics; the second class covered metals, manufactured objects, minerals, fossils, etc.; the third class was composed of plant production and their textiles, oil, rubber, resin, etc.; the fourth covered class fish, meat, animal waste, skin, horns, etc.; and the fifth class was composed of miscellaneous items.22 All the  Montigny, Manuel du négociant français, 284.  Montigny, 290–96.

21 22

80 

J. XIE

information collected constituted valuable commercial intelligence for the French government. Although the goal of the French legation to China was to obtain favorable commercial interests for France in China, Montigny examined the commercial conditions in Macao, as discussed above. The information on the commerce in Macao he collected included a map carefully identifying the critical locations in Macao (Images 7.1 and 7.2).

Image 7.1  Plan de la ville et des environs de Macao (Map of the City of Macao and its Surrounding Areas) (Source: Manuel du négociant français en Chine: ou, commerce de la Chine considéré au point de vue français by Charles Louis de Montigny (Paris: Imprimerie de Paul Dupont, 1846), 282–83, gallica.bnf.fr/ Bibliothèque nationale de France. Courtesy of the National Library of France)

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

81

Image 7.2  Note explicative du plan ci-joint de la ville de Macao (Explanatory Note of the Enclosed Map of the City of Macao) (Source: Manuel du négociant français en Chine: ou, commerce de la Chine considéré au point de vue français by Charles Louis de Montigny (Paris: Imprimerie de Paul Dupont, 1846), 284. Gallica.bnf.fr/Bibliothèque nationale de France)

According to the explanatory note, there was a wall separating the Portuguese town from the Chinese one. No. 14 refers to this northeast wall that divided the Macao Peninsula into two parts, and the majority of the Portuguese facilities were located on the south side of the wall. This means the separation of two communities existed physically! On the north

82 

J. XIE

The map in French entitled Plan de la ville et des environs de Macao was used by Charles Louis de Montigny in his book published in 1846. The National Library of France attributed the map to the French printer Paul Dupont (1796–1879). The map has dimensions of 24 by 24 centimeters and identifies 57 important locations in Macao and nearby islands, including fortifications, churches, hospitals, government institutions, ports, and Chinese villages. The names of the 57 locations can be found in an explanatory notice following this map in the book. The small peninsula takes the shape of a tongue and the built environment is rather located in the middle of Macao, which renders the division half and half by the Portuguese town and the Chinese town less evident. The map also identifies two walls inside Macao: the northeast wall and the southwest wall used to protect the Portuguese citadel. The Patera Island, the Green Island, and Xiangshan (香山) are pointed out. And to indicate the Chinese presence near Macao and Macao’s relationship to China, the Casa Branca, the residence of the Chinese mandarin, is identified and named, and the border separating Macao and Xiangshan is drawn. In using this map, Charles Louis de Montigny shared with his contemporaries the major urban features in Macao and Macao’s relationship to China. In addition, this map is very similar to the map entitled Plan de la ville et du port de Macao (1764, 27 by 22 centimeters), currently belonging to the deposit of the charts and maps of the French Navy. The 1764 map identifies much fewer locations on the peninsula and outlines only the most important landmarks. side of the wall, a large portion of the land was the four Chinese villages: the villages of Monchion (盧兜村), Patane (沙梨頭), Mong-Ha (望廈村), and Saint-Lazare (望德堂區), closer to the border separating China and Macao as indicated by No. 8. This wall served as an inner border within Macao, and the Saint Paul fortress, indicated by No. 1 on the map, was situated right on this inner border. No. 38 and No. 39 respectively refer to the Portuguese customs and Chinese customs. This map testifies once more that there existed two distinct communities or towns in Macao, and the integrations of the two took place poorly. Montigny was precise in

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

83

Immediately following the map Plan de la ville et des environs de Macao, the explanatory note provides the names of the major locations identified on the map. In addition, it contains a piece of military information, that is, the number of artillery pieces that armed the six essential forts in Macao: Monte Fort, Guia Fort, Fort of St. Francis, Fort of St. Pedro, Fort of Bom Parto, and Barra Fort. indicating the locations on the map and considered that Macao, overall, was a meaningful place to study in terms of French commerce.23 He later became the first French consul in Shanghai, one of the Chinese ports open to France according to the Treaty of Whampoa. Montigny remained in this position from January 23, 1848 to June 10, 1853. On April 6, 1849, he founded the first French Concession in Shanghai, following the Treaty of Whampoa, particularly Article 22.

Vénard’s Macao, a Missionary’s Indefensible Perspective About thirteen years after Chonski arrived in Macao, Jean-Théophane Vénard (1829–1861), a member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, stopped by Macao on his way to Tonkin (also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin, or Tongking) and outlined an image of Macao from a missionary’s perspective. He was more severe in criticizing Macao, compared to the majority of the French sojourners in Macao. Vénard was born on November 21, 1829, in Saint Loup, France. He left France for China in September 1852 and arrived in Hong Kong on March 19, 1853. He arrived in Macao on May 26, 1854, and left Macao on June 2 in the same year. On May 26, 1854, Vénard left Hong Kong and arrived in West Tonkin (Indo-China, today’s northern Vietnam) on July 13, 1854. However, it was not legal to convert people to Christianity in Vietnam at that time. Shortly after he arrived in Tonkin, a royal proclamation was issued against Christians. Despite the order, Vénard continued to carry out the mission work and ended up being denounced, arrested, and beheaded in Tonkin on February 2, 1861. He was at the age of 31.24  Montigny, Manuel du négociant français, 290–96  He was declared a Catholic martyr on May 2, 1909.

23 24

84 

J. XIE

In 1854, Macao had already become a free port. By then, it had been five years since governor Amaral refused to acknowledge Macao as a territory that the Portuguese rented from China. For Vénard, Macao maintained a beautiful political and social structure but lacked substances internally to be a prosperous Portuguese administration. He observed the following facts: (1) The Portuguese governor had lost prestige although his fellows still greeted him; (2) The Portuguese administration had soldiers performing duties; nevertheless, the number was small because the government did not have money to recruit more soldiers; (3) The church work was disappointing. The bishop provoked a public scandal by supporting the schism in Goa, although there were still many beautiful churches; (4) Elegant houses were either closed or occupied by Englishmen and Americans. (5) The Portuguese were not as wealthy as they were in the past. Thus, in addition to the establishment of Hong Kong, Macao had to examine other reasons for its decline. Macao was the starting point of the mission work in Asia: all the missionaries had to first land in Macao before penetrating the interior of the Far East and established colleges and headquarters of Christianity in Macao. In a word, Macao had been a stronghold for Catholicism in the Far East for centuries, a place where the West strived to promote their religion and spiritual life to China. For him, every missionary sent to the East was aware of this significance. But had the Western missionaries’ hard work been paid off? Vénard was highly critical in this regard. He denied categorically and further pointed out that the Portuguese were more or less responsible for the mission’s failure in Asia. Vénard stated that the hard work exercised by European missionaries in China was mainly done in vain. He declared that “les nombreux Missionnaires qui ont arrosé de leurs sueurs le sol ingrat de l’Empire-­ Céleste, partaient tous de Macao” (the many Missionaries who watered the ungrateful soil of the Celestial Empire with their sweat, were all leaving from Macao).25 China was an unproductive and unrewarding land to Christianity. He criticized the failure of the Portuguese mission and the ineffectiveness of the Portuguese governance in Macao and held that the two were deeply linked. He argued as follows: 25  Eusèbe Vénard, Louis-Édouard Pie, and Jean-Baptiste Chauvin. Vie et correspondance de J. Théophane Vénard, prêtre de la Société des Missions étrangères, décapité pour la foi au TongKing, le 2 février 1861. Augmenté du discours d’anniversaire prononcé à Saint-Loup par Mgr l’évêque de Poitiers. [Hymne en L’honneur du Martyr J.-Théophane Vénard. Par M. l’abbé J.-B. Chauvin] (Poitiers: H. Oudin, 1864), 262.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

85

Oh! Vraiment, le Portugal était chargé d’une noble mission par la Providence! Et il l’a méconnue et reniée. Il semble que dès lors sa décadence a commencé, comme si Dieu eût voulu le briser, de même que l’on brise un instrument détérioré et inutile.26 (Oh! Indeed, Portugal was entrusted with a noble mission by Providence! And it has misunderstood and denied it. It seems that from then on, its decadence began, as if God would have broken it, just like people breaking a deteriorated and useless instrument.)

He used the words “meconnaître” and “renier” to point at the Portuguese’ dereliction of duty. Mercilessly, he used “décadence,” “détérioré,” and “inutile” to comment on the status quo of Macao. Portugal was given an important role for many Westerners like Vénard: it was selected as an instrument to spread Christianity. The Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 and the rearrangements made in the sixteenth century divided the world between Portugal and Spain, and the geostrategic conditions thus outlined made Portugal the controller of the road of Asia via the eastern route. Therefore, Portugal did have a divine duty and was given opportunities to spread Christianity in China and other countries in the Far East. Certainly, Vénard’s point in this regard was not defensible. For him, from a Catholic missionary’s perspective, a fundamental reason for Macao’s decline was determined by Providence. That was because Portugal was assigned with a noble mission but failed to recognize and honor it. But why was it challenging to convert the Chinese people to Christianity or the mission work was fruitless? Historians have explained various and complicated factors preventing them from being converted as Christians, and it seems none of them held Portugal responsible for the failure. And among the texts we study in this book, Charles Hubert Lavollée provided a different reason in his work Voyage en Chine (1852). According to him, the European missionaries from Portugal, France, Spain, and Italy had been trying to conquer vast Asia for two centuries using their faith and energy diligently. It was incorrect to say that the outcome was sterile, but the long and biting quarrels between the different religious sects had stopped Catholic mission work in China. The missionaries focused their time and energy on increasing their respective influence, discussing religious dogmas, and competing for their nationality and religious order. It

 Vénard, Pie, and Chauvin. Vie et correspondance, 265.

26

86 

J. XIE

was the rivalry and jealousy that harmed the authority and dignity of the mission work overall.27 For Lavollée, the inner conflicts between the different Christian orders were the main reason for the failure of Catholic mission work in China. According to the French writer Just-Jean-Étienne Roy, the extreme corruption of the customs reigning on the city of Macao made the mission work in Macao unproductive and fruitless. He agreed with the following statement: the Chinese regarded Canton as the place where all the bad subjects of the neighboring countries took refuge and Macao as the quagmire of Canton. The French word he used to qualify the relationship of Macao to Canton in this regard was “sentine,” that is, a dirty and humid place facilitating harmful things grow.28 He continued to reason from the perspective of the share of Catholics in Macao’s population. Regarding the mission work in 1848, Macao had thirty thousand Chinese at that time, but there were only about six hundred Chinese Catholics. The low percentage of Chinese Christians probably did not reflect the zealous work of the missionaries in Macao. The number of Chinese Catholics was not big enough. The fact was that Macao had a seminary, a Lazarist house, and clerical workers, including three young Chinese priests who worked diligently to convert their compatriots.29 Some considered it was merely due to the jealousy of the Portuguese that mission work did not succeed as expected. The Portuguese government in Macao expelled missionaries from other European countries because the presence of these people in Macao could generate the reasons for the Chinese government to break up with the Portuguese as China did not welcome the European missionaries. All this was used as a pretext in the eyes of these observers. Thus, the actual reason was the bitterness or protectionist mindset of the Portuguese missionaries who were not willing to allow ministers of other European countries to carry forward the mission work in Macao.30 Although the reasons outlined by different authors were different, the mission work in the Far East, including in Macao, in the nineteenth century was not productive. And the unsatisfactory  Lavollée, Voyage en Chine, 293–94.  Roy, Français en Chine, 64. 29  Roy, Français en Chine, 62. 30  Tsing-sing Louis Wei, La Politique missionnaire de la France en Chine 1842–1856: l’ouverture des cinq ports chinois à commerce étranger et la liberté religieuse (Paris: Nouvelles éditions latines, 1961), 82. 27 28

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

87

outcome of the mission work contributed to Macao’s decline as a Western settlement. Abbe Huc would not agree with Vénard either. On the one hand, Abbe Huc recognized that Macao, the formerly rich and proud Portuguese colony, had become a memory, and only beautiful yet empty houses remained from its past prosperity. For him, the European vessels would only see barren rock, beaten sadly by the waves, and suitable only for the Chinese fishermen to dry their black nets. On the other hand, he pointed out that the missionaries still liked to visit the ruins of Macao because the name of Macao was always associated with the propagation of the Catholic faith. For Abbe Huc, it was precisely in Macao where, during several centuries, numerous apostles received a proper education. Macao was a cenacle. These educated apostles went to evangelize China, Japan, Tartary, Cochinchina, and Vietnam.31 We can also see Vénard’s critical attitude through his comments on Camões, linked to the decadence of Macao. If the great poet Camões received almost unanimous admiration from the French visitors, Vénard did not appreciate the poet and his poetry. He pointed out that French sailors admired Camões; however, some of his poems were indecent, of bad tastes, and thus exerted unhealthy influence over French sailors.32 Therefore, the writings of poets such as Camões did not contribute to the success of mission work. If the Portuguese were to be blamed, the Chinese were to be avoided. In the missionary’s eyes, the Chinese in Macao were skilled merchants who excelled at making a fortune, compared to the inert Portuguese. If the Chinese considered the Europeans as “foreign devils,” the latter thought the former were “aliens.” On their way to Tonkin, Vénard and the other missionary hid inside the ship to avoid direct contact with the Chinese sailors aboard. Vénard reasoned as follows: if they were in the sight of the Chinese, the latter would examine their physical appearance from head to toe and their behavior curiously and call them “diables d’étrangers” (devils of foreigners, i.e., fan-koueï), the cause would be attributed to them if the departure was delayed, there were encounters with pirates, and the wind blew too gently or too strongly. The missionary found it difficult to maintain a right attitude in front of the Chinese: “si nous sommes familiers, nous recevons le mépris; si nous parlons peu ou si nous gardons un peu de sérieux, nous sommes des Européens superbes”  Huc, Empire chinois, 158.  Vénard, Pie, and Chauvin, Vie et correspondance, 266.

31 32

88 

J. XIE

(If we are familiar, we receive contempt; if we speak little or if we remain a little serious, we are superb Europeans).33 The other texts we studied in this book seldom describe that the foreigners had this kind of unease and lacked proper reaction in front of the Chinese. This illustrates a typical cultural misunderstanding. The reasons for this unpleasant encounter between Chinese culture and Western culture were fear, mutual unfamiliarity, and lack of knowledge for understanding a different culture, and both sides were held responsible.

A Young French Nobleman’s Criticism of Macao For Ludovic de Beauvoir (also referred to as the Count of Beauvoir, 1846–1929), Macao was particularly significant for Western civilization. It represented the ancient world and the Latin races next to the financial ardor of the Anglo-Americans of the East.34 Because he held the importance of Macao so high, his criticism of nineteenth-century Macao was equally severe. Ludovic de Beauvoir was a French traveler associated with the Orléans family by blood, the family of Louis Philippe (1773–1850), the French king of the July Monarchy overthrown in 1848 French revolution. Therefore, Ludovic de Beauvoir was a French royal relative setting foot on Macao. He accompanied Pierre Philippe Jean Marie d’Orléans, Duke of Penthièvre, and the grandson of Louis Philippe to travel around the world from 1865 to 1867. The duke was born in St. Cloud in 1845 and was only a few months older than Beauvoir. Because the Duke’s mother was Dona Francisca de Bragança (1824–1898), Princess of Brazil and Portugal, daughter of Emperor Pedro I, Beauvoir addressed the duke as a cousin of the king of Portugal. The travel made by the two young men covered the following countries and places: Australia, Java, Siam, Canton, Peking, Edo (Tokyo), and San Francisco. After returning to France, Beauvoir published his travel account in three volumes which achieved immense success among the public in France. Ludovic de Beauvoir arrived in Macao from Hong Kong on February 11, 1867, with his cousin Pierre Philippe Jean Marie d’Orléans, whom he referred to as “prince” in Java, Siam, Canton: voyage autour du monde, and left Macao for Canton on February 14, 1867. Although he stayed in Macao for only three days, he provided essential details of several facts  Vénard, Pie, and Chauvin, 268.  Beauvoir, Java, Siam, Canton, 406.

33 34

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

89

such as the coolie trade. He commented simultaneously: how the pirates organized and launched attacks on the boats, the Grotto of Camões, barracon—office of the coolie trade, and Macao’s splendid past and the current difficulties it was facing.35 The first subject which Beauvoir dealt with is the conspiracy between the pirates and the local passengers. Piracy against merchants’ vessels had long been an issue for the coastal areas of Canton and Macao. According to the statement of Beauvoir, the attacks of the European ships by the pirates were often the results of the conspiracies between the pirates, usually disguised as fishermen and local Chinese passengers on board. That’s why he stated that it was a danger for the ships to carry a load of “celestials.” As the local people on board were viewed as the possible conspirators of the pirates, the crew would exterminate them as soon as they saw the pirates’ boats approaching. The collaboration between the pirates and the locals was a common viewpoint held by the Europeans. The precautions taken by Western vessels were to separate the Europeans and the Chinese. Ernest Michel mentioned in his text that because the passengers on the commercial vessels could be the disguised pirates, the passage to the lower level of the ship where the Chinese stayed was blocked with an iron grill, locked with a padlock, and guarded by a Portuguese soldier.36 Beauvoir discussed opium smoking in China and an image of the Chinese linked to this vicious habit. Chinese were opium smokers, and smoking opium had become a common practice in the Chinese people, from the rich to the poor. He observed that a wealthy Chinese man on the ship was smoking opium and enjoyed a kind of nonchalant beatitude. The Chinese merchants also made money by selling opium to their compatriots. Chonski also stated in his text that several Chinese merchants were wealthy because of being engaged in the opium trade.37 The second image of the Chinese is that they were barbarians: the Chinese only knew sailing in the wind, sailing in the monsoon, and then waiting for five months— time for another monsoon—to set out on a new trip. In other words, the Chinese had little knowledge of modern navigation technology, as observed by him. Nevertheless, he did recognize that the rudder used by the Chinese was a masterpiece.38  Beauvoir, 371–410.  Michel, Tour du monde, 133. 37  Chonski, Établissement, 7. 38  Beauvoir, Java, Siam, Canton, 374. 35 36

90 

J. XIE

The third issue was the coolie trade. Another important fact about Macao that Beauvoir discussed was the barracon, where the coolies were recruited.39 According to the author, these were the famous warehouses dealing with the so-called emigration of coolies. For him, it was the trade of Chinese individuals or at least the “involuntary emigration of coolies.” He described in detail one barracon: it had a beautiful reception room with decorations and filled with ancient books, but the corridors were full of Chinese coolies waiting for the departure. The coolies were in miserable physical and mental conditions. Beauvoir criticized vehemently the coolie trade. For him, it was one thousand times crueler than the trade of Negros. He commented that this period pertained to such a deplorable history because it was “du sang, toujours du sang” (blood, always blood). His description of who were the coolies recruited in Macao was straightforward and detailed: (1) the captives of the wars within China, for example, those captured in the Taiping Rebellion from 1850 to 1864 and then sold to an agent of the coolie trade; (2) Fishermen captured and then sold by the pirates to the agent; (3) those gamblers indebted because of losing money in gambling and unable to return home. According to Beauvoir, about five thousand Chinese coolies left for Havana, Cuba, and eight thousand for EI Callao, Peru every year. The Portuguese authority was supposed to supervise the conditions offered to the coolies, but their supervision was not a guarantee. Suffering from heat, thirst, hunger, lack of fresh air, and despair, it happened that the coolies rebelled and killed the entire European crew during the voyage. On the other side, coolie died during the journey, including through committing suicide. Beauvoir pointed out that the local Portuguese authorities did not interfere at all during 1848–1856. After 1856, the Portuguese exercised more control and tried to strengthen the voluntary nature of the coolie trade. Before leaving, each coolie was required to confirm his departure twice, with a judge and an attorney assigned by the Portuguese government. The coolie had the right to refuse to leave, but he would be subject to the revenge of the barracon. The contract was in Chinese and Spanish. The bilingual document indicates a coolie, once sold, was bound for eight years. The employer provided clothing and accommodations and paid the coolie twenty francs each month. One coolie valued three hundred francs in Macao and was sold for one thousand seven hundred and fifty francs 39  The French authors studied in this book used terms such as “barracoës,” “barracón,” and “barracon” to refer to the place where the coolies were recruited.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

91

when he arrived in Cuba. The agents earned nearly one thousand four hundred francs from each coolie. Beauvoir criticized that the coolie trade was one of the most profitable speculations in the nineteenth century. Furthermore, he pointed out that the coolie trade was prohibited in Hong Kong.40 However, the coolie trade contributed significantly to the economy of Macao. When discussing the commerce in China and Japan, Georges Bousquet (1845–1937) commented that the coolie trade brought money to Macao’s economy. He considered that after Macao had prohibited the coolie trade, to which the French sometimes also lent their ships, the ruin of the Portuguese settlement arrived quickly. Ironically, Bousquet considered that the Portuguese decision of banning the coolie trade was “a generous measure.” Why? The reason was that in the 1870s, China was sending more emigrants than ever to overseas countries, departing from Hong Kong, Xiamen (alternately Amoy, 廈門) and Shantou (alternately Swato, 汕頭) under the British flag.41 For Beauvoir, the situation of Macao was delicate. He made a comparison to indicate its relationship to China. He said that Macao was like a “sangsue” (leech), affixed to the Chinese colossus. Macao’s cultural identity was ambiguous. It was neither Portuguese nor Chinese, neither Christian nor Buddhist. In his words, Macao hesitated between its Portuguese governors and stubborn Chinese mandarins, and the two were in a constant fight against each other. Sometimes Macao was a follower of European politics, and other times it was intimidated and held on a leash by the threats from Canton and Peking. For him, only with the governance of Ferreira do Amaral did Macao become a proper Western colony.42 How were the Portuguese in the eyes of this French? Beauvoir considered that the Portuguese had become a strange population, nevertheless. “Etrange population que celle des conquérants de cette terre” (Strange population that of the conquerors of this land), exclaimed Beauvoir right after arriving in Macao. The French term “étrange” means “strange,” “odd,” and “weird.” He called the Portuguese “descendants d’Albuquerque” (descendants of Albuquerque) and described them as  Beauvoir, Java, Siam, Canton, 397.  Georges Bousquet, “Le Commerce de la Chine et du Japon,” Revue des deux mondes, tome 28 (1878): 94. https://www-jstor-org.libezproxy.umac.mo/stable/pdf/44761164.pdf 42  Beauvoir, Java, Siam, Canton, 398. 40 41

92 

J. XIE

people “suspendus à leur sabre, ou enfoncés dans leur cache-nez” (people hanging on their sword or sunk in their mufflers). Therefore, the Portuguese gave an impression to Beauvoir that they did not act like average Europeans in Europe. For him, the Portuguese in Macao had already become a race mixed with the Chinese. The worse is that the Chinese had already been born of mixed racial ancestries, such as Malaysians, Indians, and Negros. He thus concluded as follows: “en somme, race rabougrie et chétive, au teint chocolat clair, aux yeux fendus en amande, végétant dans une atmosphère demi-chrétienne, demi-­sorcière, demi-civilisée et demiasiatique” (In short, a stunted and puny race, with a clear chocolate complexion, with almond-shaped eyes, vegetating in a half-Christian, half-sorceress, half-civilized, and half-Asiatic atmosphere). However, if the Portuguese were no longer Europeans, the Chinese were gamblers, barbarians, and dishonest people. In his eyes, the Chinese town was well maintained, despite “low commercial activities,” such as gambling. The most eye-catching part of the Chinese town was the gambling houses, illuminated with delightful lanterns. He thus continued to state, “Macao est le Monaco du Céleste Empire” (Macao is the Monaco of the Celestial Empire). In addition to calling the Chinese barbarians, Beauvoir considered that the Chinese did not think correctly because wealthy Chinese from Hainan, Guangdong, and Fujian (alternately Fukien or Hokkie, 福建) came to Macao to lose money in gambling. He referred to the Chinese as “vilain celestial” (wicked celestial) and considered them tricky and fraudulent. However, on the other hand, Beauvoir considered that Chinese culture and Portuguese culture did influence each other. An example he used was that the buddhas in a Chinese temple in the Mong-Ha (望廈) village were named with Portuguese names: A cause de l’antiquité de la colonisation, les Chinois sont devenus si Portugais, ou les Portugais si Chinois, que les Bouddhas sont nommés, dans la bouche même des bonzes, des noms de nos saints; et il y a là, à la douzaine, des san Francisco et des san Agostino à quatre bras, à trois têtes, à plis et replis d’embonpoint.43 (Because of the antiquity of colonization [in Macao], the Chinese have become rather Portuguese, or the Portuguese rather Chinese. Even in the very mouth of the monks, Buddhas are named after our saints. And there  Beauvoir, 384.

43

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

93

are, by the dozen, San Francisco and San Agostino with four arms, three heads, and fat folds caused by overweight.)

It seems cultural integration took place in Macao. But, like most visitors to Macao in this period, Beauvoir pointed out that the Chinese community was separated from the Portuguese community. The Chinese lived close to Guangdong, continental China, and the Portuguese lived in the Praia Grande, closer to the big sea from where their ancestors approached the island from the sea hundreds of years ago. Although, the Chinese population significantly exceeded that of the Portuguese. The Portuguese city had old and Christian buildings where monks and sisters of charity lived. With all this, Beauvoir considered that Macao was exactly like Lisbon and Gênes, an Italian city. Once more, its physical appearance produced a very European image of Macao.

English Colonialism Is Different Than French Colonialism In Macao, Charles Boissay noticed a city of the coolie trade, a declining city. Little information is found on Charles Boissay. His short work De Paris à Vaucouleurs à vol d’oiseau: relation d’un voyage scientifique en ballon tells us he is a scientific publiciste. Based on the accounts of the French travelers, Théodore Duret and Ludovic de Beauvoir, and Austrian diplomat Joseph Alexander von Hübner, Charles Boissay compiled the article Notes sur l’Extrême-Orient, d’après les derniers voyageurs and published it in Journal des économistes in 1874. Therefore, his article was not composed of the observations on-site. Besides Macao, other places described are Victoria in Australia, Tasmania, New South Wales, Queen’s Land, Java, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Japan. The author drew interesting comparisons between the places and even compared how the European colonialists ruled their possessions. In particular, he compared the English colonialists to the French ones. For Charles Boissay, the two were fundamentally different. Wherever the English colonialists went, they established a territory similar to their hometown in England, no matter how few they were in this distant place. They made themselves real men and turned the new land into a homeland thanks to the spirit of individual initiative and self-government. They built temples, opened banks, organized British-styled governments, and built

94 

J. XIE

buildings and even racecourses. They tried to attempt everything that they did back at home in England. However, the French colonialists were very different in that they did not have the mindset of being settled in a foreign place. They only had one fixed idea: to make enough money as quickly as possible and then go home and live again in France. That was why they were ultimately not interested in public affairs in the colonies. It was usually the government who took charge of their interests.44 For Charles Boissay, Hong Kong is an illustrative example of the successful administration of British colonization. Here we can sense that the French hoped to build solid colonial administrative systems as the British did. From here, we can understand why the French authors’ attitudes were so harsh when criticizing the situation of Macao. Charles Boissay discussed Macao’s facts: its inhabitants, the Portuguese and the local people, the government’s revenue and expenses, the number of ships entering Macao in 1855 and 1865, the coolie trade, etc. In particular, the coolie trade was considerably discussed in the three-page description of Macao. Hübner and Tissot mentioned that the coolies were recruited voluntarily in the second half of the nineteenth century and Tissot commented that it was a fact that human trafficking had stopped at least in 1871.45 Boissay’s writings were based considerably on the accounts of the travelers who had been to Macao, including Hübner’s. But he emphasized another point. If the recruited coolies did not want to leave for the destinations (Peru or Cuba) at the last minute, brutal violence would be used to force them to change their minds, although the application of brutal violence could be stopped due to the judge’s intervention: the judges had the right to question the coolies. Therefore, leaving was not entirely voluntary. Sometimes, three hundred out of eight hundred coolies refused to leave. In addition, the trade agents did not give the coolies leaving for Peru and Cuba the same freedom as those going for Australia and California. The text pointed out that the coolie trade started in 1848, and its abolition took place in 1873 and contributed significantly to Macao’s revenue. For instance, in 1866, Macao’s revenue was 1,188,000 francs. Among this number, 500,000 francs came from the gambling industry and over 300,000 francs from the opium and the coolie trade. 44  Victor Tissot’s nationality is Swiss. He wrote in French and led professional activities in Paris during a significant time period. Therefore, he and his work are included in this study. Joseph Alexander Von Hübner was Austrian, but he wrote in French. Therefore, he and his work are included in this study. 45  Boissay, “Notes sur l’Extrême Orient,” 284.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

95

Regarding the coolie trade, the author held an opposing position: the coolies were the most dreadful resources, and the barracons were a horrific existence. He regretted that Macao was already a “port franc” (free port), but the economy did not rely on commercial activities but gambling, coolie trade, and the opium trade. In 1855, 1,000 ships of the coolie trade left Macao every year, but in 1865 only 206 vessels left. In this text, Shanghai was considered as an additional competitor of Macao in addition to Hong Kong.46 How were the Chinese pictured in the eyes of these French travelers? The term “la race chinoise” (the Chinese race) was frequently used to refer to the Chinese. The Chinese were highly hard-working, active, thrifty, prolific, and wonderfully fit to work people and had absorbed a good portion of business in the places where they settled. In California, the locals received the Chinese with a certain hesitation. For example, the locals in Australia and Java did not entirely welcome the immigration of the Chinese. Instead, they contained the development of the Chinese. In Singapore, they helped the Europeans in fighting against the climate. In the Philippines, Siam, Cochinchina, Japan, and China, they gradually ousted the Europeans from the market by being content with gaining a low-profit margin. But the political status of the Chinese in Peru and Cuba was slave, and each year about 16,000 Chinese slaves succumbed due to the excessive workload assigned to coolies.47

Macao and Hong Kong: Two Different “Colonial Cultures” In Voyage en Asie, Théodore Duret used only two pages to describe Macao and compared it to Hong Kong. Macao and Hong Kong represented two different civilizations: Macao was ancient and a decaying Portuguese settlement. Everything in Macao was quiet and seemed to be dormant. It was like a small provincial city in Europe. The harbor was shallow and could receive only small finishing boats. The old fortresses, picturesque churches, and colorful houses painted and decorated according to the fashion of the past centuries reminded its visitors of the cities in southern Europe, which did not reflect the significant transformations taking place in the West in the nineteenth century. On the contrary, Hong Kong was young and new. Each building was constructed based on the most perfected plans and in the sense of the  Boissay, 281.  Boissay, 283.

46 47

96 

J. XIE

most significant movement. Hong Kong was an island of hills with houses built on the slopes. It had one of the most beautiful harbors in the world, where vessels from all over the world dropped anchor. Any obstacles could not stop the rise of Hong Kong. All this constitutes the author’s sincere praises of the British colony. For the author, Macao and Hong Kong were the two solid spots where the Europeans settled down to exploit China in all kinds of ways. Macao had been the center of the coolie trade for years. The large number of ships transporting coolies, the high percentage of the coolies who died on the journey, and the disguised slavery in the destinations, such as Peru and Cuba, all represented the cruelness of the trade. The French author commented that the English had the scruples of not participating in the coolie trade but had no reservations of poisoning the Chinese with opium and even imposing this poison on them by waging wars against the latter. Thus, he concluded that the Europeans were not “better” than the Chinese: “Quelque triste que cela soit, on est ainsi forcé de reconnaître que les rapports qui existent ici entre Européens et Chinois ont surtout conduit à la mise en common de leurs vices” (How sad that may be, we are forced to recognize that the relations that exist here between Europeans and Chinese have led them above all to the sharing of their vices).48

Count Joseph Alexander von Hübner’s Testimony Joseph Alexander von Hübner (1811–1892), referred to as the Count of Hübner, was an Austrian diplomat, served as minister (later ambassador) to France (1849–1859) and as minister to the Vatican (1865–1867). He was captured during the revolution in Milan in 1848 as an Austrian diplomat. This experience made him a hero in the eyes of the conservatives in Vienna. He also wrote in French as an Austrian and published the travel book Promenade autour du monde in the 1870s. Due to the popularity of the book, he became an international celebrity.49 His works also include Ein Jahr meines Lebens, 1848–1849 (1891), written based on his daily journal, and Neun Jahre der Erinnerungen eines österreichischen Botschafters

 Duret, Voyage en Asie, 158–60.  Among the authors we studied in this book, Victor Tissot, Ludovic de Beauvoir, Charles Boissay and Société de Saint-Auguste all referred to Hübner’s Promenade autour du monde in composing the contents on Macao in their books. 48 49

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

97

in Paris unter dem zweiten Kaiserreich 1851–1859 (1904), a two-volume edition based on his diary recording his years in Paris.50 In his travel around the world, Hübner visited North America, Japan, and China. He left Europe (County Cork, Ireland) in mid-May 1871, and after having seen numerous American, Japanese, and Chinese cities, he arrived in Macao on December 2, 1871. Macao was almost the last stop of his travel and he sojourned in Macao only for a couple of days and left the city on December 4. In his work Promenade autour du monde, he described his short stay in Macao and commented on the following issues and aspects of Macao: Macao’s decline, the coolie trade, the development of the Chinese community, and the Portuguese poet Camões. For Hübner, in terms of the landform, Macao looked very similar to Cadix in Spain. He mentioned a holiday in Macao and used “Iberian” to refer to the middle-­ class Portuguese. The young Portuguese dressed up in their Sunday best, in his eyes, were in an exaggerated sophistication and of bad taste. On the other hand, he considered that the female Macanese were beautiful and chubby: Je vois arriver en chaise et descendre péniblement sur le perron de l’église les beautés macaaises tout enveloppées de leurs capas de soie noire. Elles ont le teint basané, les yeux fendus, et ressemblent à de gros paquets de chair. Suivies de leurs duègnes et domestiques malais, elles pénètrent dans l’église, et, comme cela se pratique en Portugal, s’asseoient indolemment sur leurs talons, murmurent leurs prières et font jouer leurs éventails.51 (I see arriving in a chair and going down painfully on the steps of the church the beautiful Macanese all wrapped in their capas of black silk. They have swarthy complexions, slit eyes, and look like big bundles of flesh. Then, followed by their Malay duennas and domestics, they go into the church and, as practiced in Portugal, sit indolently on their heels, murmur their prayers and swing their fans.)

According to him, only twelve families in Macao were one hundred percent Portuguese by race. Aside from those living in Macao as permanent residents, other Portuguese (doctors, civil workers, and military) were sent by the Portuguese government to work in Macao and were not well 50  Roy A. Austensen, “Alexander von Hübner and the Revolution of 1848: A Reassessment,” Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, Proceedings (1985): 283–301. 51  Joseph Alexander von Hübner, Promenade autour du monde, 6ème éd (Paris: Librairie Hachette et Cie, 1877), 418–19.

98 

J. XIE

paid. The author lamented that the era the Portuguese made a fortune in Macao had been finished. No one was prosperous except the coolie brokers and owners of the gambling houses. The author stated that without the coolie trade and gambling, only grass would grow in Macao. There were three Englishmen and five German residents, but “les races germanique et lusitanienne” (the Germanic and Lusitanian races) met with each other only at an annual party organized by the Portuguese government. The streets were usually quiet and empty. In contrast, the Chinese community was full of life and people, which constituted the fundamental Chinese element in Macao in the author’s eyes. The Portuguese community was like a province in Portugal: very few people, old architecture, barracks without soldiers, museums without a treasury, and offices with employees who needed food.52 The Praia Grande resembled la Junqueira of Lisbonne or the Chiaia of Naples. The churches, Portuguese-styled stairs, and European-styled banisters made Macao look like many Portuguese cities such as Abrantes, Santarem, and Viseu. Chinese elements constantly gained ground. For the author, everything which was Chinese represented life. On the contrary, everything that was Portuguese meant inactivity and sluggishness, if not death. What a problematic comparison! Some Chinese became the owners and residents of beautiful Portuguese houses. And a cultural transformation was complete. The statue of Madone was replaced by a shrine to worship Chinese ancestors. The interior of the Portuguese homes, once characterized with simplicity and convenience, were filled with useless things, such as toys, fabric, paintings, Chinese calligraphy, strange utensils, porcelain vases, and baubles. All these objects were, according to the author, so-called chinoiseries.53 Chinese individuals were more capable than the Chinese government thanks to their assets such as effectiveness and soberness. For this reason, although Macao was governed under the Portuguese flag, the Chinese retook the city as a reality. The Portuguese noticed “the power” of the Chinese and ordered that the Chinese not build houses in Chinese style in Praia Grande. The latter purchased homes from the Portuguese in that small area and became the new owners. For Hübner, two facts contributed to the decline of the business in Macao: the competition from the Chinese and the conclusion of the port treaties between China and Western powers. Precisely, the competition  Hübner, Promenade, 421.  Hübner, 421.

52 53

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

99

from the Chinese in Macao caused the loss of the Portuguese implication. But the Portuguese could not turn the Chinese element into the element that would bring Macao back to prosperity, even to a different kind of prosperity. Here, it is clear that Macao was a Portuguese territory in the eyes of this Western politician. Therefore, the failure of the Portuguese in this settlement was the failure of Macao and vice versa. The reality was that the vivacity and prosperity of the Chinese and local Chinese businesses did not count when the French authors discussed Macao’s economic situation. Hübner analyzed and severely criticized the coolie trade in Macao. Victor Tissot heavily quoted Hübner in his book La Chine, d’après les voyageurs les plus récents (1885) in this regard. For Hübner, the coolie trade was loathsome, in which he claimed the Englishmen and Germen in Macao were not involved. The then governor of Macao, António Sergio de Souza (1809–1878; Macao governor, 1868–1872), tried to make the coolie recruitment undertaken on a mutual consensus basis: consensus of the coolie must be obtained first. In this regard, the Portuguese government was strongly supported by the Chinese government, which would issue and execute death penalties to the recruiters. However, the greedy, unscrupulous, connivant clandestine agents, brokers, and the captains of the vessels transporting coolies neutralized all the efforts made by the two governments. In more than one place, the Portuguese and the Spanish in Macao were actively involved in the coolie trade in Macao. For Hübner, being a coolie broker can be identified from the facial expression of the Spanish: […] deux Espagnols qui vendent de la chair humaine; établis à Macao, ils expédient des koulis au Chili et à la Havane. Pendant mon long séjour à Lisbonne, j’ai cru trouver aux hommes qui s’étaient enrichis dans la traite des noirs, alors encore florissante; un certain air de famille, une expression toute particulière qui n’est pas belle. Je l’ai retrouvée dans la physionomie de l’un des Espagnols avant même de connaître son métier.54 ([…] two Spaniards who sell human flesh; established in Macao, they ship coolies to Chile and Havana. During my long stay in Lisbon, I thought I found men who had become rich in the slave trade, then still flourishing; a certain family atmosphere, a particular expression that is not beautiful. I recognized it in the countenance of one of the Spaniards before even knowing his job.)

 Hübner, Promenade, 284.

54

100 

J. XIE

Like most contemporary Europeans who visited Macao, Hübner regarded Camões highly and even compared the poet’s grotto to the oak tree of Torquato Tasso (1544–1595), the Italian poet of the sixteenth century and author of Gerusalemme Liberate. In addition, Hübner’s writings reveal he had great sympathy for China and the Chinese. At the beginning of this lengthy work, he commented that the Chinese never stopped resisting the Western world’s moral, political, and commercial invasion. He commented as follows: Voir, dans l’Empire du Milieu, les résistances sourdes mais constantes, le plus souvent passives, toujours opiniâtres, que l’esprit chinois oppose aux envahissements moraux, politiques et commerciaux de l’Europe – voilà le but du voyage ou plutôt de la promenade que je compte faire autour du globe.55 (Watch, in the Middle Kingdom, the dull but constant resistance, most often passive, always obstinate, which the Chinese spirit opposes to the moral, political and commercial invasions of Europe – that is the purpose of the journey, or rather that of the walk that I intend to do around the globe.)

The other two places he planned to visit were North America and Japan. He intended to visit the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, and the civilization struggling with the wilderness in North America and go to Japan to closely look at the efforts that made some remarkable individuals suddenly engage their country in the path of progress. In his book, the author’s testimonies show the striking differences in geopolitical circumstances in China, North America, and Japan, referred to as “le soleil levant” (the rising sun). A struggling China, a North America in industrialization, and a quickly rising Japan that was modernizing itself and catching up with the West outlined the significant characters of several major countries at the time.

La Campagne du Cassini in Macao and a Witness of Fou-Tchéou Arsenal Academy The Cassini campaign in the China Seas (La Campagne du Cassini dans les mers de Chine), led by the French naval officer François de Plas (1809–1888), took place during the period of 1851 to 1854. The primary  Hübner, 1.

55

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

101

purpose of the campaign was to protect Catholic missions in China. The campaign had somewhat contacted the rebels of the Taiping Rebellion, which broke out in 1851, to examine the true nature of the Taiping rebels’ religious beliefs and to protect the European Catholics in the rebel-­ occupied territory. This was done with other Western powers. Between April 1853 and July 1854, the English, French, and Americans organized four formal visits to Nanjing. But they quickly found that although there was a Christian character in the religious beliefs of the rebels, the rebels could not be entrusted. As recorded in Campagne du “Cassini” dans les mers de Chine 1851–1854 (1889), the French visited Nanjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國) on December 27, 1853, to understand the oppositional state. The French legation included François de Plas and Alphonse de Bourboulon (1809–1877), the French ambassador to China. The latter had only one meeting with the ministers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and quickly went back to Shanghai. However, the French learned the actual situation of Nanjing and the nature of the rebellion. On December 29, 1853, the campaign left Shanghai for Ningbo (formerly Ningpo, 寧 波), and from Ningbo, François de Plas and his team went to Hong Kong and Macao. They went back to Macao on January 15, 1854.56 François de Plas, captain of the frigate, participated actively in the naval station of the Chinese seas between 1851 and 1858. He was the captain of the war steamer Le Cassini for the first time and then was the flag captain of Admiral Guérin on the frigate La Virginie for the second time. In 1850, François de Plas had been converted to Christianity for two years. He became the official commander of the vessel Le Cassini on December 10, 1850. Therefore, François de Plas was a Jesuit, a member of the Society of Jesus (Compagnie de Jésus), and later became a naval officer. His contemporaries considered him a brilliant naval officer, a genuine Christian, a loving human being with integrity, cultivating a loyal character. He seized every opportunity to be an excellent French and served his religion and his country with the same level of passion. In order to successfully carry out the mission, Plas used three months to study China and steamboats and gained essential knowledge. Le Cassini, equipped with six canons, was a

56  François de Plas, Campagne du “Cassini” dans les mers de Chine, 1851–1854: d’après les rapports, lettres et notes du commandant de Plas (Paris: Retaux-Bray, 1889), 363–70.

102 

J. XIE

wheeled corvette with two hundred horses and had a crew of one hundred twenty members. It set off on the journey on February 12, 1851.57 In reality, the entire book is a correspondence composed of letters exchanged between Plas and his mother in France. The topic is precisely his voyage, the Cassini campaign in the China Sea. Most of the time, he did not describe in detail nor comment on the places the vessel visited; instead, he shared with his mother very often his feelings and observations as a Christian. Another vital matter he talked about was how mission work changed the people in Asia by converting them to Christianity. Plas commented that the mission work went well in China, and the Christian influence could be seen visibly in Chinese cities such as Shanghai. Le Cassini arrived in Canton on August 29, 1851, from Hainan and mounted the island Cowe near Macao on the following day. The vessel went to Taipa on September 3, 1851. The author said he visited the Chinese town of Macao, the Cathedral, the Church Saint-Antoine, and the garden of Camões. In Macao, Plas met with Abbe Huc. He also mentioned that he attended the mess in a Chinese chapel. Unfortunately, he did not describe this visit. The vessel navigated between Macao and Hong Kong. On October 3, 1851, the ship sailed to Hong Kong. For Plas, Hong Kong was picturesque and promising as it would soon take over the commerce of the Portuguese colony—Macao. On November 24, Le Cassini should be in Macao again, according to Plas’ letter, and stayed on the water near Macao for several weeks to take the French minister to Hong Kong and Whampoa in Canton. For Plas, compared to Sumatra and Poulo-­Pinang, the coastal areas of Canton, including Macao, were not pleasant. They were almost barren or even sterile, seen from a distance.58 And Macao had been flourishing but was declining due to the British’s establishment of the Hong Kong colony. Another reason was that the harbor was very shallow, and big vessels had to be cast in a distance of one league (four kilometers) from the port. For Plas, Macao still had a certain charm: the glorious memories telling its splendid past, as evidenced by its public monuments. He said,

 Plas, Campagne du “Cassini,” 52.  Plas, 98.

57 58

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

103

Macao ne manque pas d’un certain charme, celui des souvenirs. Cette ville fut longtemps l’unique centre des relations de l’Europe avec la Chine, et ses monuments publics attestent toujours son ancienne splendeur.59 (Macao does not lack a certain charm, that of the memories. This ville was long the unique center of the relations of Europe with China, and its public monuments always witness its ancient splendor.)

Nevertheless, Plas and his crew did not establish a close relationship with Macao. They mainly stayed on board and contacted the Lazarist fathers and sisters of charity in Macao. On December 28, 1851, Le Cassini decided to leave Macao to sail the coasts of Cochinchina and join the French corvette La Capricieuse where the future famous French Admiral Amédée Courbet (1827–1885) was on board. La Capricieuse was a corvette equipped with thirty-two guns and had the mission of looking for the traces of La Pérouse in the Far East and completing the work left by La Pérouse. The captain was Gaston de Roquemaurel (1804–1878), who was the first mate of Dumont d’Urville (1790–1842) in d’Urville’s second expedition around the world and Antarctica. The lieutenant of the vessel was Ernest Mouchez (1821–1892), who was commodore and Director of the Paris Observatory. The future French naval hero Courbet served as a midshipman on the corvette La Capricieuse from 1849 to 1853. La Capricieuse arrived in Macao on March 5, 1851, and then in the following six months, the vessel was navigating between Macao, Hong Kong, and Shanghai to protect Europeans in China. On August 29, 1851, it arrived from Shanghai in Macao at the same time as Le Cassini did. Then La Capricieuse performed duties such as exploration of the coasts of Vietnam and received the new French consul M. de Bourboulon in Macao.60 In January 1852, La Capricieuse and Le Cassini left Macao together for the southern coast of China. One task of the two vessels was to claim from the Chinese officials the freedom of two French missionaries following the Treaty of Whampoa.61 La Capricieuse finally left Macao for Singapore in  Plas, 99.  J. de la Faye, Histoire de l’amiral Courbet, avec une préface du vice-amiral Jurien de la Gravière (Paris: Librairie Bloud & Barral, 1891), 32–33. 61  E. de Valette, Chronique et faits divers. L’Ami de la religion et du roi: journal ecclésiastique, politique et littéraire, tome cent cinquante-cinquième (Paris: A. Le Clère, 1852), 171. https://books.google.com/books?id=jldY47JFjaEC&pg=PA171&dq=le+cassini+la+capricieuse&hl=zh-TW&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjswsi1ssLiAhVUIIgKHXpCAAQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=le%20cassini%2C%20la%20capricieuse&f=false 59 60

104 

J. XIE

1853. When it navigated on the coasts of China, Courbet should have met Plas and knew him. As Courbet was still a young naval officer at that time, he did not occupy an important place in the writings about the Cassini campaign. In Courbet’s letters, Plas was not mentioned either. François de Plas made an interesting comparison between China and France. He thought both countries were in a critical situation. France went through political turmoil, represented by the French Revolution, the French Empire, the July Revolution, and the February Revolution. But China was more miserable and was seriously sick. For him, a good example was the Taiping Rebellion that was shaking the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The most lamentable was that the Chinese did not know why such a rebellion took place. The French missionary, Father Marie Bertrand Cothonay (1854–1926), was a member of the Order of Friars Preachers. He authored Lives of Four Martyrs of Tonkin Who Belonged to the Dominican Province of the Holy Rosary in the Philippine Islands; Beatified the 20th of May, 1906 (1911), Trinidad: journal d’un missionnaire dominicain des Antilles Anglaises (1893), and Deux ans en Chine, extrait du journal d’un missionnaire dominicain [1902]. He was sent by the Order to the Antilles, China, and Vietnam respectively to carry out the missionary work. In February 1898, he was sent to China as the chaplain of the newly established French colony in Fou-Tchéou (福州) and stayed in China from March 1898 to June 1900. Cothonay had adopted a Chinese name which was 郭駝鼐 (Co Tho Nay), to live and work in China.62 Below is his visit card in Chinese (Image 7.3): This is the card of visit that Cothonay acquired and used when he was sojourning in Fuzhou (alternately Fou-Tchéou and Foochow, 福 州). Cothonay explained in the book that every self-respecting European in China should have a card of visit printed on a big piece of red paper. He adopted a Chinese name 郭鴕鼐 (Co Tho Nay). The three Chinese characters represent the sound of his last name Cothonay, and additionally, each of them has a meaning. 郭 means a high wall, 鴕 is a camel, and鼐 signifies a tripod. For Cothonay, the three Chinese characters enabled the Chinese to pronounce his name easily, and therefore their meanings were not most important. Cothonay stated that once “armed with” this card of visit, he could 62  Marie Bertrand Cothonay, Deux ans en Chine, extrait du journal d’un missionnaire start meeting with learned Chinese people. The card of visit featurdominicain (Tours: Alfred Cattier, [1902]), 30. ing Cothonay’s Sinicized last name sheds light on an interesting detail in the East-West interactions.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

105

Image 7.3  Carte de visite chinoise du P. N.-B. Cothonay (Cothonay’s Chinese card of visit) (Source: Deux ans en Chine, extrait du journal d’un missionnaire dominicain by Marie Bertrand Cothonay (Tours: Alfred Cattier, 1902), 29. gallica.bnf.fr/Bibliothèque nationale de France. Courtesy of the National Library of France)

106 

J. XIE

During the two years in China, he frequently wrote to a friend in France who was the chaplain of the Fou-Tchéou Arsenal (福州船政學堂), the first mission of French engineers in China between 1869 and 1874. The Fou-­ Tchéou Arsenal is closely connected to China’s modern history, particularly the establishment and modernization of China’s navy. It was the first navy college in China and trained the first crucial Chinese naval officers who later fought in the famous wars such as the Battle of Mawei (August 23–26, 1884) and the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895). Prosper Giquel (1835–1886), a French naval officer, was the founding director of the arsenal and played an essential role in establishing the arsenal. In co-­ authoring with Gabriel Lemaire, Giquel also co-authored with Gabriel Lemaire and compiled the Dictionnaire de poche français-chinois suivi d’un dictionnaire technique des mots usités à l’Arsenal de Fou-Tcheou 漢法語彙便 覽 (1874). Macao was not the destination of Cothonay’s world exploration. The majority of the book Deux ans en Chine was composed of Cothonay’s letters on the Arsenal to his friend. Therefore, many contents focus on Fujian particularly Fuzhou and the Chinese Navy. He also discussed the entire country of China and its culture, people, religion, and history. This book constitutes a good source for studying the French arsenal in Fuzhou. Cothonay arrived in Macao before leaving for France through Hong Kong and stayed in Macao for a few days. However, he probably did not record his impression of Macao as we did not find such writings.

The Past and Present of Macao La Chine, published by the Société de Saint-Augustin in 1889, addresses the origin of Macao, its splendid past, and its decline in the nineteenth century. It states at the beginning of the text that because China opened its ports to the Europeans and the continued prosperity of Hong Kong, Macao was very different from what it was in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Thus, a characteristic of this text is that it has two distinct sections entitled respectively “Le passé” and “Le présent,” which address Macao’s past and present. Macao’s past was glorious as it created prosperity in a small corner of the land of rocks and was inhabited by pirates within a brief period. Macao’s history was heroic and memorable. One evidence was that its success aroused the jealousy of the Dutch and caused their invasion

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

107

in 1662. But the Portuguese defeated the Dutch with few casualties compared to the Dutch. Its past splendor was also reflected in Macao’s being a center of Catholicism since its establishment. “Le Saint-Siège y créa aussitôt un évêché suffragant de Goa” (The Holy-Seat immediately created a suffragan bishopric of Goa). In January 1756, Pope Gregory XIII issued an edict to establish the Roman Catholic Diocese of Macao. He appointed the Portuguese Jesuit priest Melchior Miguel Carniero Leitão (1516–1583) as the first bishop of Macao. And the Jesuits accomplished productive mission work until the Portuguese authorities expelled them in 1759–1761. They founded two meaningful Catholic institutions. The text quoted P. Loppin, stating that the four Jesuits that entered Tonkin, were arrested there and then became martyrs for Catholicism on January 12, 1737, had been trained by one of the two houses founded in Macao. In 1820, M. Lamiot, a French Lazarist missionary, after being expelled from Peking, took refuge in Macao, founded the novitiate of Chinese Lazarists, and directed this establishment until his death on June 5, 1831. The text also mentioned that the Paris Foreign Missions Society had its office of procurator for many years in Macao. In 1847 this office transferred to Hong Kong. All this made the glorious past of Macao. Macao was like sleeping. It was quiet and a city belonging to the past. The ancient Portuguese navigators were intrepid and dominators of the seas, but their descendants were reduced to seeking employment in big American and British firms to make a living. The author used the term “dégénérer” to qualify them. But Macao still kept its charm—the legacy of its history, its memories, and the Grotto of Camões. Where was the future? Hong Kong represented the future of commerce in the Far East, set a new example of the success of the Western expansion, and of course, made Macao lose its importance. But, compared to Hong Kong, Macao had an advantage that was its gentle climate and thus became a location for people from Hong Kong and other surrounding areas to take a rest during the hot reasons. The French government established a military hospital in Macao. This text recognized that although small and declining, Macao had been a unique center mirroring the relations between Europe and Chine for a long time. Its churches, convents, and public buildings all constituted the pieces of evidence.63

 Société de Saint-Augustin, La Chine (Lille: Société de Saint-Augustin, 1889), 43–46.

63

108 

J. XIE

Life in Macao Was Slow Ernest Michel (1837–1896), author of Le Tour du monde en deux cent quarante jours: La Chine (1893), was a doctor in law, knight of Saint-­ Sylvestre, and member of the Société de Géographie de Lyon et de Paris. In autumn 1881, Ernest Michel started the first of his two voyages and visited North America (Canada and the United States), Japan, China, Hindostan (Persian name of India). He arrived in Macao on November 16, 1881, and left for Hong Kong on the following day. Ernest Michel reported on what he saw and first described a beautiful image of Macao, seen from the sea. Like all the other visitors, he exclaimed “nous sommes en face de Macao” (We are in front of Macao). He continued to say, “rien de plus pittoresque que cette anciennce ville portuguaise vue de la mer” (Nothing was more beautiful than this ancient Portuguese city viewed from the sea). It was an old picturesque city with colorful houses. Macao had cathedrals, churches, the barrack of the police built in Arabic style, ruins of the Church of St. Paul, a military hospital, and the Grotto of Camões. All this formed an excessively varied framework. He was almost the only traveler who noticed that life in Macao was slow. There were two details: first, in the Hotel of Macao where he stayed, he had to wait for one hour before getting a pretty thin diner. Second, he had difficulties waking the servant for the bath and breakfast at five o’clock in the morning. According to his account, sixteen gambling houses were all located in the Chinese neighborhood, six thousand Portuguese, and about one hundred thousand Chinese in Macao. He observed the decline of Macao and considered that the rise of Hong Kong was the reason. But very different from other travelers, he noticed a detail that Macao exported lots of salted or dried fish and objects made of bamboo. For the political status of Macao, Michel considered that Macao belonged half to the Portuguese and half to the Chinese. Because of the multi-encounters between the two ethnic groups, the Portuguese in Macao were more Chinese than Portuguese in the mindset. Their families had many members and took lower positions in the British and American firms and ships.64

 Michel, Tour du Monde,143–46.

64

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

109

Macao in the Country of Pagodas Alfred Raquez (born Joseph Nicolas Ferdinand Gervais, 1862–1907) was a French traveler, writer, and photographer. In the late nineteenth century, he traveled to Asia from France. According to what he wrote in Au Pays des pagodes, notes de voyage (1900) published in Shanghai by the Imprimerie de la Presse Orientale, he left Hong Kong for Macao on September 1, 1898. Then he traveled to cities and provinces in China such as Shanghai, Hounan (湖南), Kouei-Tcheou (貴州), Kouy-Yang Fou (貴 陽府), Shasi (沙市), Nankin (南京), and Chingkiang (鎮江) and visited the Yang-Tse Kiang (揚子江), Yuen River (沅江), and Tongting Lake (洞庭 湖). In Kouei-Tcheou, Raquez explored mercury mines. In November 1899, he returned to Shanghai to close his trip to China, as stated in the book. His writings on China, later published as the book entitled Au Pays des pagodes, were published first in Echo de Chine, a French newspaper released in Shanghai. His descriptions of China were concise yet detailed. In Shanghai, Raquez met the general Tcheng Ki-tong (陳季同, 1851–1907). The latter translated a famous Chinese song Song for the Four Seasons (四季歌) that Raquez incorporated into his book. Tcheng Ki-tong also wrote the preface of the book in which Tcheng commented that Raquez’s book on China was a sincere account and his point of view was friendly toward China and the Chinese people.65 The most exciting part of the travel that Raquez made was his journey in Southeast Asia. After leaving Shanghai, he went to Laos, Cambodia. He was the editor-in-­ chief of the French literary magazine Revue indochinoise between 1897 and 1907 and became one of the early Westerners who wrote about Laos and photographed the country. In addition, he often illustrated his articles with these photographs. Alfred Raquez authored other works such as Pages laotiennes. Le Haut-Laos. Le Moyen-Laos. Le Bas-Laos (1902), Entrée gratuite (1903), and Les Boursiers de voyage de l’Université de Paris (1905), and co-authored L’Indo-Chine 1906 (1906?). Au Pays des pagodes (1900) authored by Alfred Raquez was written in the first person. It has the form of travel account. Images of Macao, the Chinese, the French, and the Portuguese community are derived.66 First, the image of Macao is discussed. In his observation, Macao was a small, 65  Tcheng Ki-tong, préface to Au Pays des pagodes, notes de voyage by Alfred Raquez (Shanghai: Imprimerie de la presse orientale, 1900), vi. 66  Alfred Raquez, Au Pays des pagodes, notes de voyage (Shanghai: Imprimerie de la presse orientale, 1900), 57–63.

110 

J. XIE

colorful city in European style. Its evening was calm, with a beautiful sky studded with stars. He praised: Macao! Etincelante sous le soleil cru, la petite ville avec son phare sur la falaise, ses forts antiques, son monumental hôtel Boavista, ses palais et ses églises, tandis que descendant de la colline jusqu’aux frais ombrages des quais ses maisons badigeonnées en jaune, en bleu, en rose avec des contrevents vert épinard. (Macao! Sparkling under the raw sun, the small town with its lighthouse on the cliff, its ancient forts, its monumental hotel Boavista, its palaces and churches, while descending from the hill until the cool shade of the quays its houses painted in yellow, blue, pink with green spinach shutters.)

He also mentioned a building in Arab style—a station for Indian soldiers that the Portuguese brought from Goa. There were also arched houses which made people think of some neighborhoods in Singapore. Macao was extremely clean and the climate was very wholesome. It was a hilly city with the “djinriksha” (pulled rickshaw) almost as the only transportation tool. The police examined carefully at the border, although Macao was a free port for the Europeans. Gambling was the most critical revenue of Macao. The author stated that the government received the taxes of 385,000 francs from the sixteen gambling houses in Macao in the previous year. Besides the “gambling industry,” the industry of Macao is composed of silk, mat, opium, tea, and tobacco. A prominent Chinese spinning mill had eight hundred female workers. Many of these workers were considered pretty and of mixed races of Chinese and Macanese. Several had bound feet. Some carried a baby in the bag on their back, so these kids passed ten hours in the spinning mill with their mothers, who made 0.3 French francs each day. Mats were made of rush (“jonc” in French) and dyed in red, green, and blue and were considered by the author as less beautiful than those made in Chantaboum. Mat making was an industry run by the Chinese. Opium was imported from Bombay. After the processing, it was sold to California and Australia. The opium industry brought the Portuguese government 430,000 francs annually. Tea made in Macao was sold to Russia and Australia. The tobacco industry was also run by a Chinese company that had 200 Chinese workers. Second, the image of the Chinese. The Chinese people were much more numerous than other ethnic residents in Macao: the Chinese had a population of 74,000 and constituted the majority of Macao’s residents.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

111

Alfred Raquez called them “les Célestes” (the people of the Celestial Empire) as well as “les misérables” (the miserable), that is, the wretches or the insignificant and pitiful people. The Chinese were of low classes in Macao. They were either coolies pulling those djinrikshas on the steep roads covered with macadams and small rocks or, unfortunately, gamblers. Near the ruins, there were gambling houses run by Chinese on Joco Street: the facade in green was decorated with a giant lantern on which the prominent Chinese characters were written, translated as “the first-class fantan gambling house.” “Fantan” (番攤) was the name that the Portuguese gave to the game “bacouen” played by the Annamites, and the two used the same principles. Foreign gamblers and Chinese gamblers gambled separately: they had their own space. The gambling houses had balconies where the Chinese gamblers put their stake in a small basket and then used a string to tie one end of the line to the basket, and finally lowered the basket to the gambling table downstairs. The fantan gambling described in the text transmitted an image of “perfect picturesqueness.” According to the narrator, the Chinese were fond of the fantan game. The Chinese were blind in mind and strange: they were fond of regarding themselves as a strong people (aiment à se croire forts). For Alfred Raquez, the Chinese tombs looked old and bizarre. The Chinese were also influential in that the entire industry of Macao was controlled in their hands. He further pointed out the Chinese dominance indicated the strength, versatility, and talent of “la race chinoise” (the Chinese race). Third, the image of the Portuguese and Macanese. The Portuguese neighborhood was quiet and calm, compared to the noise of Canton, Hong Kong, and the Chinese community in Macao itself. The author claimed that there were about 4,500 Portuguese nationals in Macao. The majority were Macanese, the descendants of the Portuguese who came to Macao since the beginning of the “Portuguese occupation.” They had a tanned complexion, black eyes, and black hair, resembling Spanish and Portuguese. But the Macanese were considered less subtle in general. Alfred Raquez also described the Grotto of Camões and compared Camões to the famous French poet Henri le Béarnais (Henri IV, 1553–1610). In the wake of Governor Amaral’s death, the narrator commented that the Portuguese realized the complete control of Macao and resolved the conflict between the Portuguese government and Chinese authorities with courage, patience, and wisdom. He called the Chinese “les fils du ciel” (sons of heaven), which is incorrect as only the Chinese emperor was regarded as the son of heaven in Chinese culture. In this account,

112 

J. XIE

Portuguese residents and the Macanese were grouped in one single category by Raquez when he discussed the size of the Portuguese population in Macao. However, he also pointed out that the Macanese were not Portuguese. As a whole, they were less subtle than the Portuguese and belonged to the lower classes of Macao as they could work in the factories with poor Chinese for wealthy Chinese. Raquez seldom regarded the Macanese the same way he did with the Portuguese. Fourth, the image of the French was analyzed. As a French citizen, Raquez wrote that the French people in Canton had conserved the qualities such as intelligence, energy, courage, and enthusiasm, which belonged to the French race long. And all these characters built the uniqueness of the French race.67 Finally, how did Alfred Raquez picture Macao’s history as a traveler? He positioned Macao as a peninsula that had belonged to Portugal since 1557, when the Chinese permitted the Portuguese to use the peninsula as a trading base. He also claimed in the text that some fanatic Chinese set fire to the Church of Saint Paul in 1836. He commented on the killing of governor Amaral on August 22, 1849. For him, China and Portugal interpreted the annual payment of five hundred taels (about 3,750 francs) differently. For Portugal, this amount of money just represented the friendship from the Portuguese. However, China considered this was the tribute that Portugal should pay China. Governor Amaral refused to pay the sum and then was assassinated by the Chinese. After this incident, the Portuguese required the Chinese permanently consider Macao as a foreign land where they were tolerated to live only but were not allowed to conduct any burial in the colony. In addition, the Portuguese government took measures to control the Chinese population in Macao. Five doctors were assigned to visit the Chinese neighborhood regularly. If a sick Chinese were found, he would be transported to the hospital immediately, and the Chinese were only allowed to be buried on the other side of the border, currently Zhuhai. The expressions, such as “appartenant au Portugal depuis 1557” (belonging to Portugal since 1557) and “dès le début de l’occupation” (from the beginning of the occupation), were used to discuss the relationship between Macao and China. Indeed, the interpretation of the cause of the fire which burnt the Church of Saint Paul down and the reasons for the murder of governor Amaral were given from a traveler’s perspective are primarily anecdotal.

 Raquez, Pays des pagodes, 57.

67

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

113

Escayrac de Lauture: Prisoner of War and His Negative Opinion on Macao The Count Pierre Henri Stanislas Escayrac de Lauture (1826–1868) was a French explorer, geographer, diplomat, linguist, and commander of the Légion d’honneur. As a French nobleman, He was from one of the oldest French aristocratic families of Le Quercy. The family began to own the land “d’Escayrac” in the eleventh century. Three knights bearing the name of d’Escayrac participated in the First Crusade (the Seventh Crusade in history) led by Louis IX, known as Saint Louis, in 1248. Two of them were killed in the battle of La Massoure, and the third one, at the age of eighty, protected and ensured the safety of the queen Marguerite de Provence.68 Stanislas d’Escayrac de Lauture was the son of marquis Léonce d’Escayrac-Lauture (1786–1867), pair de France. It is known that in the mid-nineteenth century, France was busy exploring Africa and the Middle East. Geographical exploration was closely linked to colonial expansion, particularly for France, which was defeated by the Prussians in the War of 1870 and then realized the importance of geographical knowledge to a country and its citizenry. Escayrac de Lauture fully understood the importance of geography. He stated that the purpose of geography was to open the vast land to the nations tightly confined in Europe. It was the glorious motive of so many heroic voyageurs who died by lighting a road for the armies of the future to follow. But, like many explorers of his times believed, geography led to new territory and, precisely, colonial expansion. Escayrac de Lauture was admitted by the Geographical Society of Paris (Société de géographie) as a member on February 7, 1851. He had traveled in Europe and countries in Africa and the Middle East, such as Tunisia, Egypt, and Turkey, and fostered a strong interest in African geography, particularly in Egypt. Meanwhile, he learned how to speak Arab. He led the expeditions in Africa, published in the Bulletin de la Société de géographie in Paris, and wrote books on Africa, including Le Désert et le Soudan (1853), Mémoire sur le Ragle ou hallucination du désert: adressé à l’Académie des sciences (1855), and De la Turquie et des états musulmans en général (1858).69 68  Anonymous, D’Escayrac-Lauture. Quercy, marquis d’Escayrac; barons de Lauture; seigneurs de Cayriech, Montayral, la Vernède, la Bastide, Cazillac, Maloge, etc. (1886). Bibliothèque nationale de France, http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb342105701. 69  Paul Durand-Lapie, Le Comte d’Escayrac de Lauture, voyageur et explorateur français commandeur de la Légion d’honneur. Sa vie et ses ouvrages (Paris: Honoré Champion, 1899), 171–74.

114 

J. XIE

In December 1859, he received personal instructions from the French emperor Napoléon III and was ordered to travel to the Far East. He was charged with research tasks as he was a member of the Geographical Society of Paris and had already accomplished significant researches on African countries. Because the Second Opium War was taking place between China and the Anglo-French forces, Escayrac de Lauture participated in a mission of both diplomatic and military nature. The destination of this expedition was Peking, and Escayrac was very interested in it. He confessed that nothing could satisfy him more than this journey as it would transport him outside the limited horizon of the small European world and its little knowledge. For him, Europe was civilized while Africa and the Orient were barbaric, and these places were not worth his time to study them. But China was different, and he hoped he could write about China like what Herodotus did with  Epytian history. Moreover, taking forty days to travel from Paris to Shanghai meant that the geographical distance between Europe and China was not longer than the distance separating Egypt from Athens.70 Thus, the ancient Celestial Empire, although located in the Far East, was well within reach. He arrived in Petchili (北直隸) with the Anglo-French fleet at the end of July 1860 as a scientific adviser to the French army. Probably for this reason he was recorded as an amateur in Expédition des armées françaises en Chine, 1857–1860.71 Along with Harry Smith Parkes (1828–1885), Henry Lorch and other soldiers of the Anglo-French force, Escayrac de Lauture was captured by the Chinese army on September 18, 1860, in Tianjin and then was escorted to Peking where he was tortured and put into jail by the Chinese authorities. He was released in Peking on October 10, 1860.72 After Escayrac de Lauture was released, he went to Shanghai to treat his severely injured hands during his capture. He should have left Shanghai for France before 1862 due to his serious health condition. Back to France he wrote books on China, including Considérations sur le passé et l’avenir de la Chine (1862), Mémoires sur la Chine (1864), and La Chine et les Chinois (1878). La Chine et les Chinois is a five-volume book, a posthumous edition and constitutes, however, Escayrac de Lauture’s representative work.  Durand-Lapie, Comte d’Escayrac de Lauture, 106–07.  Anonymous, Expédition des armées françaises en Chine, 1857–1860, nouvelle éd. (Paris: Librairie des villes et des campagnes, 1874), 93. 72  Durand-Lapie, Comte d’Escayrac de Lauture, 103–37. 70 71

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

115

Like many Europeans of his time, Escayrac de Lauture expected himself to be an expert on China and positioned himself as someone who could provide new and accurate knowledge of China. After the French Treaty with China was signed, he planned to visit Chinese provinces and reside in Peking for a couple of months to continue studying the country. He hoped he could build a relationship with Chinese literati interested in acquiring Western knowledge; notably, he wanted to obtain clear and complete information on the general administration of China. He had the idea of being a Westerner who was able to communicate with the Chinese and use lessons, thoughts, and feelings to conquer China. He considered the missionaries sent to China in the previous century and received by the Qing court as advisors. Their achievement in China set an excellent example that the West should try to understand China first. For him, a mutual understanding was essential to build a good relationship with China. However, ignorance dominated this relationship, and the Westerners of his time did not try to understand China. Therefore, he considered that France should take on the responsibility of rebuilding the relationship with China.73 However, his weak health prevented him from carrying out the project. As mentioned above, he returned to France soon. In Paris, he delivered a speech on the two Chinese rivers Hoang-ho (黃河) and Yang-tse-Kiang (揚子江), at a general meeting of the Geographical Society of Paris on April 4, 1860. He also published a report in which he suggested applying Chinese characters to telegraphy by combining them with conventional symbols and thus rendering the same ideas in the same manner in all languages. However, the proposal encountered strong objections in France and was not put into implementation.74 For Escayrac de Lauture, China as a country and the Chinese as a people should be examined separately. The aim of the book La Chine et les chinois, as stated in the preface, was to help the West better understand China and its people. For Escayrac de Lauture, China was a country lagging far behind, to which the West brought both wars and progress. However, the Chinese people were in a different case. Here, he used the Chinese soldiers as an example to illustrate the difference between the two. Being directly involved in the Second Opium War, he witnessed how the Chinese army fought against Western powers. Therefore, he wanted to  Escayrac de Lauture, Chine et les chinois, 60–61.  Durand-Lapie, Comte d’Escayrac de Lauture, 141–46.

73 74

116 

J. XIE

correct the viewpoint that the Chinese troops were cowards and pointed out that was one of those agreed fables fabricated history. He argued that the Chinese army was inferior to the Western forces by tactics and weapons, but they had the same courage.75 Escayrac de Lauture set foot on Macao on his way of returning to France. He started by discussing the fall of Macao and why Macao lost its prosperity. Macao could not regenerate its economy, stagnating on the small contribution extracted from the gambling houses and living in the shadow of Hong Kong, which had become a good port for trade and navigation.76 The opinion that Escayrac de Lauture held of the Portuguese in Macao was sharply negative. This point of view was the same as who he viewed China and the Chinese overall. First of all, in La Chine et les chinois, he considered the Chinese were inferior to the Europeans: L’homme de race chinois, comme arrêté dans sa croissance, est moins développé que nous; imberbe ou presque imberbe, si ce n’est dans le nord, il a cette docilité qui se plie au despotisme asiatique. Laborieux et patient, il s’assimile et imite ce qu’il voit sans que son esprit aille beaucoup au-delà. Il n’a pas notre puissance d’abstraction (1); il n’a pas non plus le sens moral aussi développé que nous; mais comme il a moins d’audace; il ne fait pas habituellement plus de mal que nous n’en faisons (2). En résumé; le peuple chinois, pris comme type de ceux de l’extrême Asie, nous est inférieur en plusieurs points, mais peut-être pas en tous, et n’est inférieur qu’au seul peuple européen.77 (The man of the Chinese race, as stopped in his growth, is less developed than us, beardless or almost beardless. Yet, if not in the north, he has that docility that bends to Asian despotism. Laborious and patient, he assimilates and imitates what he sees without his mind going much beyond. He does not have our power of abstraction (1), nor does he have the moral sense as developed as we, but he has less audacity; it does not usually do more harm than we do (2). In summary, the Chinese people, taken as those of extreme Asia, are inferior to us in several points, but perhaps not in all, and are only subordinate to the European people.)

He made an aggressive comparison of the Portuguese people in Macao with the Europeans. He commented that the latter came to China without capital, quickly became rich, owned beautiful houses, and managed firms  Durand-Lapie, 152.  Escayrac de Lauture, Chine et les chinois, 14. 77  Escayrac de Lauture, 11. 75 76

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

117

and banks. On the other hand, the Portuguese in Macao, though familiar with the Chinese language and Chinese customs, were not able to compete with Europeans. Instead, they served as interprets, agents, and clerks of those Europeans who later came to China. He even considered that the Persians who resided in Macao performed better than the Portuguese.78 He called the Persians “admirers of fire” (adorateurs du feu) and viewed them as the peers of the Europeans.79 Despite the strangeness of their religion and singularities of their costumes, Escayrac considered the Persians the peers of Europeans. The reason was that they thought, wrote, worked, and trafficked in the way that the Europeans did. Among the Parsis, there were engineers, doctors, journalists, theologians that defended their religion, philanthropists who built hospitals and schools and even those who were granted knightship in England.80 For Escayrac de Lauture, the Portuguese descendants in Macao and their living style had degenerated to the point where they could no longer be regarded as peers of the Europeans. Escayrac de Lauture arrived in China amid the Second Opium War and precisely after China and Britain concluded the 1858 Treaty of Tianjin. His impression of China, the Chinese, and Macao mirror a historical period where China’s civilization was declining into a backward one. He witnessed that the West once again conquered China and how the country suffered the sacking of the Summer Palace in October 1860. The military defeats that China constantly suffered and the burning and the destruction of the imperial garden by the foreign forces had dramatically changed how the West viewed China. Although there existed Sinophiles, the West overall held less respect for China and Chinese culture. Escayrac de Lauture held very negative opinions on the Chinese, Macao, and the Portuguese in Macao, and the Macanese whom he considered as “other” vis-à-vis the Europeans, represented by the Franco-British Expeditionary Force. Escayrac de Lauture was among those who represented the post-­treaty generation of Westerners and held new, striking, and explicit cultural and political aggressiveness or contempt toward China. For a Western observer 78  Macao has the oldest Parsi burial cemetery—(Cemitério dos Parses) in the Far East, established in 1822 and put into use in 1829. It has graves of several Parsis and Muslims. The adjacent mosque was constructed in the early 1980s by the Muslims recruited from the regions such as Goa and Mumbai to serve in the Portuguese army. 79  Escayrac de Lauture, Chine et les chinois, 15. 80  Escayrac de Lauture, 16.

118 

J. XIE

like him, China was a loser politically and culturally, no longer a civilized society, and represented a despotic, ineffective, and corrupt society. In terms of gaining knowledge, for Escayrac de Lauture, after the treaty was signed, the French agents were able to sojourn in Peking and gain first-hand information on China without relying on the missionaries who sent the information from Peking to the French agents in Macao. Therefore, Macao gradually lost its importance as a station for collecting and transferring intelligence when China was about to open its ports to the West.

Macao, Home for a French Army Doctor F.  Castano wrote his book L’Expédition de Chine. Relation physique, topographique et médicale de la campagne de 1860 et 1861. F. Castano was a military doctor and precisely the head of the health service in the French occupation division in Rome and chief medical officer of the French army in the Chinese expedition in 1860.81 F.  Castano arrived in Hong Kong with the French force in March 1860 before heading to the North of China. When the fleet was refilling the supply in Hong Kong, he visited Canton and Macao. Macao had two harbors; none of them were deep enough for warships to anchor there. A large bay located in the north of Macao and west of Taipa, five miles away from the city of Macao, was the only place in the harbor to allow large vessels to anchor. Macao looked like a European city from the Praia Grande, with high buildings, hotels, and trade warehouses. However, Macao was also a European settlement in decline. The shallowness of its ports prevented Macao from becoming a major port despite the Portuguese government being aware of this issue. For him, Macao represented an old splendor that had gone extinct and was in a state of stagnation and slump, reigned by neither life nor death.82

81  Little information on F. Castano is found. According to the information provided by the title page of the book L’Expédition de Chine. Relation physique, topographique et médicale de la campagne de 1860 et 1861 (Paris: Victor Rozier, Éditeur, 1864), Castano was “médecin en chef du corps expéditionnaire de Chine, Médecin principal de première classe; Chef du service de santé à la division d’occupation à Rome, Officier de la Légion d’honneur; chevalier de l’ordre autrichien François-Joseph, de l’ordre romain Pie IX, de l’ordre impérial turc do Medjidié, décoré des médailles de Chine et d’Italie, etc.” 82  F.  Castano, L’Expédition de Chine. Relation physique, topographique et médicale de la campagne de 1860 et 1861 (Paris: Victor Rozier, éditeur, 1864), 55.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

119

Idleness marked the lifestyle of the Portuguese or the Macanese in Macao. F.  Castano indicated that there were about 30,000 residents in Macao and a quarter of them were Portuguese nationals. These Portuguese were of the mixed spirit of Portuguese and Chinese and no longer possessed the racial characters that distinguished them in the times of Vasco da Gama. These people were a cohort of individuals without resistance, addicted to idleness, and all the vices engendered by their stay in intertropical countries. However, the men were robust, reasonably tall, with regular features on their brown faces and a lot of animation in their expressive eyes. On the other hand, the women had yellow skin, a flat nose, an enormous mouth, curly hair, and a heavy waist. For F. Castano, this portrait showed the mixed-blood women who spent most of their days in idleness and practicing excessive devotion. They appeared like ghosts in the streets and churches, veiled by the transparent mantilla. Their loin cloth and costumes were a mixture of Hindu and Portuguese clothing from the old days of the monarchy.83 In his book, Castano described how the French army doctors received Escayrac de Lauture in a temporary ambulance set up on a farm near Peking on October 10, 1860. The latter was in a miserable health condition: covered with vermin, wounds, barely able to walk, and still wearing on his writs the stigmata of the ill-treatment he had suffered. He could not use his hands for several months, muscles were atrophied and paralyzed, and general emaciation and pain spread over his countenance.84 The two French navy hospitals offered outstanding services to the French armies in their expeditions in Cochinchina.85 The French navy built a hospital when France established the French Indochina, which mainly served as the evacuation of the French navy hospital in Saigon. During the Second Opium War, Charles Cousin-Montauban, the Count of Palikao (1796–1878), in his passage to Macao in March 1860 before leading the troops to the north of China, recognized the need of maintaining a French hospital. The lease at that time was supposed to expire on April 1, 1860. Cousin-Montauban ordered the French navy to find a new

 Castano, Expédition de Chine, 56.  Castano, 168. 85  Castano, 202. 83 84

120 

J. XIE

house in better condition and renewed the lease signed.86 The author mentioned that this hospital prepared five hundred to six hundred beds to receive the sick people when the fleet arrived in Hong Kong on March 22, 1860.87 According to the records provided by F.  Castano the hospital respectively received twelve, eighty-five, and one soldier of the French land army in 1860, 1861, and 1862.88 When the French fleet arrived in Hong Kong in March 1860, about fifty sick soldiers from the sailing frigate La Vengeance were sent to the French Hospital in Macao for treatment.89 Macao remained important for the Europeans in the mid-nineteenth century. Macao was a place where the Europeans found home. In the 1860s, Castano stated that although Canton and Shanghai had become the trading ports open to the West, the existence of Macao and Hong Kong allowed the Europeans to be somewhat at home. The European element infiltrated everywhere in these two colonies, especially since the Anglo-French force began the military campaign.90 Macao was also a retreat place for Englishmen and wealthy people: in July and August, they often abandoned their business in Hong Kong and came to Macao to breathe more pure and healthy air.91

The Distinct Portuguese Community and the Chinese Community: One Macao, Two Towns La Chine, d’après les voyageurs les plus récents (1885) by Victor Tissot (1844–1917) describes a distinct difference between the Portuguese community and the Chinese community in Macao. The two communities were described as neighbors: after one passed by the Portuguese city, one 86  Castano, 211. This is also recorded in L’Expédition de Chine de 1860: souvenirs du général Cousin de Montauban, comte de Palikao, publiés par son petit-fils, le comte de Palikao (Paris: Librairie Plon, 1932), 39. 87  Little information is found on the French military hospital in Macao. FranceGenWeb provides an evidence of the existence of this hospital. According to FranceGenWeb, Cyprien Eugene Masse died in the French Military Hospital in Macao on September 6, 1859. The witness of his death was Portier Edmond Adolphe, assistant commissioner of the navy. Cyprien Eugene Masse was born January 29, 1828 in Paris and was a sailor of the third class on the mixed transport La Gironde. “Les “actes en vrac” pour: Macao [9232],” FranceGenWeb, http://www.francegenweb.org/actes/listed.php?dept=9232 88  Castano, Expédition de Chine, 267. 89  Castano, 75. 90  Castano, 91. 91  Castano, 71.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

121

entered the Chinese one and perceived a noticeable change. As much as the Portuguese part was inert with the barracks without soldiers and convents without monks, the Chinese district was dynamic, noisy, alive, and joyful.92 The scene of the Chinese city outlined in the text is vivid: peddlers boasting the merchandise, running coolies carrying packages, boxes, and bundles, crowded shops, long lines in front of the restaurants, and about twenty gambling houses. Another detail to differentiate the two communities is the different vehicles used to carry the Portuguese women and Chinese ladies and the physical difference between the two types of women. Victor Tisso stated as follows: L’indolente chaise à porteurs dans laquelle se prélasse la massive beauté macaaise cachée sous sa capa de soie noire est remplacée par le léger palanquin, transportant avec une vitesse d’oiseau la svelte Chinoise à la robe étincelante de broderies d’or et au chignon traversé d’épingles à boules d’argent. The indolent sedan chair in which is stretched out the heavy-looking beautiful Macanese woman hidden under her black silk capa is replaced by the light palanquin, carrying at a bird’s speed the slender Chinese woman dressed in glittering gold embroidery and with a hair bun held in place with silver ball pins.

It is noteworthy that la chaise à porteurs was different than le palanquin. Both can be translated into “litter” in English, but the author’s observation was sharp. He pointed out that la chaise à porteurs was used by the Europeans or the Macanese while the Chinese people more used le palanquin. Thus, the former represented a European life and the latter a Chinese one. Another difference between the two was that if more people carried a palanquin, it usually would indicate the carrier was more significant, and the social status of the rider was more critical. These sentences also draw the differences between the Portuguese and Macanese ladies and the Chinese ladies on physical appearance. He appraised the Macanese for their physical beauty, which is not often seen in the literature examined in this study. Victor Tissot, did not set foot in Macao, so his affirmation should not be an on-site testimony but was based on his previously acquired knowledge. Comparing these descriptions and the Count Joseph Alexander von Hübner’s account of Macao in his work Promenade autour du monde shows that Tissot borrowed Hübner’s text in his writing. On  Tissot, Chine, 10.

92

122 

J. XIE

the other hand, it indicates that the influence of Hübner’s work writing about China and Macao on the Europeans was immense during the nineteenth century. Gambling is discussed in this text. First of all, the roulette wheel in Macao was similar to the one in Monaco. Second, the separation of the two peoples in Macao was described again, illustrated a type of “segregation” that split the European gamblers and Chinese ones: the former gambled around the table on the same floor. In contrast, the latter did in a balcony overhanging above the table. Because there was a distance from the balcony to the table, the Chinese gamblers had to call out their game with a loud voice. They played the game, in fact, in a separate physical space. However, the European and Chinese gamblers were put together without distinction regardless of their social walks. The gamblers were military staff, employees, unemployed people, young tourists from Canton and Hong Kong, and local merchants. The existence of two culturally distinct cities did not mean the absolute separation of two peoples. The French authors almost did not describe the interactions between the Portuguese and the Chinese, or they were not able to observe such scenes. However, the blending of different races should have taken place in Macao during that time, or we cannot say the separation is absolute. We can use the census data in 1878 as an example to illustrate the point here (Image 7.4). The table shows the census data of Macao in 1878 covering the total numbers of Portuguese, Chinese, English, Spanish, Dutch, German, American, Turkish, Moor, and Italian nationals. Macao was divided into two counties: the Macao peninsula formed one, and Taipa and Coloane formed the other. The small peninsula was further divided into four parishes, three districts, and one port, and had 88.06% of the total population of the Portuguese settlement. The numbers of Western residents other than Portuguese were minimal and most of them lived in two parishes on the peninsula: the Cathedral Parish and St. Lawrence’s Parish. The Chinese represented 93.31% of the population of Macao were Chinese and they were spread over the peninsula, Taipa, and Coloane.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

123

Image 7.4  Recenseamento geral de 31 de dezembro de 1878 (General census of December 31, 1878) Supplemento ao “Boletim da Provincia de Macau e Timor,” no. 52 de 25 de dezembro de 1880. Boletim da Provincia de Macau e Timor, sexta-­ feira, 31 de dezembro de 1880 [Macao]: [Imprensa nacional], 1880). Courtesy of the Macao Public Library)

The table above provides an overview of Macao’s population in 1878. The total number of Portuguese nationals in the Macao peninsula, Taipa, and Coloane was 4,476, and that of the Chinese was 63,532.93 The majority of the Portuguese citizens lived in the Cathedral Parish, Parish of S. Lourenço, Parish of Santo Autonio, and Parish of S. Lazaro. The four districts, respectively, had 2240, 1310, 435, and 353 Portuguese nationals. In addition, ninety-three Portuguese nationals lived in the Port of Macao. According to the census data, the Chinese lived in each district of Macao. The Parish of S.  Lourenço also had a considerable number of Portuguese nationals. The District of Bazar had the largest Chinese population. The two had 10,735 and 14,343 Chinese residents, followed by the Cathedral Parish, where the Chinese totaled 6,430. As shown in the table above, the population distribution indicates that the major parishes had the same considerable numbers of Portuguese and Chinese. In other 93  It should refer to the total of citizens with Portuguese nationality, including the Macanese.

124 

J. XIE

words, the Chinese and Portuguese nationals lived together in several districts which were, in fact, mainly inhabited by the latter. The District of Bazar, District of Patane, and District of Mong-Ha were occupied solely by the Chinese. These districts also belonged to the so-called Chinese town, frequently mentioned by the French authors in their texts. Thus, the population distribution well illustrates the Chinese and the Portuguese lived together in physical spaces.

Macao During the Sino-French Negotiations in 1844 In July 1844, the Qing Dynasty signed the Treaty of Wangxia (also Treaty of Wanghia, 望夏條約) with the United States. Then, on October 24, 1844, the Qing signed the Treaty of Whampoa with France aboard the warship L’Archimède. Based on the terms of the treaty, China had to open five harbors to French merchants and grant extraterritorial privileges to French citizens in China, a fixed tariff on Sino-French trade, and the right of France to station consuls in China. The Qing selected to carry out the negotiations with France in Macao. The French envoy was Théodore de Lagrené (1800–1862) and the primary representative of the Chinese government was Ky-ing (耆英, 1787–1858).94

94  The French ambassadorship was composed as the following: Baron de Lagrené, head of the mission, Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary; Marquis de Ferrière Le Vayer (1812–1864), First Secretary; Viscount Bernard d’Harcourt, Second Secretary; Xavier Raymond (1812–1886), historiographer, special envoy of Journal des Débats; Melchior Yvan (1806–1873), doctor of the legation; Charles de Montigny (1805–1868), Chancellor; Marey-Monge, attaché of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, one paid attaché, three independent attachés, and J.-M. Callery, interpreter of the mission, then residing in Macao as interpreter to the French Consul. The members of the legations were designated by the Ministry of Agriculture after consultation with the Chambers of Commerce in Reims, Mulhouse, Saint- Étienne, Lyon and Paris, and were composed as follows: Auguste Haussmann (1815–1874), for the cotton industry, Natalis Rondot (1821–1900), for the industry of wool, sheets, and Champagne wines; Isidore Hedde (1801–1880), for the silk industry and Édouard Renard (1812–1898), for the so-called articles of Paris. The Ministry of Finance added to the expedition Jules Itier (1802–1877), a customs inspector charged with studying the questions of tariffs and navigation, and his secretary Charles Lavollée (1823–??). Dr. Mallat de Bassilan (1808–1863), sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was in charge of a special mission in Indochina. Source: L’Ambassade de Lagrené at https://heritage.bnf.fr/ france-chine/fr/ambassade-lagrene-article

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

125

Charles-Hubert Lavollée (1823–18??), Jules Itier (1802–1877), and Auguste Haussmann (1815–1874) wrote about Macao and belonged to the French legation, which had the mission of negotiating the treaty teams with the then Qing government. Lavollée’s book, Voyage en Chine: Ténériffe, Rio Janeiro, le Cap, Ile Bourbon, Malacca, Singapore, Manille, Macao, Canton, ports chinois, Cochinchine, Java, was published in 1852. The contents on Macao cover seventy-seven pages and eight sections, providing a large number of details on Macao, including those on the areas close to the border which separated Macao and “the Chinese territory” and how the French legation interacted with the Chinese mandarins during the negotiations. Lavollée was a prefect (“préfet” in French) and a journalist. He was also a member of the mission of France in China 1843–1846 (La Mission de France en Chine 1843–1846), acting as secretary to Jules Itier and accompanying him in the four-year expedition in the Far East. In the negotiations with China in 1845, Itier’s title was French Minister of Commerce. He realized the famous first photographic reportage on China. His photos on China, including those on Macao, constitute the earliest photos on China known so far. His work Journal d’un voyage en Chine en 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846 published in 1848, four years earlier than Lavollée’s book, is composed of three volumes and more than one thousand pages with special notes and photos on China. The ethnological value of the book is undeniable. Auguste Haussmann was a member of the legation with the task of collecting information on the cotton industry. The three members of the legation all wrote about their stay in Macao but with different foci. According to Lavollée’s text which uses seventy-eight pages to recount his sojourn in Macao, the vessel La Sirène carrying the mission members left Brest, France on December 12, 1843, and arrived in Macao on August 14, 1844, after having visited different places in North America and Asia. When they arrived in Macao, the French war steamer La Cléopâtre had been sailing around the China seas for over a year. This vessel carried the French envoy, who was supposed to start the negotiations with the Qing. The French ambassadorship arrived in Macao from Manilla. The first impression that Macao conveyed to Lavollée was a European city. But with the Chinese elements quickly appearing, Macao demonstrated its actual appearance: it was a small Portuguese colony in Asia. He noticed that Macao had two praias: Praia Grande (南灣) on the south coast and Praia do Manduco (下環) on the west coast of the peninsula. In this regard, he observed more carefully because most of the travelers only

126 

J. XIE

mentioned the Praia Grande. The city of Macao was precisely constructed in the corner formed by the two praias. The circumference of the space conceded to the Portuguese was about eight miles. Before 1846, the inner harbor was open only to Portuguese vessels, Spanish vessels, and Chinese junks. From the Praia Grande, one entered the interior of the Portuguese neighborhood. The streets were very narrow, paved with big marble stones or just stones. Big houses were well constructed, with high windows, which reminded the city’s affluence in the past, but the most beautiful ones were either no longer inhabited by people or collapsed. The neighborhood was tranquil; the only animation was from the Chinese shops located there. There were three Chinese villages: Mong-Ha (望廈), Patane (沙梨頭), and Lapa (銀坑) situated in the north.95 The decline of Macao was related to the faith of the Portuguese. Lavollée considered that religious ideas and chivalrous momentum dominated the Portuguese, deeply worn out in building fortresses, churches, and convents. Their missionaries were busy preaching Christianity across China. Commerce became less and less important and was gradually transferred to the hands of the British and Americans. For the author Macao was given an opportunity of recovery but missed it, unfortunately. Here is the background from where this reasoning came. During the First Opium War, the British were no longer able to stay in Canton and had to seek asylum with the Portuguese government in Macao. The contraband gave Macao an opportunity of making unexpected fortunes. Macao was more prosperous than Portugal in that the latter sent the old war vessels to Macao and let Macao pay the repairs of the ships and the debts. But, when the war was over and the Treaty of Nanjing was signed, Macao did not take any measures to entice British or American companies to stay in the city nor transformed itself into a free port. Historically, it was not until 1845 did Portugal proclaimed Macao as a free port. Lavollée pointed out that because Macao missed the opportunity, the Americans headed Canton and the British moved to Hong Kong after the First Opium War. He considered that Macao probably needed a new master: if it were sold like an ancient hovel to enterprising and clever people, for example, the British and Americans, it would keep its commercial importance.96

 Lavollée, Voyage en Chine, 233–35.  Lavollée, 233–42.

95 96

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

127

Like other authors, Lavollée was sensitive to Macao’s population. He noted that there were less than five to six thousand Europeans in Macao, and the majority of this population was composed of the descendants of the early colonists. The Macanese were not the same as the Portuguese but formed a distinct caste between the Portuguese and Chinese and became closer to the Asian race. He commented as follows: Comment reconnaître la vaillante race des compagnons d’Albuquerque en voyant le teint douteux et tirant sur le jaune, le nez épaté, les lèvres épaisses, les yeux ternes et presque bridés d’un visage macaïste! Ces malheureux colons vivent retirés au fond de leurs maisons: ils ne se livrent à aucune industrie; sauf de très-rares exceptions, on ne les voit mêlés à aucune affaire; ils paraissent à peine dans les rues de la ville.97 (How to recognize the brave race of the companions of Albuquerque by seeing the uncertain, yellowish complexion, the flat nose, the thick lips, the dull and almost slanting eyes of a Macanese face! These unfortunate settlers live secluded deep in their houses; they do not engage in any industry; except for infrequent exceptions, people do not see them involved in any matter; they barely appear in the streets of the city.)

He used the terms “la vaillante race” (the brave race) and “malheureux colons vivent retirés au fond de leurs maisons” (unhappy settlers live in seclusion at the bottom of their houses) to illustrate the fundamental difference between the early Portuguese explorers and the Macanese settlers in the nineteenth century. In Macao, the French envoy was welcomed by both the Portuguese and the Chinese. He landed in Macao with his right foot to show the Chinese that the French expected an optimistic outcome of their visit. Lavollée did not indicate in the text whether he participated in the negotiations but recorded how the French met with the central figures who formed the Chinese legation and their names and how the two legation reacted to each other. Nevertheless, these detailed descriptions reveal that the author closely participated in the event. For example, he enumerated the Chinese dishes at the banquet offered to the French legation and gave detailed descriptions of Ky-ing’s visit to the French corvette. On October

 Lavollée, 240.

97

128 

J. XIE

24, 1844, before signing the Treaty of Whampoa, the French offered Ky-ing, and Chinese officials received a guided tour of the French warship L’Archimède. The author recorded that Ky-ing’s facial expression changed quickly from joyful to somber after witnessing the French warship’s advanced technology. He further commented that seeing the technological and military superiority of the West over China significantly increased Ky-ing’s concerns regarding the future of China’s position in the competition against the West.98 This observation echoes Jules Itier’s opinion, another member, regarding the lamentable condition of a Chinese war vessel. Itier stated: “Quelques mauvais canons de fonte de fer à peu près hors d’usage, un faisceau de piques d’abordage et de hallebardes, ainsi qu’un affreux dragon ailé, sculpté à la poupe, composaient tous les moyens de défense de cette citadelle flottante.”99 (Some bad cast-iron cannons almost out of order, a bundle of boarding pikes and halberds, and a hideous winged dragon, carved at the stern, made up all the means of defense of this floating citadel.)

Lavollée was one of the few authors who mentioned their visit to the Chinese city in Macao and the Casa Branca (often referred to as White House) in Xiangshan, where was stationed the Chinese mandarin in charge of Macao affairs. An effort to record his visit in detail can be identified between the lines. For himself, Lavollée had a strong interest in understanding the Chinese city: after he had arrived in Macao, he hastened to visit the Chinese city. As he observed, the Chinese town seemed to be the continuation of the Portuguese town and became the extension of the latter. In terms of land area, the Chinese town was one-third more extensive than the Portuguese town. He considered the two people had known each other for a long time and were accustomed to living together. However, interest, not inclination, was the essential element connecting the two people. The Chinese town was crowded and noisy. The streets were narrow, dark, dirty, and smelt bad because the stores of fish, vegetables, meat, drogues, and old rags were put on the ground, so close to each other. 98  In the 1860s, the French naval officer Prosper Giquel (日意格, 1835–1886) played an essential role in the modernization of the Chinese navy and assisted with the establishment of the Fuzhou Arsenal. 99  Jules Itier, Journal d’un voyage en Chine en 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846, Vol. 1 (Paris: Chez Dauvin et Fontaine, Libraires-Éditeurs, 1848), 262.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

129

Lavollée commented that this mandarin stationed in Macao was much less important than in the past. He was the customs officer in charge of political and moral affairs in the past and played only a policing role now. The Chinese town did not have a class called “the bourgeoisie” as the Chinese were either retail merchants, artisans, or coolies.100 For Lavollée, Macao overall was a shack. During his stay in Macao, he mentioned his visit to Macao’s neighboring city (Xiangshan, 香山), where the Casa Branca (White House), the residence of the mandarin of Xiangshan, was located about five miles from Macao. The Xiangshan city was supposed to be a forbidden place for foreigners. But, Lavollée entered the city without encountering many obstacles and successfully arrived in the Casa Branca with the French catholic priest Guillet, procurator of the French Lazarists in Macao.101 The mandarin kept the door of his house, which was also his government office, wide open to the public. Thus, it seemed people could enter this important place anytime they wanted. Lavollée then commented on an important tradition in China how the ordinary people showed deep respect for authority and hierarchy: Les Chinois ne connaissent guère les embarras des états-majors. On entre chez eux comme vous voyez, et la porte est ouverte à tout le monde. Il y a chez ce peuple un profond respect pour l’autorité, une antique tradition de hiérarchie, et cela vaut mieux que tous les uniformes du monde […]102 (The Chinese know hardly the predicament of the government headquarters. People enter their houses as you see, and the door is open to everyone. As an ancient tradition of [respecting] hierarchy, this people has a

 Lavollée, Voyage en Chine, 250.  In his work Journal des opérations diplomatiques de la légation française en Chine (1845), Joseph Marie Callery mentioned that when he was in Macao, the French commander Jean-Baptiste Cécille sometimes lived in the home of a certain French Lazarist father called Guillet with whom he did not have a good relationship. He referred to Claude Guillet who was born in Saint-Etienne, Loire, France on April 21, 1811 and arrived in Macao on October 14, 1836 and served as a missionary. In 1851, he went to Ning-po (寧波) and worked as a Lazarist missionary there. Guillet returned to France in 1853 and passed away in 1859. Callery stated that Guillet had a bad reputation and was called la vipère (the viper) even by his friends in Macao. However, the same as Callery Guillet played a role in the negotiations of the Treaty of Whampoa. More information can be found in Joseph Marie Callery, Journal des opérations diplomatiques de la légation française en Chine (Macao, 1845), 6–7. 102  Lavollée, Voyage en Chine, 297–298. 100 101

130 

J. XIE

profound respect for authority, which works much better than all the uniforms in the world […])

In his book, Jules Itier used ninety-three pages to describe Macao, its surrounding areas, and how the negotiations of the Treaty of Whampoa were carried out. We use his writings on Macao as a supplementary text to study. His text and Lavollée’s text should be read together as both were members of the French legation and their texts both recorded Macao in this brief period. Itier began to write about his sojourn in Macao with the arrival of the French envoy and the legation in Macao. He also commented that the French envoy landed in Macao with the right foot instead of the left foot to encourage the Chinese. A detail in his observation is that the Chinese viewed the French as friends. He used his own experience to support his point of view. When he was lost in a tanka on the sea, he received assistance from a Chinese warship. The encounter between the Chinese naval officer and him was not friendly at first. But after learning he was French, the Chinese officer immediately changed his attitude by calling out that the French were friends and holding out his hand to Itier. The Chinese officer had this reaction: “s’écria avec effusion: Oh! Oh ! Folençais Fookein (Français ami) et il me tendit la main” (shouted with effusion: Oh! Oh! French friend and he extended his hand to me).103 Later in this account, Itier mentioned that they received warm greetings from the Chinese in Casa Branca when they learned that they were French.104 In his account, Charles Louis de Montigny also commented that the French government tried to create a friendly image of the French in China: “Le gouvernement faisait répandre et considérer en Chine le nom français, et le titre de Falancé (Français) y est aujourd’hui en quelque sorte une sauve-­ garde, au milieu de populations encore animées des plus vives défiances contre les Barbares” (The government made the term French widespread and held in high esteem in China, and the title of Falancé (French) is nowadays a kind of safeguard, among the populations still animated by the most lively defiance against the Barbarians).105 Lavollée used one chapter to describe a Chinese theater. He called the performance “le Sing-song” which appeared fascinating to the Chinese but boring to him. Compared to Lavollée, Itier seemed more interested in  Itier, Journal d’un voyage en Chine, 246.  Itier, 262. 105  Montigny, Manuel du négociant français, ii. 103 104

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

131

learning about Chinese society and culture. He described the tankas and tankadères that he and his friends used as a means of local transportation, the mill operated by the Chinese farmers, geologic characters of the Lappa Island (橫琴島), the flour produced by Chinese farmers, and in particular, the worshiping customs of the famous Chinese goddess Guanyin (觀音). The negotiations between France and China were one matter, and observing Macao was another matter. He commented because the collective prayer was not a Buddhist practice, several small chapels were found inside the Ama-Goa temple. The Buddhist monks had a yellow and pale complexion and looked dumb, which worried him. For him, it seems that the Buddhist monks did not understand what to do with the indescribable joy linked to faith. Nevertheless, Itier had sympathy for China and the Chinese people. He defended Chinese culture, arguing that the Europeans did not understand Chinese culture due to the lack of observation. He considered the Chinese were a strange people. An example he used was that the Chinese shot fireworks in broad daylight, which was considered by the European as a weird practice. Itier pointed out that these fireworks were set at religious ceremonies and did not represent opportunities for merely rejoicing in civil life. The big difference between the Chinese town and the Portuguese town indicated no assimilation of one culture into the other. The Chinese district (Itier used “quartier” to refer to the Chinese and Portuguese towns) and the Portuguese district differed considerably. Like other travelers, he pointed out that the two communities each occupied one side of the peninsula. The Chinese community was located in northeast Macao, close to the border, and the Portuguese one in the South. The European houses had large windows with blinds, with the foundations rising to one or two stories. From inside to outside, the houses in this area did not adopt any Chinese style. In comparison, the Chinese houses were narrow, low, and preceded by a small yard as long as there was space. Everything emanated a unique atmosphere that belonged to the Chinese community. The streets were also narrow and winding and received little sunlight. Itier thus commented that the two people had not been able to learn from each other for three hundred years due to their mutual disdain for one another. Il semble que dans leur mutuel dédain, les deux peuples n’aient pas encore pu admettre, depuis 300 ans qu’ils sont en contact, la possibilité de se faire

132 

J. XIE

un emprunt quelconque; aussi, le quartier chinois de Macao ne diffère-t-il en rien des autres villes de l’Empire Céleste.106 (It seems that in their mutual disdain, the two peoples have not yet been able to acknowledge, for 300 years that they have been in contact, the ­possibility of raising a loan from each other. In addition, the Chinese town of Macao does not differ from the other cities of the Celestial Empire in anything.)

Therefore, it seems the integration of the two cultures did not occur, not to mention the assimilation of one by the other. This was at least the impression given to the observers. The two communities represented utterly two different cultures and looked down upon each other. Westernization through the Portuguese settlement did not happen in Macao, nor did blending Chinese culture and Portuguese culture truly occur. There was no external force or internal necessity to push the two cultures to become one. As talked in a previous section, J. Dyer Ball mentioned the influence of the Portuguese administration on how the Chinese ran a local hospital in his observations; However, the effect remained limited and in limited areas. In 1845, Jules Itier discussed gambling in Macao as well. He noticed that there were many casinos (gambling houses) in the Chinese district, which constituted a source of revenue for the mandarins of the Chinese community, to whom the casinos were supposed to pay sixteen taëls (128 francs) each year. The mandarin used this amount of money to cover the police expenditure on gambling activities. Itier condemned gambling using terms such as “misérable,” “satanique,” and “ignoble” to describe the gambling activities and gamblers. After commenting on the gamblings, he explained in detail three Chinese shops he visited: a silversmith’s workshop, a blacksmith’s workshop, and a workshop manufacturing wadded and quilted blanket. We seldom see such detailed observations and descriptions of this part of Macao in the texts of the French authors who wrote about Macao. Itier’s interest in learning about Chinese society is further reflected in the visit he made to Xiangshan. Accompanied by two French Lazarist fathers from Macao, Itier visited the Quen-min-foo (Junminfu, 軍民府, 澳 門海防軍民同知) and the mandarin in this position was also in charge of administering the foreigners in Macao in the Qing. He also stated that  Itier, Journal d’un voyage en Chine, 251.

106

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

133

they were able to enter this government office without encountering any obstacle.107 These contents in Itier’s book are almost the same as those in Lavollée’s book on Macao. The two French diplomates came to Macao at the same time for the same purposes. Therefore, they should have visited the Quen-min-foo, which was, in reality, the Casa Branca—the Xiangshan mandarin’s official residence. In the following chapters, Itier recorded in detail the interactions between the Chinese legation and the French legation: how did they meet with each other, what did the Chinese officials look like, the dishes served at the banquets hosted by the Chinese for the French legation, and the signing of the Treaty of Whampoa on October 24, 1844, aboard the warship L’Archimède. Another important fact about Itier was that he took the first photos of Macao and China.108

Auguste Haussmann’s Writing, a Diplomat’s Testimony Auguste Haussmann was the third person who wrote about China and was also attached to the diplomatic and commercial mission of Théodore de Lagrené en Chine. His work Voyage en Chine, Cochinchine, Inde et Malaisie published in 1847 deals with the mission of Lagrené. Haussmann was the trading delegate and attaché in the legation of Lagrené, the minister plenipotentiary of France in the years 1844, 1845, and 1846. Auguste Haussmann’s book was dedicated to the then French Foreign Minister François Guizot (1787–1874), the exact promotor of the Lagrené mission. Haussmann had a purpose as he found it necessary to report their discoveries to François Guizot in other forms than an official report sent to Paris. Additionally, he regarded it an essential task to provide the French public with the knowledge of the curious lands and regions that the French explorers had traveled. It was equally important to recount the habits and customs and especially examine the trade in which Europe was taking a growing interest. In a tangible way, his thoughts reflect that European countries had the zeal to understand China at that time. While Lagrené left France in December 1843 with the majority of the legation on the frigate La Sirène, Haussmann took the steam corvette L’Archimède with

107  It is worth mentioning that Lavollée made the same observation. The two probably made the visit to the Quen-min-foo at the same time. 108  Itier, Journal d’un voyage en Chine, 251.

134 

J. XIE

the second secretary and other members of the legation left Brest for China on February 20, 1884.109 This portion of the legation arrived in Macao on August 25, 1844. In forty-three pages, Haussmann described Macao carefully: the peninsula, the bay, the harbor, the territory of Macao, the climate, the Grotto of Camões, a brief history of Macao, its inhabitants, its poverty, the tankas, the Persians, the government of Macao, and the decline of Macao. He covered almost every aspect of the city. Macao’s inner harbor was restricted toward the north and south by the Héang-chan coast and small islands. It was small and shallow. Large merchant ships and warships anchored in a bay five or six miles away from Macao, especially during the bad weather season from April to October of the year. Haussmann pointed out that Macao was double separated. First, as a peninsula of eight miles in circumference, it was separated from China by a wall with the entrance guarded by soldiers. Second, it was internally divided into the Portuguese part and the Chinese part. Three meager villages, Mong-Ha (望廈), Patane (沙梨頭), and Lapa (銀坑) or Saint-Lazare (聖拉匝祿), populated with the poor leper, were the only dependences of Macao. Although the countryside bordering on Macao was fertile, it was far from sufficient to maintain its inhabitants. Because Macao had to rely on the exterior for adequate provisions, the Portuguese suffered an actual subjugation to the wills of the Chinese, who could use the power to intercept the supplies arriving from outside. Compared to the climate in other parts of China and Indochina, Macao’s natural environment was healthy, with excessive heat and abundant rains. From October to April every year, the sky was usually clear, and the temperature dropped quickly in January. In winter, it was never below zero degrees Celsius, and instead, in summer, it could rise to forty degrees. Like many travelers who selected the harbor as the perspective to outline an overview of Macao, Haussmann stated that viewed from the harbor, Macao was a beautiful city presenting itself as an amphitheater. For him, the first image that Macao delivered was enchanting: Vue de la rade, la ville […] déploie aux yeux du voyageur émerveillé, une longue chaîne de maisons élégantes dont les fenêtres et les colonnades

 Haussmann, Voyage en Chine, iii.

109

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

135

s’alignant en bandes symétriques le long du magnifique quai de la Praïa-­ Grande, produisent un effet enchanteur.110 (Viewed from the harbor, the city […] deploys in the eyes of the amazed traveler a long chain of elegant houses, whose windows and colonnades falling into line in symmetrical bands along the magnificent Praia Grande quay produce a delighting effect.)

He used adjectives “émerveillé,” “élégant,” “magnifique,” and “enchanteur” to express his first impression of Macao. The beauty of the Portuguese settlement was striking, and the viewer’s admiration was sincere. Macao was cosmopolitan. In his eyes, its population was like a kaleidoscope: Portuguese, Chinese, black people, white people born in Asia, mixed-race people, British, Americans, Persians, Tankas, Malays, and Lascars. However, he was not kind enough to refer to some populations as “the mongrel,” that is, anything of the mixed breed. For Haussmann, the Malays and Lascars transmitted a more exotic image of Macao. He said that these persons and their various costumes merged with each step when they walked and produced an amusing contrast for newly arrived strangers. The Persians in Macao were a particular group. Haussmann was among the few French authors who described the Persians living in Macao at the time. In a previous section, we discussed how the Count of Escayrac de Lauture viewed the Persians in Macao. Haussmann pointed out that the Persians were the most worth-noting component of Macao’s population. But, unlike Escayrac de Lauture, who directly compared the Persians and the Portuguese in Macao while harshly belittling the latter, Haussmann’s recount of the Persians tended to be objective by affirming the good characters of these people. The Persians came to Macao as British subjects and made a living in Macao through the trade of opium, cotton, tea, and silks. The way they dressed and their physiognomy were distinct. Unity and sobriety were the two qualities characterizing this ethnic group that believed in Zoroastrianism. Then, amid “the still description,” Haussmann suddenly introduced a vivid image: each night, the Persians were perceived walking in numerous groups in the Praia Grande or on the side of the Persian cemetery at the foot of the Guia Fortress. After they died, they were buried in Macao with their names inscribed on the tombs. Haussmann said these tombs formed a scene and looked like white walls if viewed from afar on the sea. The Persians were better accepted than the Europeans by  Haussmann, 169-70.

110

136 

J. XIE

the locals. However, Macao was not home for them as they seldom brought their wives, that is, families, to this place.111 On the other hand, Haussmann did not forget to criticize the Portuguese in Macao, and his criticism was blunt and frank. He pointed out that indolence marked the character of the Portuguese, the white, and the mixed-race in Macao. For Haussmann, these were miserable devils: they boasted of their “noble particle” while their genealogy had already presented many Chinese, Hindu, and Malay branches. They preferred to dragging a miserable existence while trying to hide their deprivation and poverty rather than departing from the so-called nobility and giving up the habits they thought were imposed by birth. As a result, they lived with sorrow, on the glory of the past. The local Portuguese’s poverty echoed Macao’s struggle, which was awful in the author’s eyes. He stated that he saw beggars spreading out in the street with every footstep forward, uttering modulated howls, taking the most abject postures, hitting their forehead against the pavement, and revealing their hideous wounds to the passengers.112 Along with the poverty, it was the silence that enveloped the Portuguese town in Macao. He lamented the declining state of Macao, “Les plus beaux quartiers de Macao sont presque déserts. On y voit de magnifiques maisons entourées de jardins, et que leur silence rend encore plus imposantes” (The most beautiful neighborhoods of Macao were almost like a desert. We see there some magnificent houses surrounded by gardens, and the silence in those houses made them even more imposing). If this was a scene parallel to a declining Portuguese settlement, a sharp contrast was that the Chinese town in Macao was formed by dirty, narrow, noisy, and lively streets filled with all sorts of boutiques, vegetable and fish markets, and meat stores.113 But, the Chinese elements should not count when the French diplomat contemplated Macao. Macao was an old Catholic town, an almost extinct body that Portugal would not bring life back to and may evolve into a dirty Chinese village in the future. For Western newcomers like him, the churches, the bell towers, the terraces, the Praia Grande, the fortresses, the Grotto of Camões, and even Macao’s gentle and healthy weather

 Haussmann, 181–82.  Haussmann, 176–77. 113  Haussmann, 171. 111 112

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

137

inspired only a profound sentiment of melancholy. And this feeling was authentic, deep, and penetrating.114 Apart from the Portuguese elements which presented familiarity, Macao provided a mixture of strange sights and impressions. Probably no author of this study was more sensible than Haussmann to the different sounds that made part of life in Macao. His observation was meticulous: the firecrackers set off almost in each ceremonial occasion, Chinese night guards rotating the shift at night and hitting the wooden blocks to scare away the thieves, unusual screams of merchants, the movements of the tides, ringing of the gongs, junks, and boats rocking back and forth, and the cries of people when seeing the storms rise.115 All the sound coming from these actions, for the author, constituted a civilization entirely different from his own—Western civilization. Haussmann recorded that at the end of August 1844, almost all the members of the legation had arrived in Macao. He quickly switched to recounting that Ky-ing came to Macao in late September 1844, and the first meeting between the two legations took place on October 1, 1844. Being a European who just set foot in Macao, Haussmann was very interested in observing and describing how Ky-ing arrived at the meeting place. Ky-ing’s departure from the Chinese pagoda where he resided temporarily, the short distance he had covered as well as his arrival, formed a solemn and pompous scene under his pen. The Chinese soldiers beat the gongs and held high the red signs with the inscriptions of 肅靜迴避 “step back and be quiet” to clear the way and announce Ky-ing’s arrival. In the eyes of Haussmann, the Chinese mandarins Ky-ing, Houang-Ngantoung (Huang Entong, 黄恩彤), and Pan-tchétchen (Pan Shicheng, 潘仕成) were polite, delicate, bright, and learned individuals, and belonged to the enlightened Chinese. Haussmann’s descriptions of these central figures of the Chinese legation are detailed and positive. The treaty was signed on the French warship L’Archimède, and then Ky-ing and his entourage were invited to visit the French warship. However, unfortunately, Ky-ing showed low interest in the weapons on the warship. At the same time, the other two mandarins even declared that they were afraid of the smell of the powder and the noise of the canon. Haussmann commented that these were peaceful yet naïf people.116 As a  Haussmann, 185.  Haussmann, 183. 116  Haussmann, 202. 114 115

138 

J. XIE

member of the French legation, Haussmann had close contact with these high-ranking Chinese mandarins. As he claimed, these were intelligent and enlightened Chinese willing to contact and communicate with the Westerners. But Haussmann’s descriptions serving as a testimony indicate that the core Chinese officials were not genuinely interested in the West nor made efforts to understand it. For them, the task was to negotiate the treaty and anything beyond this was not their duty. These were friendly and intelligent Chinese who wrote good poetry and practiced unique calligraphy but did not know that their country had already fallen prey to Western imperialism. Poetry and calligraphy would not assist in this regard. On the contrary, Haussmann’s detailed report shows that each piece of information constituted valuable intelligence to be reported to the French government. To have a good understanding of the Celestial Empire, knowing Macao was certainly not sufficient. Therefore, the French legation used it as a perfect place to negotiate the treaty. However, once the treaty was concluded, they headed to Canton. Macao was in decline and constituted only China’s periphery and thus presented only limited interest to the French legation, who had the mission of examining China economically, geographically, and scientifically. Visit Canton was to penetrate the womb of Chinese society.117 Therefore, it is all about knowledge again. Knowledge leads to success at the table of negotiations and leads to understanding the country and its culture.

Macao, the Political Stage Behind the Sino-French Negotiations Joseph Maxime Marie Callery ou Calleri (加畧利, 1810–1862) was a French-Italian sinologist, missionary, and botanical collector. He served as an interpreter to Théodore de Lagrené when the French legation negotiated the items of the treaty with the Qing in 1844. Born in Turin, Italy, in 1810 and incorporated into the diocese of Chambéry, Callery became a member of the Seminar of the Foreign Missions (Séminaire des M.-E.) in late September 1833 and was ordained a priest on December 20, 1834. Callery left Le Havre for Macao on March 21, 1835, and arrived in Macao the following year. His original destination was Korea, a journey on which he, in reality, never set off. In Macao, he learned Chinese and Korean 117

 Haussmann, 199.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

139

using an intensive learning method, and the language skills laid a foundation for him to become a sinologist later. He observed and explored the flora and geology of Canton and Macao and published the book entitled Etat géologique des côtes méridionales de la Chine in 1836. He was also the author of Systema phoneticum scripturæ sinicæ (1841), Dictionnaire encyclopédique de la langue chinoise (1844), Mémoire sur la Corée (1844), Journal des opérations diplomatiques de la légation française en Chine (1845), Insurrection en Chine, depuis son origine jusqu’à la prise de Nankin (1853), Le Li-Ki, ou le mémorial des rites (1853), and La Galerie royale de peinture de Turin (1854). In 1842, Callery withdrew from the Foreign Missions and returned to France. In 1843, he came back to China to serve as an interpreter to the French consulate in Canton. When the French legation arrived in China in 1844, Callery became an interpreter to the French mission. After returning to France in 1846, he served as secretary-­ interpreter to the crown until he died in Paris on June 8, 1862.118 Before leaving for France in 1846 once again, Callery had the chance to visit Chinese cities such as Zhoushan (formerly Chusa, 舟山), Shanghai, Ningbo (formerly Ningbo, 寧波) and Xiamen. He collected about 2,000 species of plants in the cities mentioned above, and around fifteen of them were new to Western science. These species were supposed to be sent to the French National Museum of Natural History. However, the museum received only a small portion of these species. In addition, Callery sent traditional Chinese herbal medicines to France.119 Callery’s Journal des opérations diplomatiques de la légation française en Chine (1845) reveals how actively Callery was involved in the negotiations as interpreter to Lagrené. His diary provides details on how the French legation prepared the negotiations once they had arrived in Macao. In 1844, Callery had become an “interesting figure” in the French community in Macao. He was no longer a missionary as he left the Paris Foreign Missions Society and did not have a good relationship with some French people residing in Macao. In multiple times in his diary, Callery stated that the French Lazarist fathers in Macao were not reliable. He cited a few 118  Archives de l’Institut de recherche France-Asie, Notices biographiques: Joseph Gaëtan Pierre Maxime Marie CALLERY, https://www.irfa.paris/fr/notices/noticesbiographiques/callery 119  Guihuan Luo羅桂環, 近代西方識華生物史 Jindai Xifang Shihua Shengwushi [History of Western Botanical and Zoological Studies in China] (秀威資訊∙台北 [Taipei: Showwe Information], 2018), 205.

140 

J. XIE

things. The contributors of the Chinese Repository criticized the Lazarists’ translations, and he possessed Chinese language skills better than the Lazarist fathers and their students. The Lazarist fathers or the procurator of the Foreign Missions Society treated him constantly with unleashed violence and fought for power and benefits among themselves. Therefore, in the eyes of Callery, Lagrené had blind trust in the Lazarist fathers.120 However, Callery was a controversial character in Henri Cordier’s words. Callery was pointed as “un prêtre défroqué des missions étrangères de Paris” (a priest defrocked from the Foreign Missions of Paris), although he was “un homme expérimenté” (an experienced man) and his experience could serve the French mission in China.121 Callery did not establish a good relationship with Jean-Baptiste Cécille, the rear admiral and commander of the French fleet navigating along the coast of Macao at that time. He also wrote confidential letters to Paris reporting Ulysse de Ratti-Menton, the first French consul to Canton and his superior. This act greatly displeased Lagrené.122 Therefore, in the eyes of the French in Macao, he was already a questionable figure, whether being a priest, an interpreter, or a French diplomat and tried hard first to gain de Lagrené’s trust regarding his role in the mission. On the other hand, his diary shows that he had smooth communication with the Chinese legation, of which the main characters were Ky-ing (耆英), Pan-se-chen̂ (Pan Shicheng, 潘仕成), Huan̂ (Huang Entong, 黃恩彤), and Chao (Zhao Changlin, 趙長齡). He acted as an effective intermediary in the negotiations using his Chinese language, Chinese officialdom, and Chinese culture. In particular, how the American diplomats negotiated the Treaty of Wangxia with the Qing he learned through his American connections in Macao played an essential role in helping the French tackle the Chinese. In this regard, he played a role far beyond an interpreter but was an intelligence agent and diplomat. Callery provided details and intelligence to ensure that the French would obtain the same conditions and receive the same level of

120  Joseph Marie Callery, Journal des opérations de la légation française en Chine (Macao, 1845), 35–36, 125, 162–63. 121  Henri Cordier, “La Première légation de France en Chine (1847),” T’oung Pao (1906) 7, no. 3: 358. 122  Callery, Journal des opérations, 5–6.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

141

respectful treatment as the Americans. Examples of the vital intelligence ­provided are as follows: . Ky-ing paid a visit to Mr. Cushing first. 1 2. Callery obtained a copy of the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing from Mr. Cushing and forwarded it to the French legation for reference. 3. How did the communication between Ky-ing  and Mr. Cushing take place? 4. Whether the Americans supplied the dispatches with a seal or signature and in which language they were composed. 5. Upon Callery’s request, Mr. Hernisz was willing to communicate every piece of information as long as Mr. Cushing did not consider the information strictly confidential.123 All this was good information needed by the French legation, in particular, by Lagrené. Therefore, Callery collected, provided, and analyzed important intelligence. Being a Westerner who had sojourned in Macao for quite a long time, he instructed the French legation that knowing the mentality of the Chinese from the beginning was key for succeeding in the negotiations. We recall that this is the importance of the knowledge in colonialism addressed by Said in Orientalism. The philosophy that Callery transmitted to his French fellows was to follow the way the Chinese dealt with matters. In his letter to Benoit Desages (Emile Benoit Victor Desages, 1793–1850) dated on March 26, 1847, Callery warned his French fellows: Dans un pays aussi scrupuleux que la Chine pour tout ce qui tient aux formes, il est en effet très important de bien commencer, et d’adopter, tout en y arrivant, une ligne de conduite extérieure telle, qu’on ne soit pas forcé de s’en écarter dans la suite.124 (In a country as meticulous as China for everything related to forms, it is indeed very important to have a good start, and to adopt, while arriving there, an external line of conduct so that one will not be forced to deviate from it in the following.)

After the Chinese legation arrived in Macao, Callery played an even more crucial role in both parts as he had to communicate with each side and served as a messenger. Both tried to obtain from him what the  Callery, Journal des opérations, 17–18.  Cordier, Lettre (1) de M. Callery in “Première légation,” 358.

123 124

142 

J. XIE

counterparty was calculating. Macao turned into a political and diplomatic battlefield where took place all the meetings, discussions, visits, and diners involving the negotiations between the French and Chinese. Callery’s diary was detailed in this regard. The dialogues between the members of both sides were recorded and their reactions at different occasions were described. Each log of the diary was like a scene in a play, and the play was precisely the Sino-French negotiations for the treaty. Callery recorded that the dates of the meetings, and particularly the date of the first meeting between Ky-ing and Lagrené, were carefully selected. Callery had knowledge of Chinese culture in this regard. Because he knew Chinese mandarins, he could obtain their help for choosing an auspicious day. It is interesting to read that Callery used the word “calculâmes” (calculate) to determine a day as happy as possible. And calculating a day is a common expression of fixing a suitable day in Chinese culture. October 1 was found a good day, the second day of the month unpleasant and causing rupture, and the third was quite happy. However, the fourth was a day of mourning as it was an anniversary of the death of the Yongzheng (雍正) Emperor. After much calculation, the French decided that October 1 shall be a good day for Ky-ing to meet with Lagrené and October 3 for Lagrené to meet with Ki-ing.125 For the location where the French legation dlegation and the Chinese one should meet, the French followed the Americans’ step and proposed to Ky-ing to meet in Macao. The French estimated that Ky-ing would like to get away from the whirlwind of his duties in Canton whenever he had to deal with foreign countries. According to the information available to the French, Ky-ing himself selected Macao as the location to negotiate the treaty with the Americans. In other words, when Western powers forced China to open its door with military pressure, Macao became a suitable place to conduct diplomatic activities at the highest level in the eyes of the Chinese. Because Ky-ing’s arrival in Macao would mark the willingness of the Chinese to start the negotiations, whether he would come to Macao became a big concern of the French legation. Callery mentioned that Ky-ing’s potential arrival was discussed several times by the French, who were anxious about getting the confirmed information on Ky-ing’s intention. As a diplomatic gesture, Ky-ing explained before meeting with the French that his arrival in Macao was considerably delayed because of the

 Callery, Journal des opérations, 136–37.

125

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

143

autumn sacrifices, the emperor’s birthday party, and the imperial examination.126 Being a place of negotiating diplomatic treaties gives Macao long-­ lasting political significance. Ky-ing arrived in Macao on September 29, 1844, and decided to reside in the Kuan-in-tan̂ (觀音堂). When negotiating the 1844 Treaty of Wangxia with the Americans, he stayed in the same place. He considered it suitable to continue to live there during his sojourn in Macao. Member of his suites, for example, the academician Chao (Zhao Changlin, 趙長齡) who arrived in Macao on September 1, 1844, resided in the Chinese pagoda Lien-fun-miao (蓮峯廟). In other words, Ki-ing and his suite stayed in the Chinese town, north of Macao. Today the Lienfun-miao and Kuan-in-tan̂ are known not only for their historic architectural values but due to the noted political events happening here. The Chinese town thus gained political importance. On the other hand, Macao contributed to shaping China’s modern history and signaled its role on the international diplomatic stage. In Macao, French people like Callery were able to gather important information or intelligence for their government. Moreover, Westerners freely resided here and easily obtained helpful information on China as Macao was a unique place not completely controlled by the Chinese but bordering the Chinese territory. They thus made Macao a hub of intelligence for those involved in the Sino-Foreign political and diplomatic affairs. Furthermore, in negotiating the Treaty of Whampoa, the French legation obtained additional advantages for French catholic missions in China. These other benefits were what de Lagrené did not expect, and the French residing in Macao, such as Callery, played an undeniable role in this regard. Macao was not Chinese territory, which was clear to Chinese officials or the Chinese authorities did not consider Macao was a Chinese land. On August 25, 1845, upon the request of Ki-ing, the Chinese legation and the French exchanged the ratifications in the residence of the Chinese admiral in Tai-pin-hiü (太平墟) near Bogue (虎門). The reason was that Ky-ing insisted the exchange of the ratifications take place in the territory of China. Second, Macao acted as a stronghold or even home for the French diplomates: the French legation first decided to land in Macao. And after the Treaty of Whampoa was signed, Théodore de Lagrené and his suite returned to Macao. Third, Macao was still a place where  Callery, 92.

126

144 

J. XIE

Westerners ventured. Callery is an example  par excellence. The former Lazarist priest achieved great professional transformation. Because of his distinguished contribution to the treaty negotiations, he gained confidence from Lagrené and increased his presence in Sino-French foreign affairs. In his letter to Callery on December 25, 1845, Lagrené referred to Callery as the “noble magistrat délégué” and stated that this magistrate had perfectly communicated all the ideas of Ky-ing and carried out with remarkable precision the mission with which they entrusted him.127 After the Treaty of Whampoa was concluded, Callery acquired a special position. In his letter to Ky-ing dated January 7, 1846, Lagrené stated that Callery was authorized to enter into correspondence with high-­ ranking Chinese mandarins. His position was nothing familiar with the official position of the French Consul in Canton. What Callery communicated with the Chinese authorities or what the latter informed him should not be addressed to or received by the French Consul in Canton. And every matter that fell within the remit of the French Consul should remain foreign to the intimate correspondence of Callery.128 Callery’s diary shows that Macao was the cradle for the Treaty of Whampoa and probably also a cradle for French intelligence agents in China. The narration of the diary was vivid and brought back to life what was happening in Macao at that time. In the small city of Macao, the French and Chinese were walking hastily on the street and talking and smiling at the banquet table while trying to use political sensibility and tactics, and the messages, written or oral, were frequently exchanged between the two parties. In brief, Macao was the stage witnessing how the first Sino-French treaty was negotiated.

Macao and France: Misery Loves Company The French authors often made comparisons in their writings, and some of them compared Macao to France. Georges Bousquet (1845–1937) was a French lawyer. At the beginning of 1872, Bousquet was assigned by the French government to fulfill the functions of legal advisors to the Japanese government. He sojourned in Japan for four years. Like many of his European contemporaries, he tried to seize each opportunity to observe the external and intimate life of the Japanese. For him, Japan presented a 127  Joseph Marie Callery, Correspondance diplomatique chinoise relative aux négociations du traité de Whampoa conclu entre la France et la Chine (Paris: Seringe frères, 1879), 292. 128  Callery, Correspondance, 304.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

145

much older civilization than France but equally refined and mature. For example, the significant differences between the Japanese flowers and those in France struck him. These differences led him to explore the roots of the Japanese civilization, investigate the structure of this nation, its aesthetic and moral manifestations, and probe its psychology in its literary, philosophical, and historical works. He stated that he pursued this examination as a selfless and conscientious observer and talked as an independent witness without hold any existing system or bias. As confessed by the author, the two volumes of Le Japon de nos jours et les échelles de l’ExtrêmeOrient (1877) were composed of the materials previously published in the Revue des deux mondes and supplemented with a few glimpses of the external appearance of the country.129 The two volumes were the author’s observations of Japan as well as those of other significant places in Asia, such as Canton, Hong Kong, and Macao. In March 1876, Bousquet finished his mission in Japan and left Yédo (now Tokyo) for Paris on March 6. On his way back to France, he recorded his observations of the cities and countries such as Hong Kong, Canton, Macao, Manille, Singapore, Java, Ceylan, Aden, as a passer-by. In the book, he did not indicate when he arrived in Macao exactly. However, he showed he stayed in Canton between March 15 and 22, 1876, and the steamer Spark took ten hours to arrive in Macao from Canton. Therefore, Bousquet should have arrived in Macao on March 22, 1876.130 He described the steamer as a potential battlefield. Any communication between the Chinese passengers and the European ones was prohibited. The door was barricaded and guarded by a guard with a sword. Another guard was stationed there to protect the pilot with a sword. The first-class lounge was filled with fully loaded revolvers and rifles available for Western passengers to use if the ship was attached. Three years earlier, the same steamer was sacked by the pirates who disguised themselves as passengers. The captain was killed and the pirates snatched all the merchandise. Similar incidents are recorded in other accounts, such as in the book by Ludovic de Beauvoir. Piracy was rampant during this time. When Bousquet arrived in Macao in the second half of the nineteenth century, he saw a Portuguese settlement governed only by the Portuguese, that is, that the Portuguese had got rid of the Chinese governance to which they were subject in the past 129  Georges Bousquet, Le Japon de nos jours et les échelles de l’Extrême-Orient, tome 1 (Paris: Hachette, 1877), 4. 130  Bousquet, Japon de nos jours, tome 2, 352.

146 

J. XIE

three hundred years. Macao became an actual Western colony with a total population of 55,000 residents, and among them, 5,000 were Portuguese. At least this was the impression that Macao gave to him at the time. For him and the Europeans, Macao constituted a legend of Western exploration. It used to be a mighty city whose influence radiated all over China and even to Japan. But all the glory had disappeared, and Macao became only a shadow by itself. The Portuguese establishment had to bear all accumulated calamities. Like many others, Bousquet could not help analyzing the causes of Macao’s decline. Above all, it was due to the free colonial port that he called English Hong Kong. Macao’s harbor was not good but had demanding customs. These were the double disadvantages compared to Hong Kong. Even in 1846, Portugal abolished customs duties, and Macao had lost its role as a warehouse to other ports, and Hong Kong was such a port par excellence. The second reason was the abolition of the coolie trade. Interestingly, the author pointed out that it was under the pressure of several campaigns from the English press and diplomacy that the coolie trade was abolished in Macao. The third reason was that in 1874 an appalling typhoon and a fire almost destroyed Macao, and the city could hardly recover from the fatal damage. This is an important point as most of the French authors did not take this natural disaster into account. Finally, the Chinese government considered establishing a new customs office near the Patera Island (神父島). If this plan took place, it would give Macao a final blow, as pointed out by the author.131 Macao was a beautiful city for  Bousquet. He used the word “pittoresque” to describe the hills on which the city was built. Macao was like a lighthouse, thrown in the middle of the sea or constructed precisely at the end of a long sea wall. Ships always had to navigate around the entire peninsula to arrive at the landing dock. In other words, the vessels and visitors approached Macao firstly on the east coast and then landed on the west coast. The first impression given to the arrivers was usually stunning. It seemed that a European fellow had just covered 4,000 leagues and suddenly arrived in Europe from China. With its empty and misaligned streets, tightly arranged houses, European churches, and convents, the higher part of the city offered an aspect of a small provincial town in the south of France. One saw in Macao a complete Catholic environment. Besides the cathedral, there were four parish churches and many chapels. But, none of these Catholic buildings had the significance of a monument. The Praia 131

 Bousquet, 334.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

147

Grande had the most beautiful houses in Macao, although many were damaged by the typhoon in 1874. He pointed out that the Portuguese government made great efforts to bring prosperity back to Macao and defended its colonial interests. Among the Portuguese nationals, the number of Portuguese born in Portugal was very limited in Macao. Most of them were civil or military officials, and some were merchants. The Macanese were people of mixed races, in particular, born of European and Chinese parents and the size of this population was about 4,000 to 5,000. He observed that this population was sometimes close to the Portuguese and other times merged with the Chinese and lived wholly separated from the Portuguese community. On the other hand, being exposed to Western culture for over three hundred years, the Chinese in Macao were different as they contracted a certain urbanity that the Chinese elsewhere did not. In other words, the Chinese in Macao led a life different than those in the interior of China and they were not only in trade but exercised various professions.132 Gambling and the coolie trade were both discussed by Bousquet. The gambling dens, located in the Chinese district of Macao, welcomed all social categories. In his eyes, gambling was a social vice, typical of Macao, which attracted both Chinese and Europeans from Hong Kong. The gamblers were unfortunate people wearing old rags, and some of them were usually big game players as their bets exceeded 100 piastres at one time. Another component of Macao’s economy was the coolie trade. He witnessed that in the barracon Chinese coolies were still waiting to leave for Peru although the Portuguese government had abolished the coolie trade. Bousquet did not stop observing who lived in Macao and how these people looked. He pointed out that the ugly physical appearance of the female Macanese was well known, and they looked very different from the female Portuguese. These Macanese, who lived almost cloistered, were dressed in black and covered their heads with a black silk mantle dropping until the belt. Of the whole person, people could only see a hand well gloved and a pretty foot wearing fine shoes. For Bousquet, this type of dress-up indicating an exaggeration of decency was nothing but “une savante coquetterie” (a scholarly vanity).133 This comment expressed a kind of sarcasm typical of French culture. Compared to these Macanese who tried to hide wisely, the Portuguese women showed their blond or brown heads under their light classical mantillas. And the female Macanese  Bousquet, 336.  Bousquet, 337.

132 133

148 

J. XIE

could be quickly taken as the nuns from a convent in Macao. In addition, the pompous ceremonies in the cathedral gave the foreigner newly coming from Europe a feeling of being repatriated. This feeling expresses familiarity. Bousquet’s descriptions demonstrate that Macao always offered a mixed sense of strangeness and familiarity. Like other visitors, Bousquet went to worship the Grotto of Camões, the symbol of the greatness of Portuguese literature and the legendary exploration that Portugal and other European countries had achieved. He recognized that Camões was a literary genius who contributed to making Macao’s history and also rendered the Portuguese colonial achievement in the Far East so real. On the other hand, Macao was a city of pleasure. To Bousquet, Macao was a city full of power and energy that fought against the fatality of the decline and tried to retake a place that it occupied long in the colonial world. For this French visitor, he truly hoped that the Portugal government in Lisbon would succeed in their efforts and did not miss the chance to compare the British colonial style with the Portuguese one. Ironically, even Macao had declined, and he agreed more with the Portuguese style. He commented that the British used force and acted violently while the Portuguese used persuasion to rule. Which colonial system was better? Bousquet said it was hard to judge between a two-hundred-year colonial settlement and a nearly thirty-year-old one. However, what should be acknowledged was that the results obtained in Macao were preferred as the locals seemed more submissive and less brutal. Regarding the economic decline in Macao, the author did not forget to reflect on France’s destiny. For him, France had misfortunes. In observing a struggling Macao, he sincerely wished that both France and Macao would regain prosperity.134 So, during this period Macao and France were “misery loves company” in the eyes of the French visitor.

References Anonymous. D’Escayrac-Lauture. Quercy, marquis d’Escayrac; barons de Lauture; seigneurs de Cayriech, Montayral, La Vernède, La Bastide, Cazillac, Maloge, etc., 1886. Bibliothèque nationale de France, http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/ cb342105701 ———. Expédition des armées françaises en Chine, 1857–1860. Nouv. éd. Paris: Librairie des villes et des campagnes, 1874.  Bousquet, 310.

134

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

149

Archives de l’Institut de recherche Français-Asie. Notices biographiques: Joseph Gaëtan Pierre Maxime Marie CALLERY. https://www.irfa.paris/fr/notices/ notices-­biographiques/callery Austensen, Roy A. “Alexander von Hübner and the Revolution of 1848: A Reassessment.” Consortium on Revolutionary Europe Proceedings (1985): 283–301. Beauvoir, Ludovic de. Java, Siam, Canton. Voyage autour du monde. Paris: Henri Plon, imprimeur-éditeur, 1870. Boissay, Charles. “Notes sur l’Extrême Orient, d’après les derniers voyageurs.” Journal des Economistes: revue de la science économique et de la statistique, 3ème série, 9ème année, tome trente-quatrième, janvier à mars (1874): 264–90. Bousquet, Georges. “Le Commerce de la Chine et du Japon.” Revue des deux mondes, tome 28 (1878): 84–111. https://www-­jstor-­org.libezproxy.umac. mo/stable/pdf/44761164.pdf ———. Le Japon de nos jours et les échelles de l’Extrême-Orient, tome 1 et tome 2. Paris: Librairie Hachette et Cie, 1877. Cachin, Marie-Françoise. “Victorian Novels in France.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Victorian Novel, edited by Lisa Rodensky. London: Oxford University Press, 2013. Callery, Joseph Marie. Journal des opérations de la légation française en Chine. Macao, 1845. ———. Correspondance diplomatique chinoise relative aux négociations du traité de Whampoa conclu entre la France et la Chine. Paris: Seringe Frères, 1879. Castano, F. L’Expédition de Chine. Relation physique, topographique et médicale de la campagne de 1860 et 1861. Paris: Victor Rozier, Éditeur, 1864. Chonski, M. de. Établissement portugais de Macao: Chine. Paris: Impr. de Pommeret et Moreau, 1850. Cordier, Henri. “La correspondance générale de la Cochinchine (1785–1791).” T’oung Pao, second series 7, no. 5 (1906a): 557–670. ———. La Mission Dubois de Jancigny dans l’Extrême-Orient (1841–1846). Paris: Edouard Champion; Emile Larose, 1916. ———. “La Première légation de France en Chine (1847).” T’oung Pao (1906b) 7, no. 3: 351–68. Cothonay, Marie Bertrand. Deux ans en Chine, extrait du journal d’un missionnaire dominicain. Tours: Alfred Cattier, (1902). Durand-Lapie, Paul. Le Comte d’Escayrac de Lauture, voyageur et explorateur français commandeur de la Légion d’honneur. Sa vie et ses ouvrages. Paris: Honoré Champion, 1899. Duret, Théodore. Voyage en Asie. Le Japon  – la Chine  – la Mongolie  – Java  – Ceylan – l’Inde. Paris: Michel Lévy frères, 1874. Escayrac de Lauture, Pierre Henri Stanislas de. La Chine et les chinois, illustrée de 120 dessins et cartes. Paris: Adolphe Delahays, libraire-éditeur, 1878.

150 

J. XIE

Faye, J. de la. Histoire de l’amiral Courbet, avec une préface du vice-amiral Jurien de la Gravière. Paris: Librairie Bloud & Barral, 1891. Haussmann, Auguste. Voyage en Chine Cochinchine Inde et Malaisie. Première partie.  – Voyage.  – Du cap au nord de la Chine. Paris: Desessart éditeur; G. Olivier, 1847. Heywood, Christopher. “French and American Sources of Victorian Realism.” In Vol. 1 of Comparative Criticism: A Yearbook, edited by Elinor Shaffer. London: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Hübner, Joseph Alexander von. Promenade autour du monde, 6ème éd. Paris: Librairie Hachette et Cie, 1877. Huc, Evariste Régis. L’Empire chinois: faisant suite à l’ouvrage intitulé Souvenirs d’un voyage dans la Tartarie et le Tibet, tome premier. Paris: Librairie de Gaume frère, 1854. Itier, Jules. Journal d’un voyage en Chine en 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846. Paris: Chez Dauvin et Fontaine, libraires-éditeurs, 1848. LaCroix, Frederic. Annuaire des voyages et de la géographie pour l’année 1844–1845, par une réunion de géographes et de voyageurs, sous la direction de M. Frédéric Lacroix, 2ème année. Paris: Gide et Cie, librairies-éditeurs, 1845. Lavollée, Charles Hubert. Voyage en Chine: Ténériffe, Rio Janeiro, le Cap, Ile Bourbon, Malacca, Singapore, Manille, Macao, Canton, ports chinois, Cochinchine, Java. Paris: Just Rouvier & A Ledoyen, 1852. Luo, Guihuan 羅桂環. 近代西方識華生物史 Jindai Xifang Shihua Shengwushi [History of Western Botanical and Zoological Studies in China] (秀威資訊∙台 北 [Taipei: Showwe Information], 2018). Marcel, Gabriel. La Pérouse: récit de son voyage, expédition envoyée à sa recherche, le capitaine Dillon, Dumont d’Urville, reliques de l’expédition. Ed du centenaire. Paris: Librairie illustrée, 1888. Michel, Ernest. Le Tour du monde en 240 jours. Limoges: Eugène Ardant et Cie, éditeurs, 1893. Montigny, Charles Louis de. Manuel du négociant français en Chine: ou, commerce de la Chine considéré au point de vue français. Paris: Imprimerie de Paul Dupont, 1846. Novaresio, Paolo. The Explorers: From the Ancient World to the Present. New York: Stewart Tabori & Chang, 1996. Old Nick [pseud.], La Chine ouverte: aventures d’un Fan-Koueï dans le pays de Tsin, ouvrage illustré par Auguste Borget. Paris: H. Fournier, éditeur, 1845. Pinvert, Lucien. Un Ami de Stendhal, le critique E. D. Forgues: 1813–1883. Paris: Librairie Henri Leclerc, 1915. Plas, François de. Campagne du “Cassini” dans les mers de Chine, 1851–1854: d’après les rapports, lettres et notes du Commandant de Plas. Paris: Retaux-­ Bray, 1889.

7  FRENCH VIEWS OF MACAO 

151

Raquez, A. Au Pays des pagodes, notes de voyage. Shanghai: Imprimerie de la presse orientale, 1900. Research Center for the Polish Estreicher Bibliography at the Jagiellonian University. “Polish National Bibliography  – Stage II: Continuation of the printed edition and extension of the electronic version of the Estreicher Bibliography,” https://www.estreicher.uj.edu.pl/xixwieku/baza/wpis/?sort= id&order=1&id=15058&offset=94350&index=24 Roy, Just-Jean-Étienne. Un Français en Chine pendant les années 1850 à 1856. Tours: A. Mame, 1858. Société de Saint-Augustin. La Chine. Lille: Société de Saint-Augustin, 1889. Tcheng, Ki-tong. Préface to Au Pays des pagodes, notes de voyage by Alfred Raquez, vi. Shanghai: Imprimerie de la presse orientale, 1900. Tissot, Victor. La Chine, d’après les voyageurs les plus récents. Paris: Jouvet, 1885. Valette, E. de. Chronique et faits divers. L’Ami de la religion et du roi: journal ecclésiastique, politique et littéraire, tome cent cinquante-cinquième. Paris: A. Le Clère, 1852. https://books.google.com/books?id=jldY47JFjaEC&pg= PA171&dq=le+cassini+la+capricieuse&hl=zh-TW&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjswsi 1ssLiAhVUIIgKHXpCA-­AQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=le%20cassini%2C% 20la%20capricieuse&f=false Vénard, Eusèbe, Louis-Édouard Pie, and Jean-Baptiste Chauvin. Vie et correspondance de J.-Théophane Vénard, prêtre de la Société des Missions étrangères, décapité pour la foi au Tong-King, le 2 février 1861. Augmenté du discours d’anniversaire prononcé à Saint-Loup par Mgr l’évêque de Poitiers. [Hymne en l’honneur du Martyr J.-Théophane Vénard. Par M. l’Abbé J.-B.  Chauvin]. Poitiers: H. Oudin, 1864. Vogel, Charles. Le Portugal et ses colonies, tableau politique et commercial de la monarchie portugaise dans son état actuel avec des annexes et les notes supplémentaires. Paris: Guillaumin et Cie, libraires-éditeurs, 1860. Wei, Tsing-sing Louis. La Politique missionnaire de la France en Chine 1842–1856: l’ouverture des cinq ports chinois à commerce étranger et la liberté religieuse. Paris: Nouvelles éditions latines, 1961. “鬼” [oracle bone script], Han Dian漢典, zdic.net

CHAPTER 8

Macao’s Status and Importance in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries To start this part, Macao’s political and commercial marginalization and the Portuguese activities  in China being overshadowed by British and French colonial achievements was a reality. But the establishment of Macao by the Portuguese pioneers marked an excellent start in European and Asiatic intercourse. Macao was a flourishing port and had established all its legitimate commercial enterprises by the eighteenth century. Throughout the nineteenth century, it continued to exercise several vital functions in Sino-Foreign relations. Here we would like to use another example to illustrate Macao’s importance in the eyes of the French. Early in the twentieth century, Claudius Madrolle was a young Frenchman who hoped to live up to what France expected of its citizens. He dreamed that France rendered itself powerful again. His book Sud de la Chine. Hong kong, Canton, Macao, le Si-kiang (1904) is a report on these areas of China and originally aimed to provide commercial and geographical intelligence information to the French government. In addition, it was to serve France’s possible expansion in the region from the intelligence perspective. The chapter on Macao has ten pages and provides a detailed description of Macao, covering all aspects of the small city in an unbelievable way. The contents include the distance from Macao to Hong Kong and how the ships navigated between the two colonies and the following elements of Macao: the city’s outlook, hotels, local transport, telecommunication, foreign consulates, gambling houses © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Xie, The French in Macao in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Chinese Literature and Culture in the World, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94665-4_8

153

154 

J. XIE

and religious cults, exciting and unusual things to observe, industries, state of railway construction, and foreign consulates stationed in the city. It also outlined a concise history recording the most important events that took place in Macao. In addition, the chapter describes other aspects of Macao, such as the administrative system, government budget, military forces, clergy, and population.1 The detailed information sufficiently indicates that for France, Macao was still one of the main places in South China to examine and held political and strategic importance. Compared to the previous centuries, Macao’s outlook did not change much. It remained very cosmopolitan and even looked like a big city at first glance. This is what Georges Weulersee wrote about Macao in his book Chine ancienne et nouvelle: impressions et réflexions (1902). He expressed his impression as follows: Il pense que nous passions. Mais doucement nous tournons: nous doublons une pointe rocheuse, où s’élève une redoute délabrée comme une redoute chinoise. Tout d’un coup un autre fond de ville se découvre: une longue rangée de maisons basses à vérandas, d’une uniforme teinte jaune crème; tandis que dans le fond d’une autre baie plus étroite les jonques se pressent. A ce moment unique, Macao donne l’illusion d’une grande ville. Mais voici sur la crête de l’isthme reparaître les remparts sur elle-même: elle est toute en façade.2 (He thinks we were passing. But we turn slowly: we pass by a rocky point, where stands a ruined fortress like a Chinese fortress. Then, suddenly, another city background is revealed: a long row of low houses with verandas, uniformly creamy yellow, while the junks were in a hurry in the back of another bay which was narrower. At this unique moment, Macao gives the illusion of a big city. But here, the fortifications reappear on the ridge of the isthmus: the ridge is all in front.)

This impression is nearly the same as the one that European visitors of previous centuries had. When approaching Macao on the sea, they first saw the Praia Grande of Macao, that is, the pretty colorful houses built on the hills as if they were arriving in a big European seaport city. Indeed, after they had landed, they shall see a different image of Macao: two separate communities, narrow streets, depressed cityscape in the Portuguese  Madrolle, Sud de la Chine, 23–32.  Georges Weulersee, Chine ancienne et nouvelle: impressions et réflexions (Paris: Librairie Armand Colin, 1902), 66. 1 2

8  MACAO’S STATUS AND IMPORTANCE IN THE NINETEENTH AND EARLY… 

155

community, and noisy and sometimes dirty neighborhoods in the Chinese community. The contrasts are as sharp as those between Macao’s past and its situation in the nineteenth century.

Macao, a Cosmopolitan Enclave, Preserved Its Importance as a Western Establishment Macao strengthened its nature as a modern colony in the second half of the century. It was no longer a trading center but gradually turned into a free port in order to survive. Macao was weak economically and politically. If the settlers were able to repulse the presence of other European countries, they would have done this. We remember how they bravely confronted the Dutch in the early seventeenth century when the latter tried to enter into direct trade with China. In the nineteenth century, China was opening, and Macao also had to open. This change is the outcome of the evolvement of modern history. First, Macao remained a Western settlement worthy of admiration. As it was the first European establishment in the Far East, Western visitors, including the French, came to Macao to admire its European legacy and express the nostalgia of its greatness in the past. At the same time, they tried to examine the reasons for its decline. That’s why nearly all of them visited the Grotto of Camões and paid respect to the great Portuguese poet. Camões’ poem had all the literary, cultural, and historical values in bearing witness to the great navigation and exploration achieved by the West, the spread of Christianity, and the influence of Western culture in the Far East. Not only did the French authors laud the poet in their books but carved the verses near the grotto to sing praises to Camões. Louis de Rienzi (1789–1843), a French traveler to Macao in the nineteenth century, wrote a poem dedicated to Camões and had it carved on a stone near the poet’s grotto on March 30, 1827. This poem, which still can be read on the rock today, was considered of low quality or naïve and even mocked by his French compatriots.3 Nevertheless, one of its verses accurately expresses the feelings of the Europeans vis-à-vis Macao: “Le temps qui détruit tout, agrandira sa gloire” (Time that destroys everything will increase his glory). Second, Macao continued to serve as a Western stronghold, including assisting with the French interest in the Far East. The Western naval forces, 3

 Raquez, Pays des pagodes, 59.

156 

J. XIE

including the French navy, were active in the South China Sea. After 1840 France enhanced the presence of its navy on the South China Sea, and French warships anchored regularly off Macao, Hong Kong, and Manilla. In addition, French steamers navigated in the areas surrounding Macao to receive and protect French diplomats, visitors, missionaries, and other types of French vessels and their crews. For example, when the French war steamer La Sirène carried the French legation to Macao for negotiating the Treaty of Whampoa with the Qing, the French warship La Cléopatre had been navigating along the China coast for over a year. The captain and the crew participated in welcoming the legation. In particular, the French used Macao to prepare for wars. On March 19, 1859, The North-China Herald reported that the French had built several movable houses and sentry boxes in Macao to be used to fortify their barracks at Touron (Da Nang, Vietnam) in preparation of the new military operations against the Cochin-Chinese army. The news revealed at the same time that because some of the Catholic missionaries had discovered rich mines in Tonkin in northern Vietnam, the Spanish who formed the joint naval expedition force with the French desired occupying Vietnam.4 Third, Macao remained a place connecting China and the West and even served as an ideal place for organizing  major political events. For example, the Treaty of Wangxia was signed in Macao in 1844 between the United States and China. It was also in Macao that China and France negotiated the Treaty of Whampoa. Macao was the location where both Western diplomats and high-ranking Chinese officials found it proper to set foot. Thus, it was an international diplomatic stage for the Sino-­ Foreign relations in the second half of the nineteenth century. Fourth, Macao served as a harbor and an asylum for Westerners during the wars. The typical representation was the role that Macao played during the opium wars. Being a Portuguese possession, Macao was a theater where the international audience observed all the conflicts happening on the stage. However, its function was more than this. It received important high-ranking Chinese officials such as Lin Zexu (1785–1850, 林則徐), the Two Guangs viceroy in 1840 who led the large-scale anti-opium campaign before the First Opium War. Macao also sheltered British citizens and companies from risking their lives or businesses in the wartime Canton. Important British personages who benefited from Macao’s unique 4  “From Macao We Hear that the French have Built a Number of Moveable Houses and Sentry Box,” The North-China Herald, March 19, 1859, no. 451: 131.

8  MACAO’S STATUS AND IMPORTANCE IN THE NINETEENTH AND EARLY… 

157

position included Charles Elliot (1801–1875). All this is recorded in the French authors’ writings.5 Macao was Chinese territory, a Portuguese colony, or something else? Its identity was rendered particularly ambiguous during the wars. It was probably a neutral place as the Portuguese, who shall be considered the Chinese’s alien rulers, were friends with all international forces at play.

France’s “Interest in Macao” and How Macao Served It At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Western powers suspected that France had a plan of occupying Macao. Around 1802, the British East India Company learned that a large French fleet proposed heading toward Batavia and then organizing an expedition in Batavia to seize the island of Macao and its fortresses. The British considered that a large French fleet on the China Sea and the close relationship between the French and Dutch would ruin the British commerce in this area. Therefore, the British temporarily occupied Macao in 1802 and 1808.6 They intended to prevent the French from making Macao an operation base of France. In 1886, Macao might be conceded to France. Britain thus intervened and forced China to acknowledge Portugal’s territorial rights over Macao. The reality is that the 1887 Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking (中葡和好通商條約) confirmed the perpetual occupation and governance of Macao by Portugal. The treaty specified Macao’s political status as a Portuguese colony, although China had different interpretations. For them, only the administrative rights of Macao were transferred to Portugal. As discussed at the beginning of this book, several critical French diplomates stayed in Macao in the mid-nineteenth century, including Alexandre Forth-Rouen (1806–1886), the first French ambassador to China, René de Courcy (1827–1908), and Alphonse de Bourboulon (1809–1877). Thus, France had political and diplomatic reasons to select Macao as a desired place to interact with the Chinese government for 5  Auguste Jeanneret-Oehl, Souvenirs du séjour d’un horloger neuchâtelois en Chine (Neuchâtel: Chez l’auteur), 1866. 6  Dobel, Sept années en Chine, 215–16; E. Bard, Les Chinois chez eux (Paris: Armand Colin et Cie, éditeurs, 1899), 336–40; William Edward Soothill, China and the West: A Short History of their Contact from Ancient Times to the Fall of the Manchu Dynasty (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2009): 98.

158 

J. XIE

political matters. How did Alexandre  Forth-Rouen come to Macao? Before 1842, The French Consulate was in Canton, the only port open to foreign commerce, representing France’s China interests. Lefebvre de Bécourt (1811–1896) was in the position of French consul before Lagrené arrived in Macao on August 13, 1844. After the Treaty of Whampoa was signed on October 24, 1844, Lagrené left Macao on January 11, 1846, while Bécourt remained in Canton. However, the French government quickly decided to remove its consulates in Manilla and Canton, to create a permanent legation in China. They formed a vice-­consulate in Shanghai and then quickly upgraded it to a consulate. However, the French government was preparing more plans. On January 16, 1847, François Guizot, then French Minister of Foreign Affairs, wrote to the French king to propose the cancellation of the consulates and creation of a new permanent legation in China by sending an envoyé et chargé d’affaires (公使) to China. And on January 23 of the same year, Guizot wrote to Lefebvre de Bécourt that the French Consulate in Canton would be removed and the Baron Alexandre Forth-Rouen, Secretary to the French Legation in Lisbon, was appointed as envoyé et chargé d’affaires in China.  ForthRouen thus became the first French ambassador to China and was about to arrive in China. The French envoyé and chargé d’affaires was supposed to station in Canton. However, should he arrive directly in Canton or first stay temporarily in Hong Kong? The French government denied both options. First of all, the French were concerned that a quick visit to Hong Kong would make them be considered inferior to the British. This outcome would be inappropriate in maintaining a good image of the French. In dealing with the affairs with China, the French also considered they should keep a distance from the British, with whom the Chinese had been in a hostile relationship since 1840. Thus, getting too close to the British would affect their relationship with China, especially when the French were still unable to predict the outcomes of the commercial or political negotiations with China. Finally, they considered that the French diplomats should follow what American diplomats adopted and should not meet with the British in Hong Kong shortly after arriving in China. The purpose was to avoid triggering any hostility or mistrust from the Chinese. On the other hand, the residence of the French envoyé and chargé d’affaires was not ready in Canton. Therefore, if Forth-Rouen landed first in Canton, he would have to reside in a British business merchant or an American businessman’s dwelling to receive the Chinese officials. Such an arrangement would be

8  MACAO’S STATUS AND IMPORTANCE IN THE NINETEENTH AND EARLY… 

159

neither appropriate nor practical in the eyes of the French government.7 Therefore, Macao was chosen as the ideal place for the French diplomats to land first. Thus, Forth-Rouen came to Macao first, and as a matter of fact, he lived here from January 1848 to 1851. France’s “interest in Macao” was also recorded in the newspaper during this period. The intentions of the French came to the attention of the Portuguese and the British in Hong Kong. On October 12, 1901, North-­ China Daily News, the famous English newspaper in China, reported that the French government had purchased Boa Vista, a well-known hotel in Macao, and the French wanted to transform it into a sanitarium to receive their officials from Cochinchina. The news expressed a suspicious attitude to the French government’s intention. It reported, “our French friends are so full of schemes for the extension of the French flag to other regions that they can spare neither time nor money to develop the resources of the fine colonies they have already acquired.” In other words, the French could have built the sanitarium in Tonkin. On the transfer of the property, the Portuguese authorities in Macao reported to Lisbon and ask for decision.8 The news also reported that the French purchased the land in the area near Macao as well. On May 15, 1902, North-China Daily News reported again that the French purchased a big piece of land on the promontory of Catai within a few miles of Macao from a Chinese owner to establish a navy hospital. As Catai possessed a deep anchorage and controlled the entrance to Macao and Canton, this potential purchase, from the British point of view, was suspicious again and a menace to both Macao and Hong Kong. The newspaper suggested that Peking, Lisbon, and Hong Kong authorities all be alert regarding the French’s intention.9 Thus, the French had questionable attempts toward Macao in the eyes of the other Western powers. Another piece of news was that the French had hoisted their flag in a place near Macao, called Yehti. Later, the suspected intentions of the French were proved, nevertheless, to be rumors without foundation.10 In the early twentieth century, Alfred Cunningham, a British journalist in Hong Kong, recorded France’s interest in Macao in his book the French in Tonkin and South China. He pointed out that although Paul Doumer  Cordier, “Première légation,” 360–61.  “French Acquisition at Macao,” North-China Daily News, October 12, 1901. 9  “The French at Macao,” North-China Daily News, May 15, 1902. 10  “Reports of the French at Macao,” North-China Daily News, July 18, 1902. 7 8

160 

J. XIE

(1857–1932), the governor-general of Cochinchina, could not obtain his desired sanatorium in Macao, he used the newly acquired French possession Guangzhouwan (officially Kouang-Tchéou-Wan, 廣州灣) to achieve this goal.11 He stated, “French influence has also been very conspicuous at Macao, which is certainly too near Hongkong to be tolerated, being but forty miles distant.” He listed several attempts that the French had taken regarding Macao. First, the government of French Indochina intended to purchase the Boa Vista Hotel in Macao with a sum much exceeding its actual value. They aimed to transform it into a French naval sanatorium. Second, the French tried to acquire a small island opposite to Macao and intended to land a cable connecting this island with Guangzhouwan. Certainly, the British in Hong Kong and the Portuguese in Macao were both opposed to the French’s attempts. However, the Paris Foreign Missions Society still successfully purchased Catai, located within a few miles of Macao.12 Examples demonstrate Macao well served France’s interest in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As discussed in the previous chapter, during the negotiations of the 1844 Treaty of Whampoa, the French legation sojourned in Macao for all the preparations and obtained considerable assistance from French missionaries and other figures living in Macao. These people served as intelligence agents and paved the way for the French’s negotiations with the Qing. In this regard, Macao already constituted a base for the French interest. Another example is that the French army built navy hospitals in Macao to expand their military in China and the Franco-British expedition to China in 1860. In his report to the French government, Charles Cousin-Montauban stated that establishing a navy hospital in Macao was one of his important tasks after arriving in China.13 These are excellent examples to illustrate the importance of Macao to France and additionally to Western powers in this period, although the Portuguese settlement was no longer a trade center.

11  Alfred Cunningham, The French in Tonkin and South China (Hong Kong: Office of the “Hong Kong Daily Press,” 1902), 15. 12  Cunningham, French in Tonkin, 33–37. 13  Charles Cousin-Montauban, comte de Palikao, L’Expédition de Chine en 1860. Souvenirs du général Cousin de Montauban, comte de Palikao: publiés par son petit-fils, le comte de Palikao (Paris: Librairie Plon, 1932): 38.

8  MACAO’S STATUS AND IMPORTANCE IN THE NINETEENTH AND EARLY… 

161

Macao, an Impoverished City Macao had several images. When the ships were approaching the coast, Macao often showed a beautiful picture to the French travelers: colorful Portuguese houses were located on the hill in the form of an amphitheater. This first image was delightful. However, after they landed and observed Macao closely, they found a different image. It was a city with deformities: Chinese residences were mixed with the Portuguese ones randomly. A crowded Chinese population lived on the small Peninsula. Although being the administrator, the Portuguese tended to have no control over important political matters in Macao. Therefore, the beautiful colors of their building did not mean the vitality of the community and the power of the Portuguese. All this made the observers affirm that Macao had lost its greatness.14 Nearly all the authors we studied in this research pointed out that Macao was encountering economic depression, although some did mention that Macao harvested momentary economic  prosperity during the Opium Wars when the wars forced British firms to move to Macao and enjoyed the profit generated by the gambling industry. According to an article posted on Zilin Hubao (字林滬報) on January 21, 1887, the city was greatly impoverished, and its economy was getting worse during this period because of the depression of the fish market. The salted fish trade had been an important business in Macao but was declining significantly. Fishing boats did not come, and fish companies moved away, as pointed out by the newspaper article. The Portuguese government in Macao was suffering from poverty as well. The news article pointed out that the Portuguese government had to purchase three hundred and fifty fire guns at a low price due to the lack of money, but the guns were not sharp weapons and could not implement protection.15 The authors all commented that it was because of the rise of Hong Kong that Macao sank into the appalling depth of hopelessness and depravity. This view was consistent with the opinions held by historians. In Resumo da História de Macau, Eudore de Colomban pointed out how Hong Kong harmed Macao from 1850 to 1870:

 Jeanneret-Oehl, Souvenirs du séjour, 34–40.  “Aomen Qiongji” 澳門窮極 [Macao is extremely poor], Zilin Hubao 字林滬報, January 21, 1887. 14 15

162 

J. XIE

Desde a sua fundação, a cidade de Hong-Kong cresceu rapidamente à custa de Macau. Esta última colónia, agitada pelos acontecimentos políticos de 1849, viu afastar-se um grande numero de comerciantes chineses, que ia fixar-se em Hong-Kong. Houve um momento em que os mandarins, de acordo com o Governador Cardoso (1851), quiseram restabelecer o Ho-Pu, a fim de favorecer certos monopólios.16 (Since its founding, the city of Hong Kong has multiplied at the expense of Macao. This last colony, agitated by the political events of 1849, saw many Chinese traders move away, settling in Hong Kong. According to governor Cardoso (1851), there was a time when mandarins wanted to re-­ establish the Ho-Pu to favor certain monopolies.)

The rise of Hong Kong was at the price of Macao. The Portuguese did not implement measures to contain Macao’s decline and instead resorted to gambling and the coolie trade. Another important fact was that throughout the eighteenth century, the East India Company was gradually developing the commerce of Canton. The company encountered a great deal of Portuguese opposition when attempting to open up the business with Canton. The British’s efforts were not fruitless. In 1670, they succeeded in establishing strongholds in Xiamen and Formosa (Taiwan, 台灣). Put it another way, the British were gradually developing their trade with China during the eighteenth century and overtook Macao completely with the cession of Hong Kong in 1842 as a trade power.

Macao, a City of Gambling, Opium, and Coolie Trade According to a long article entitled The Portuguese Colony of Macao posted in the newspaper The China Truth on June 22, 1929, opium, gambling, and prostitution were almost the only means for the support of the Macao government. It stated these were the three vices of Macao and they had nothing to do with legitimate commercial practices. On the contrary, during this period, there was a commercial rush all over the Far East. It was thus a shame for Macao to rely on the opium trade, gambling, and prostitution for a living. Furthermore, the article denounced those Europeans, mainly the English, were engaged in opium traffic. Among the French authors of this study, some observed and criticized that the English used the drug to destroy China in addition to wars. Still, very few pointed out 16  Eudore de Colomban, Resumo da historia de Macau (Macau: Tipografia Mandarin, 1980), 111–12.

8  MACAO’S STATUS AND IMPORTANCE IN THE NINETEENTH AND EARLY… 

163

that opium was one of the essential sources of revenue of the Portuguese government in Macao. The article further pointed out that in the late 1850s, Macao had a developed  coolie trade with ramifications all over Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentine, and Central America and pointed out that Hong Kong partook in this “glory.” However, British authorities in Hong Kong made it illegal for the British subjects to engage in the coolie trade to the Chipcha Islands. In terms of the coolie trade, several French authors accused both the  Portuguese and Spanish of being engaged in the trade and severely condemned their actions. The denouncement was ruthless. Macao did rely on the coolie trade to survive. Certainly, this heavily blamed activity concerned the individuals of one portion in Macao only, that is, the Chinese. Hong Kong and Canton, the two prosperous cities, gave a deadly blow to Macao’s commerce, but the Portuguese merchants still made a lot of money from human trafficking until 1873. In this indecent and illegal business, Chinese coolies, purchased by the Portuguese on the islands and South China coast or captured with the help of pirates, were sent to distant countries and places such as Havana, Peru, the Antilles. Ironically, the local authorities made efforts in order to render the coolie trade “more human.” In 1871 recruiting Chinese coolies in Macao became “transparent or official.” The recruitment conditions were written in big Chinese characters publicly on the wall of the hall where the coolies for Peru and Havana were recruited. After the individuals having the intention of being a coolie had arrived and gathered in the right place, the trade agent read aloud the conditions. The candidates were asked three or four times about their resolution of leaving their homeland. Only upon the verbal consent first followed by an official consent in front of a public notary was a person made a coolie. Each week, the transshipment of coolies took place three times. But the recruiter did use tricks to lure people into becoming coolies by falsely describing America as a good place for the poor to start a new life.17 In the eyes of the French authors, the coolie trade was a dirty business combined with blood, violence, tricks, desperation, and a life far away from home. However, did the French stay away from the coolie trade? According to what was recorded in some newspapers during this period, the French did join the coolie trade. For example, on November 7, 1870, North-China Daily News reported that the French vessel La Nouvelle Pénélope, in charge  Tissot, Chine, 9–13.

17

164 

J. XIE

of sending three hundred Chinese coolies to Peru on November 4, 1870, was taken possession of by the coolies while at sea. The newspaper recorded as follows: As we learn the facts of the case, the rising took place early in the morning, and when part of the watch on deck aloft were engaged in making sail. The Capt. and mate were killed and all but eight of the crew. The females on board were thrown overboard, and the ship run [ran] into the harbor of Tinpack, where she now is, or was at last account. This place is some 150 miles to the westward of Macao. Six of the crew are still on board, two made their escape and got to Macao on Monday with the news. It is supposed that the whole affair was the result of a preconcerted plan matured before the departure of the vessel China Mail.18

The column “Sixty Years Ago” of North-China Daily News reported that in 1872 when the French ship L’Univers carried 265 coolies from Macao to Havana, Twenty-six coolies died before arriving at the destination.19 The French authors did not mention that the French participated in the coolie trade, and they were probably unaware of such incidents. The harsh criticism of the coolie trade in Macao by the authors such as Ludovic de Beauvoir corresponds to the slave liberation process in France, where the emancipation of slavery constituted relatively an insignificant part of the political discussion at first. After the fall of the Orleanist regime in February 1848, the provisional government of the new Second Republic (1848–1852) decided to move quickly toward the abolition of slavery, and the French government officially put the emancipation of slaves on the political agenda. Victor Schoelcher (1804–1893), the republican and radical abolitionist and author of the anti-slavery work Des Colonies françaises: abolition immédiate de l’esclavage (1842), was appointed chief of the colonial bureau of the French navy. With the efforts of anti-slavery figures such as Schoelcher, the provisional French government proclaimed the definitive abolition of slavery. It issued a decree in the French colonies on April 27, 1848. The French authors’ criticism of the coolie trade in Macao was sincere, although they did not mention whether the French were also involved in this vicious business. To some degree, the French authors’ criticism echoed the anti-slavery movement in France. As witnesses, they 18  “The French Barque Nouvelle Penelope,” North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, November 15, 1870, 366. 19  “Sixty Years Ago,” North-China Daily News, June 14, 1932.

8  MACAO’S STATUS AND IMPORTANCE IN THE NINETEENTH AND EARLY… 

165

were clearly against the nasty activity. The coolie trade shaped a very negative image of Macao, which was barbarian and degraded, whether in the eyes of European visitors or the contemporary Chinese who likely regarded foreigners as manifestly lawless barbarians.20

Macao, a Brand of Quality Opium In the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, China even became a more miserable country due to the opium issue: Chinese individuals smoked opium from high-ranking officials to ordinary people, were involved in the opium traffic, or were engaged to planting opium poppy. The entire country was struggling against the abuse of opium. As to Macao, like what the French authors described in their accounts and reports, the Portuguese settlement whose revenue relied considerably on the opium traffic was not only a trader but a producer of opium. As discussed previously, Alfred Raquez reported how opium was processed and packaged clearly and concisely among the authors we studied in this book. In the early twentieth century, opium traffic was still quite popular in Macao. Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues, the then governor of Macao, attended the International Opium Convention in 1925 and made declarations against the opium traffic on behalf of the Portuguese delegation. At that time, in the small Portuguese colony of Macao, the Portuguese authorities decided to use the revenue from opium to implement proper social measures to fight against the damaging effects of this narcotic.21 Macao became a brand of quality opium  ironically and sadly. The first reason was that Macao had been for centuries the first port through which the West communicated with China. The opium from other countries frequently took the name of this small port if it was transported through Macao. The second reason was that the opium made in Macao was considered to be of better quality than the opium produced in China. Therefore, it happened that the opium made in other places was also labeled as “opium de Macao” (opium from Macao). As pointed out by Olof Hoijer, “l’on fabrique partout de « l’opium de Macao », et qu’on trouve à Macao même de « l’opium de Macao », venant de l’extérieur” (“The opium from Macao” is  Soothill, China and the West, 146.  Olof Hoijer, Le Trafic de l’opium et d’autres stupéfiants. Étude de droit international et d’histoire diplomatique (Paris: Editions Spes, 1925), 58. 20 21

166 

J. XIE

produced everywhere, and people even find in Macao “the opium from Macao” coming from the exterior).22

Macao, Still a Center for Catholic Mission Work In 1852, Charles Hubert Lavollée made this affirmation: “Macao est le centre des missions catholiques en Chine” (Macao is the center of Catholic mission in China). And the Lazarists and the establishment of the Paris Foreign Missions Society represented the presence of France in Macao.23 In other words, Macao remained an important center for Catholic mission work. As pointed out by Abbe Huc, the missionaries continued to come to Macao to receive the training and then were sent to different Asian countries to preach Catholicism.24 Young students from Asian countries, such as Korea, were sent to Macao to study Latin, and Macao had excellent masters to teach these young men science and virtue.25 In addition, missionaries who “committed crimes” according to the Chinese law were sent to Macao but not sentenced in the interior of China after the 1844 Treaty of Whampoa was signed.26 For example, the Lazarist preacher M. Carayon was arrested first in the Tartary-Mongolia and then was sent back to Macao. Macao was still a station for mission work. For instance, on June 9, 1846, Carayon reported to his superior M. Etienne from Macao, Superior General of the Congregation of St. Lazare.27 From this point of view, Macao remained a vital base camp for the mission work in China.

 Hoijer, Trafic de l’opium, 58.  Lavollée, Voyage en Chine, 292–93. 24  Huc, Empire chinois, 158. 25  Joseph Ferréol, “Lettre de M.  Ferréol; évêque de Belline, vicaire apostolique de la Corée, à M. Barron, directeur au Séminaire des Missions-étrangères,” in Annales de la propagation de la foi. Recueil périodique des lettres des évêques et des missionnaires des missions des deux mondes, et de tous les documents relatifs aux missions et à l’Association de la propagation de la foi, tome 19 (Lyon: M.-P. Rusand, 1846), 445. 26  Huc, Empire chinois, 4. 27  F. L. Carayon, “Lettre de M. Carayon, missionnaire Lazariste dans la Tartarie-Mongole, à M. Etienne, supérieur général de la congrégation de St. -Lazare,” in Annales de la propagation de la foi. Recueil périodique des lettres des évêques et des missionnaires des missions des deux mondes, et de tous les documents relatifs aux missions et à l’Association de la propagation de la foi, tome 19 (Lyon: M.-P. Rusand, 1846), 73. 22 23

8  MACAO’S STATUS AND IMPORTANCE IN THE NINETEENTH AND EARLY… 

167

Inter-Racial Marriage Par Excellence Macao’s population became one of the salient characteristics of the Portuguese settlement. Georges Bousquet affirmed in amazement: nothing more mixed, nothing more unusual than the population of Macao.28 Nearly all of the French authors described and commented on a specific type of population in Macao. They were the so-called Macanese, results of the inter-racial marriages. Sometimes, these considered were the offspring of the Portuguese in Macao and other non-European races, and other times, they were considered only the offspring of the Portuguese and Chinese.  Occasionally, the Macanese referred to the descendants of the Portuguese living in Macao.  For example, Georges Bousquet thought that the Macanese were those born in China, with both parents being Portuguese. Therefore, the term “Macanese” was in reality not clear and contained confusions. The inter-racial marriage naturally resulted in many Eurasians, born from a mixture of varying degrees of European and Chinese blood (les métis nés d’un mélange a des degrés divers de sang européen et de sang chinois).29 These people were Portuguese nationals in Macao, but some French authors tended to distinguish them from the “pure Portuguese.”30 As discussed previously,  for the French arriving from Europe, they produced familiarity as well as strangeness. For example, they discussed the physical appearance of the Macanese and commented on their mentality. Some of them even  dared pronounce that the looking of the female Macanese lacked attractiveness. And sometimes, their comments were unreasonably sharp as they did not consider the mingling of cultures, represented here by the inter-racial marriage, as a positive phenomenon. In other word, the French’s viewpoint in this regard was more from a racial perspectvie. However, on the other hand, inter-racial marriage constituted good demonstrations of the stability and co-existence of two cultures— Portuguese culture and Chinese culture, in hundreds of years.

References Bard, E. Les Chinois chez eux. Paris: Armand Colin et Cie, éditeurs, 1899.  Bousquet, Japon de nos jour, 336.  Bousquet, 336–37. 30  Beauvoir, Java, Siam, Canton, 406. 28 29

168 

J. XIE

Beauvoir, Ludovic de. Java, Siam, Canton. Voyage autour du monde. Paris: Henri Plon, imprimeur-éditeur, 1870. Bousquet, Georges. Le Japon de nos jours et les échelles de l’Extrême-Orient, tome 1 et tome 2. Paris: Librairie Hachette et Cie, 1877. Carayon, F.  L. “Lettre de M.  Carayon, missionnaire Lazariste dans la Tartarie-­ Mongole, à M. Etienne, supérieur général de la congrégation de St. -Lazare.” In Annales de la propagation de la foi. Recueil périodique des lettres des évêques et des missionnaires des missions des deux mondes, et de tous les documents relatifs aux missions et à l’Association de la propagation de la foi, tome 19. Lyon: M.-P. Rusand, 1846. Colomban, Eudore de. Resumo da historia de Macau. Macau: Tipografia Mandarin, 1980. Cordier, Henri. “La Première légation de France en Chine (1847).” T’oung Pao (1906) 7, no. 3: 351–68. Cousin-Montauban, Charle, comte de Palikao. L’Expédition de Chine en 1860. Souvenirs du général Cousin de Montauban, comte de Palikao: publiés par son petit-fils, le comte de Palikao. Paris: Librairie Plon, 1932. Cunningham, Alfred. The French in Tonkin and South China. Hong Kong: Office of the “Hong Kong Daily Press,” 1902. Dobel, Pierre. Sept années en Chine: nouvelles observations sur cet empire: l’archipel Indo-Chinois, les Philippines et les îles Sandwich, traduit du russe par le prince Emmanuel Galitzin, nouv. éd. Paris: Librairie d’Amyot, éditeur, 1842. Ferréol, Joseph. “Lettre de M. Ferréol; évêque de Belline, vicaire apostolique de la Corée, à M.  Barron, directeur au Séminaire des Missions-étrangères.” In Annales de la propagation de la foi. Recueil périodique des lettres des évêques et des missionnaires des missions des deux mondes, et de tous les documents relatifs aux missions et à l’Association de la propagation de la foi, tome 19. Lyon: M.-P. Rusand, 1846. Hoijer, Olof. Le Trafic de l’opium et d’autres stupéfiants. Étude de droit international et d’histoire diplomatique. Paris: Editions Spes, 1925. Huc, Evariste Régis. L’Empire chinois: faisant suite à l’ouvrage intitulé Souvenirs d’un voyage dans la Tartarie et le Tibet, tome premier. Paris: Librairie de Gaume frère, 1854. Jeanneret-Oehl, Auguste. Souvenirs du séjour d’un horloger neuchâtelois en Chine. Neuchâtel: Chez l’auteur, 1866. Lavollée, Charles Hubert. Voyage en Chine: Ténériffe, Rio Janeiro, le Cap, Ile Bourbon, Malacca, Singapore, Manille, Macao, Canton, ports chinois, Cochinchine, Java. Paris: Just Rouvier & A Ledoyen, 1852. Madrolle, Claudius. Sud de la Chine. Hong kong, Canton, Macao, le Si-kiang. Paris: Comité de l’Asie française; Chang-hai: Kelly & Walsh Limited, 1904. Raquez, A. Au Pays des pagodes, notes de voyage. Shanghai: Imprimerie de la presse orientale, 1900.

8  MACAO’S STATUS AND IMPORTANCE IN THE NINETEENTH AND EARLY… 

169

Soothill, William Edward. China and the West: A Short History of Their Contact from Ancient Times to the Fall of the Manchu Dynasty. Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2009. Tissot, Victor. La Chine, d’après les voyageurs les plus récents. Paris: Jouvet, 1885. Weulersee, Georges. Chine ancienne et nouvelle: impressions et réflexions. Paris: Librairie Armand Colin, 1902.

CHAPTER 9

Conclusion

In the eighteenth century, during the Enlightenment, French philosophers had opposing views on Chinese civilization. Voltaire and Diderot considered that China was “la nation la plus sage et la plus policée de l’univers” (the wisest and most civilized nation in the world) while Montesquieu and Rousseau considered that China was “un État despotique, dont le principe est la crainte” (a despotic state and fear was used as the principal of governance). The missionaries, in particular, those who came earlier to China, positively described China and presented it to the West. As missionaries were able to speak and write in Chinese, especially those who had stayed in China for a long time, their accounts on China were usually considered more reliable. In the nineteenth century, more Europeans came to China, and many of them were travelers and did not speak Chinese. In other words, their accounts on China in helping the West understand the country were limited and even biased. And in the nineteenth century, many statements on China and Chinese culture were negative. As discussed previously, Escayrac de Lauture’s commentaries on China were typical of this sharply negative view of China. Those holding a negative view of China included missionaries who came later to China, whom Abbe Huc referred to as “les missionnaires modernes” (modern missionaries).1 1

 Huc, Empire chinois, xiii.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Xie, The French in Macao in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Chinese Literature and Culture in the World, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94665-4_9

171

172 

J. XIE

Some Europeans did notice the differences in the opinions on China and pointed out that the travelers in the nineteenth century could be disparaging Chinese people in front of a country preoccupied with many troubles. There was, therefore, a political reason. China was no longer a superpower in the East in the eyes of the Europeans and as a fact. “Up to 1839 it was China, which dictated to the West the terms on which relations should be permitted to exist; since 1860 it is the West which has imposed on China the conditions of their common intercourse: the intervening period of twenty years was one of friction, when the West had imposed its conditions, which China tried to minimize and resist,” as pointed out by Morse.2 In reality, early in the mid-nineteenth century, missionaries such as Abbe Huc had pointed out that European perceptions of China were influenced by the decline of China’s political and commercial importance vis-àvis the West. For Abbe Huc, the seventeenth century marked the height of China’s political and civic eminence, which curiously corresponds to the heyday of Macao. In one sense, Macao’s fate seemed linked to the future of China. China’s political and civic institutions functioned with an admirable regularity in the seventeenth century. The emperor and the officials were indeed the parents of the Chinese people. Everywhere, people, regardless of their social and political importance, observed the law faithfully. A nearly perfect country was thus presented to the West. Europe had started to make significant social, economic, and intellectual signs of progress. Abbe Huc acknowledged that the European authors exaggerated China’s advantages at that time.3 However, this exaggeration was considered reasonable. This means that such a vast country naturally stimulated the Europeans’ imagination, which partially caused exaggerations in the representation. But Abbe Huc also pointed out that there was exaggeration in the negative accounts of the Europeans who came to China two centuries later as well. Compared to Europe, which was growing at a speedy pace, China’s ancient civilization was turning into a disappointing one, especially for those who had read positive writings about China before coming to the country. What they saw was an old country in a disastrous state. The vices which had deformed its ancient institutions were growing, and anything good from the European view of point had completely disappeared. Therefore, in their description of China, there was also an exaggerated negative feeling, triggered by the disappointment, 2  Hosea Ballou Morse, The International Relations of the Chinese Empire, Vol. 1 (Taipei: Ch’eng Wen Publishing Company, 1978), 299. 3  Huc, Empire chinois, xiii.

9 CONCLUSION 

173

the pride born of the rising Western civilization, and even the arrogance which became more and more evident in some Europeans in the second half of the nineteenth century. In this period, the Europeans could no longer see civilized individuals in the Chinese people, but a country defeated by Western civilization and a people who inclined to bully the small and weak and fear the tough (欺 軟怕硬). For Abbe Huc, in particular, the ruling class in China lamentably had this character. As argued by him, Les Chinois, et surtout leurs mandarins, sont forts avec les faibles, et faibles avec les forts. Dominer et écraser ce qui les entoure, voilà leur but.4 (The Chinese, especially their officials, are strict with the weak ones but fear the tough. Dominate and crush those that surround them; here is their objective).

This statement was the impression that the Chinese gave to him and also to the West. Another important fact was that the Taiping Rebellion, waged from 1850 to 1864 between the Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, made the European visitors to China during this particular period see a country riddled with disorders and misery. In front of a country in such an unfavorable state, they had grounds to despise China and its people. They wondered how early Europeans could praise this troubled nation in such a sincere manner. Certainly on the other hand, some pitied China. As discussed previously, François de Plas was shocked by China’s social and political situation and pointed out that China and its people were lamentable for not knowing why the Taiping Rebellion had occurred. China gradually became a nation that preserved nothing good in the eyes of certain Westerners. The French authors’ writings indicate that some key terms can be used to describe the characteristics of Macao in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: ancient Portuguese settlement, ancient glory, conquest, faith, decline, poverty, Camões, Macanese, opium, coolie trade, gambling, an international diplomatic stage, a place of retreat, and vague political identity. Admiration, respect, profound sadness, criticism mixed with a slight degree of disdain. The writings probably provide only a reduced image of the actual painting, but they are like a book’s preface leading us to understand the whole book. This is the significance of the French views of Macao. 4

 Huc, 3.

174 

J. XIE

Although insignificant in size, Macao was undeniably important for the Europeans before the mid-nineteenth century. The Europeans, particularly the Portuguese, relied on this small settlement for their business, mission work, and exploration in the Far East. In a word, Macao was small but significant. In the nineteenth century, it was no longer like before and became an ancient Portuguese colony. Here we can use a sentence from Ludovic de Beauvoir’s text to describe Macao. When the ship carrying Beauvoir arrived in Taipa, the young French said, “la presqu’île de Macao nous appraraît sous les derniers rayons du soleil” (the Peninsula of Macao appears before us under the last rays of the sun).5 Macao was like the sunset, a perfect image to tell the world that Macao was a mere shadow of what it had been formerly. It was still a neat Portuguese settlement. It had well-bonded warehouses, well-supplied stores, beautiful churches, and convents and remained a picturesque port with fresh and healthy air. Due to the narrow boundaries containing its land, Macao was viewed as a prison by some French observers and the Europeans in Macao were held like prisoners or chose to live there in exile voluntarily.6 They were kind and hospitable but no longer as courageous as their ancestors, the brave discoverers and great explorers. The literature we studied shows contrasts on various aspects: now and the past; the Macanese and their ancestors; the Chinese and the Europeans; China and the West; the Chinese town and the Portuguese town in Macao; the Macanese and Europeans; the French and the British. All this constitutes the image of Macao during this particular period. Observations made by the French might be straightforward but mirrored the direct impressions that Macao made on these French authors, which are straightforward, concise, and honest. Some accounts were highly detailed, for instance, Henri de Chonski’s report and Ludovic de Beauvoir’s account, and both provided important information on Macao’s economy during the particular period. All the writings studied in this research reflect the political and cultural encounters between the East and the West in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The French authors did not less blame the Portuguese. They identified France as an ally of the Portuguese and its settlement; therefore, they considered they had responsibilities of criticizing Macao and providing solutions. This is well reflected in Chonski’s thoughts on Macao’s status quo and future. However, the Portuguese and Macao’s shortcomings reflected 5 6

 Beauvoir, Java, Siam, Canton, 375.  Montigny, Manuel du négociant français, 283.

9 CONCLUSION 

175

the influence of one culture over another. The Macanese were much like local Chinese mentally or physically, which represented precisely cultural influence. In the eyes of these French authors, Macao had multi-­images. As noted by Harriet Hillard, Macao’s population was composed of a mixture of people such as Chinese, Lascars, and Portuguese, and the visitors heard the mixture of languages—it happened that none of which they understood and this created an effect similar to the confusion of Babel.7 All this shall indicate a multicultural image of Macao. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Macao gained its political status as a Portuguese colony assisted with the rising of Western imperialism. To some degree, the Portuguese obtained sovereignty over Macao and realized its control of the territory. The French authors rightly observed that Macao had lost its importance, which would remain permanent. Another important reason was that it was too small. In discussing the colonies in West African that Britain and France established between 1870 and 1945, D. K. Fieldhouse pointed out that some colonies are too small in size, population, and resources and too lacking in unity to constitute effective political or economic units. Although Macao was different from small Western colonies in Africa, this theory can apply to Macao. As argued by Fieldhouse, the size of a colony is very important.8 Since its establishment in the mid-sixteenth century, Macao relied on China’s mainland for all provisions and was not able to survive if its ties with the continent in this regard were cut. The small size also made it unable to form a relatively consolidated political unit in the colonial age, and it was not able to exercise economic and political influence. The decline of Macao was an affirmed reality in the nineteenth century and caused the lamentation and criticism of Western observers. In the twentieth century, the comments of Kammerer and Pelliot could represent Western views of Macao in this period. They lamented that “il ne resta que cette population à la race incertaine, presque chinoise, de médiocre renommée” (there remained only this population of uncertain race, almost Chinese, of mediocre fame) on the one hand. For them, the Portuguese experience in Macao was still adventurous on the other hand. The city’s disrepair happened rapidly; the wealth disappeared as quickly as

7 8

 Hillard, My Mother’s Journal, 40.  Fieldhouse, Colonialism, 47.

176 

J. XIE

it had come.9 In other words, Macao’s deterioration was a fatalité. José Frèches uses a chest made in Macao in the seventeenth century to illustrate the prosperity of the Portuguese settlement at that time. The back of the chest’s cover is adorned with a view of Macao, which depicts the city’s extraordinary economic vitality in the seventeenth century when Macao was in full expansion. Frèches commented as follows: “N’est-ce pas sa trop grande prospérité qui amènera sa décadence quelques années plus tard ?” (Is it not too great prosperity that will lead to its decadence a few years later?).10 Coming back to Pelliot’s comments on the racial characters of the Portuguese in Macao, it is worth noting the Macao formula that Kai Cheong Fok discussed in his doctoral dissertation. Fok’s main idea is that from the Ming Dynasty onward, the Chinese government adopted a unique method, referred to as the Macao formula by him, to govern the Portuguese in Macao. The essence of this formula was to assimilate them into Chinese culture by subtly exercising Confucian influence over the Portuguese.11 This can be considered one important reason the Portuguese could peacefully live with the Chinese on this small island for hundreds of years. The analysis based on the Macao formula endorses Kammerer and Pelliot’s observations, that is, that the Portuguese unknowingly adopted some of the Chinese mindset. Kammerer and Pelliot made thought-provoking remarks on Macao and its past in the first half of the twentieth century. For them, the statement was that the Portuguese made Macao. First, Macao played a significant role in the evangelization of Japan. Macao was where the Jesuit João Rodrigues (1558–1633) wrote Historia da Igreja do Japão. The two authors used “rayonnement intellectuel” (intellectual radiation) and “rôle considérable” (considerable role) to describe Macao’s importance in this regard. The remarkable Saint-Paul Seminary was a proper university teaching natural sciences and theology and training and sending missionaries to neighboring countries.12 Second, it was the Portuguese who made Macao, 9  Albert Kammerer and Paul Pelliot, “La Découverte de la Chine par les Portugais au XVIème siècle et la cartographie des Portulans.” T’oung Pao 39, (1944): 141. 10  José Frèches, “Une Vue de Macao vers la fin du XVIIe siècle,” Arts asiatiques, tome 26, (1973): 265–68. 11  The Macao formula is the main point of the doctoral dissertation of Kai Cheong Fok. Detailed discussions can be found in Kai Cheong Fok, “The Macao Formula: A Study of Chinese Management of Westerners from the Mid-Sixteenth Century to the Opium War Period,” PhD diss., University of Hawaii, 1978. 12  Kammerer and Pelliot, “Découverte de la,” 141.

9 CONCLUSION 

177

a prosperous commercial city, possible. Before the Portuguese set foot on this island, it was an unknown location, and Macao started to appear in cartography only after 1562. It appeared for the first time in Fernão Vaz Dourado’s maps dated from 1568 to 1580. Once included in the nomenclature, Macao’s name remained registered on all the maps. Third, Macao’s history, interwoven with heavy setbacks and humiliations, provided an excellent case for analyzing colonialism. Macao contained all the elements that should operate as a system in the nineteenth century and lead to foreign concessions in China. Fourth, the Portuguese settlement also profoundly influenced the methods of Sino-Foreign commerce. The incontestable benefits generated by the trade with the Portuguese enticed the Chinese in the sixteenth century to do business with intruders in limited places. For Kammerer and Pelliot, Macao was the perfect prototype and became unique after other Western powers were excluded from trading with China. Macao also created an elaborated system which was a buying and selling system par intermédiaire. The intermediary, called comprador in Portuguese, must be a Chinese who were supposed to assume the entire responsibilities for the transactions. In addition, Kammerer and Pelliot argued that this business system offered a type of guarantee to the comprador’s income, his family’s survival, and the protection of his possessions.13 The texts we studied tell us that there were two cities, one Chinese and the other Portuguese, in Macao. In other words, the two cultures existed in Macao in parallel and separately. Late in the twentieth century, scholars held that Macao’s people were less reluctant about the return. One important reason was that Portugal’s colonial rule had produced a relatively little impact on the territory.14 As a result, Macao became one of the last colonies in the world. The intricate relationship between the Portuguese settlers and the Chinese cannot be a relationship merely between aliens and locals, usually characterized by confrontation and hostility. The two communities  cohabited on this small island for centuries. There were indeed two distinct communities, but the unperceivable influence did happen. For example, the Chinese in Macao were more urban compared to their contemporaries in the mainland.

 Kammerer and Pelliot, 142.  Robert Aldrich and John Connell, The Last Colonies (London: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 232. 13 14

178 

J. XIE

On the other hand, the Portuguese more or less received the influence of Confucianism, the core value system of Chinese culture. As discussed above, the Chinese used the Macao formula to govern the aliens in this small territory. For the two cultures, none was able to assimilate the other into its own cultural or political sphere. Nevertheless, the immersion happened, evidenced by the peaceful co-existence of the two cultures and reflected in Macao’s blended Western and Eastern cultures today. The French authors could not see nor analyze the deep level of this relationship. However, the peaceful co-existence of two cities in Macao, an image frequently appearing in the writings of the French authors, predicted something that would happen in the future—Macao’s peaceful return to China at the end of the twentieth century. Compared to the last colonies, such as Gibraltar, Macao was willing to be transferred to China after the Portuguese had settled here for about four hundred and fifty years.

references Aldrich, Robert, and John Connell. The Last Colonies. London: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Beauvoir, Ludovic de. Java, Siam, Canton. Voyage autour du monde. Paris: Henri Plon, imprimeur-éditeur, 1870. Fieldhouse, D.  K. Colonialism 1870–1945: An Introduction. London: George Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981. Fok, Kai Cheong. “The Macao Formula: A Study of Chinese Management of Westerners from the Mid-Sixteenth Century to the Opium War Period.” PhD diss., University of Hawaii, 1978. Frèches, José. “Une Vue de Macao vers la fin du XVIIe siècle.” Arts asiatiques, tome 26 (1973): 265–70. Hillard, Harriet (Low). My Mother’s Journal; a Young Lady’s Diary of Five Years Spent in Manila, Macao, and the Cape of Good Hope from 1829–1834. Edited by Katharine Hillard. Boston: G. H. Ellis, 1900. Huc, Evariste Régis. L’Empire chinois: faisant suite à l’ouvrage intitulé Souvenirs d’un voyage dans la Tartarie et le Tibet, tome premier. Paris: Librairie de Gaume frère, 1854. Kammerer, Albert, and Paul Pelliot. “La Découverte de la Chine par les Portugais au XVIème siècle et la cartographie des Portulans.” T’oung Pao 39, (1944): 1–260. Montigny, Charles Louis de. Manuel du négociant français en Chine: ou, commerce de la Chine considéré au point de vue français. Paris: Imprimerie de Paul Dupont, 1846. Morse, Hosea Ballou. The International Relations of the Chinese Empire, Vol. 1. Taipei: Ch’eng Wen Publishing Company, 1978.



Appendices

Appendix A: Texts and Writings Studied in this Book 1. La Chine ouverte: aventures d’un Fan-Koueï dans le pays de Tsin par Old Nick [Paul-Emile Durand-Forgues], ouvrage illustré by Auguste Borget (1845) 2. Journal des opérations de la légation française en Chine by Joseph Marie Callery (1845) 3. Manuel du négociant français en Chine: ou, commerce de la Chine considéré au point de vue français by Charles Louis de Montigny (1846) 4. Voyage en Chine Cochinchine Inde et Malaisie. Première partie.  – Voyage. – Du cap au nord de la Chine by Auguste Haussmann (1847) 5. Journal d’un voyage en Chine en 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846 by Jules Itier (1848–1853) 6. Chine. Etablissement Portugais de Macao by Henri de Chonski (1850) 7. Voyage en Chine: Ténériffe, Rio-Janeiro, le Cap, Ile Bourbon, Malacca, Singapore, Manille, Macao, Canton, ports chinois, Cochinchine, Java by M. C. Lavollée (1852) 8. Un Français en Chine, pendant les années 1850 à 1856 by J. J. E. Roy (1857)

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Xie, The French in Macao in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Chinese Literature and Culture in the World, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94665-4

179

180 

APPENDICES

9. Vie et correspondance de J. Théophane Vénard, prêtre de la Société des Missions-étrangères décapité pour la foi au Tong-King by Mgr l’Evêque de Poitiers (1864) 10. L’Expédition de Chine. Relation physique, topographique et médicale de la campagne de 1860 et 1861 by F. Castano (1864) 11. Souvenirs du séjour d’un horloger neuchâtelois en Chine by Auguste Jeanneret-Oehl (1866) 12. Voyage autour du monde: Java, Siam, Canton by Ludovic de Beauvoir (1870) 13. Notes sur l’Extrême Orient, d’après les derniers voyageurs by Charles Boissay (1874) 14. Voyage en Asie. Le Japon, la Chine, la Mongolie, Java, Ceylan, l’Inde by Théodore Duret (1874) 15. Le Japon de nos jours et les échelles de l’extrême orient, tome 1 et tome 2 by Georges Bousquet (1877) 16. Promenade autour du monde by Joseph Alexander von Hübner (1811–1892) (1877) 17. La Chine et les chinois by Pierre Henri Stanislas d’Escayrac de Lauture (1877) 18. La Chine, d’après les voyageurs les plus récents by Victor Tissot (1885) 19. La Pérouse: récit de son voyage, expédition envoyée à sa recherche, le Capitaine Dillon, Dumont d’Urville, reliques de l’expédition by Gabriel Marcel (1888) 20. Campagne du “Cassini” dans les mers de Chine, 1851–1854: d’après les rapports, lettres et notes du commandant de Plas by François de Plas (1889) 21. La Chine by Société de Saint-Augustin (1889) 22. Le Tour du monde en deux cent quarante jours: la Chine by Ernest Michel (1893) 23. Au Pays des pagodes, notes de voyage: Hongkong, Macao, Shanghai, le Houpé, le Hounan, le Kouei-Tcheou by A. Raquez (1900) 24. Deux ans en Chine, extrait du journal by Bertrand Cothonay (1901) 25. Sud de la Chine. Hong kong, Canton, Macao, le Si-kiang by Claudius Madrolle (1904)

 APPENDICES 

181

Appendix B: Maps and Illustrations Macao. – Planta da península de Macau, 1/5000, reduzida e desenhada (Macao. Macao Peninsula Plan, 1/5000, reduced and drawn) by Antonio Heitor, Macau, March 15, 1889 15. Vue d’un grand temple chinois à Macao (View of a Great Chinese Temple in Macao) 26. Marché à Macao (Market in Macao) 32. Plan de la ville et des environs de Macao (Map of the city of Macao and its surroundings) 44. Carte de visite chinoise du P. N.-B. Cothonay (Cothonay’s Chinese card of visit) 58.

Bibliography

Anicotte, Rémi. “Mathématiques occidentales en Chine du XVIe au XXe siècle.” In Maths express: au carrefour des cultures, edited by Marc Moyon, Marie-José Pestel, and Martine Janvier, 65–69. Paris: CIJM, 2014. https://hal.archives-­ ouvertes.fr/hal-­01052435/document Aldrich, Robert, and John Connell. The Last Colonies. London: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Anonymous. D’Escayrac-Lauture. Quercy, marquis d’Escayrac; barons de Lauture; seigneurs de Cayriech, Montayral, La Vernède, La Bastide, Cazillac, Maloge, etc., 1886. Bibliothèque nationale de France, http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/ cb342105701 ———. Expédition des armées françaises en Chine, 1857–1860. Nouv. éd. Paris: Librairie des villes et des campagnes, 1874. ———. “Recenseamento geral de 31 de dezembro de 1878” (General census of December 31, 1878). Supplemento ao “Boletim da Provincia de Macau e Timor,” no. 52 de 25 de dezembro de 1880. Boletim da Provincia de Macau e Timor, sexta-feira, 31 de dezembro de 1880 ([Macao]: [Imprensa nacional], 1880). Archives de l’Institut de recherche Français-Asie. Notices biographiques: Joseph Gaëtan Pierre Maxime Marie CALLERY. https://www.irfa.paris/fr/notices/ notices-­biographiques/callery Austensen, Roy A. “Alexander von Hübner and the Revolution of 1848: A Reassessment.” Consortium on Revolutionary Europe Proceedings (1985): 283–301.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Xie, The French in Macao in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Chinese Literature and Culture in the World, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94665-4

183

184 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Antonio, Heitor. “Macao. – Planta da península de Macau,” 1/5 000, reduzida e desenhada, March 15, 1889. Format: 82 × 57 cm. gallica.bnf.fr/Bibliothèque nationale de France. Ball, B. L. Rambles in Eastern Asia, including China and Manilla, during Several Years’ Residence: with Notes of the Voyage to China, Excursions in Manilla, Hong-King, Canton, Shanghai, Ningbo, Amoy, Foochow, and Macao. Boston: James French and Co., 1855. Ball, J. Dyer. Macao, the Holy City: The Gem of the Orient Earth. Canton: China Baptist Publication Society, 1905. Bard, E. Les Chinois chez eux. Paris: Armand Colin et Cie, éditeurs, 1899. Beauvoir, Ludovic de. Java, Siam, Canton. Voyage autour du monde. Paris: Henri Plon, imprimeur-éditeur, 1870. Benoist de La Grandière, Auguste Étienne. Les Ports de l’Extrême-Orient: débuts de l’occupation française en Cochinchine. Paris: Le Chevalier, Libraireéditeur, 1869. Boissay, Charles. “Notes sur l’Extrême Orient, d’après les derniers voyageurs.” Journal des Economistes: revue de la science économique et de la statistique, 3ème série, 9ème année, tome trente-quatrième, janvier à mars (1874): 264–90. Borschberg, Peter. Hugo Grotius, the Portuguese, and Free Trade in the East Indies. Singapore: Nus Press, 2011. Bousquet, Georges. Le Japon de nos jours et les échelles de l’Extrême-Orient, tome 1 et tome 2. Paris: Librairie Hachette et Cie, 1877. ———. “Le Commerce de la Chine et du Japon.” Revue des deux mondes, tome 28 (1878): 84–111. https://www-­jstor-­org.libezproxy.umac.mo/stable/ pdf/44761164.pdf Borget, Auguste, and Eugène Cicéri. La Chine et les Chinois: dessins exécutés d’après nature. Paris: Goupil et Vibert, (1842). ———. Fragments d’un voyage autour du monde. P.-A. Desrosiers, (1850). ———. “Vue d’un grand temple chinois à Macao” (1840). Notice d’œuvre, Musée du Berry, Réseau des Musées de Bourges. Courtesy of Musée du Berry, Réseau des Musées de Bourges, Orléans, France. Boxer, C.  R., ed. and trans. Seventeenth Century Macau in Contemporary Documents and Illustrations. Hong Kong: Heinemann (Asia), 1984. Cachin, Marie-Françoise. “Victorian Novels in France.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Victorian Novel, edited by Lisa Rodensky. London: Oxford University Press, 2013. Caix, Robert de. “En Extrême Orient: Macao.” Journal des débats politiques et littéraires. [Paris]: Impr. de Le Normant, le 27 mardi, 1903: supplément. Callery, Joseph Marie. Journal des opérations de la légation française en Chine. Macao, 1845. ———. Recueil des documents diplomatiques relatifs à la Légation française en Chine, traduits du français en chinois et du chinois en français par J. M. Callery, Secrétaire-interprète. Macao, 1845–1846.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

185

———. Correspondance diplomatique chinoise relative aux négociations du traité de Whampoa conclu entre la France et la Chine. Paris: Seringe Frères, 1879. Carayon, F.  L. “Lettre de M.  Carayon, missionnaire Lazariste dans la Tartarie-­ Mongole, à M. Etienne, supérieur général de la congrégation de St. -Lazare.” In Annales de la propagation de la foi. Recueil périodique des lettres des évêques et des missionnaires des missions des deux mondes, et de tous les documents relatifs aux missions et à l’Association de la propagation de la foi, tome 19. Lyon: M.-P. Rusand, 1846. Castano, F. L’Expédition de Chine. Relation physique, topographique et médicale de la campagne de 1860 et 1861. Paris: Victor Rozier, Éditeur, 1864. Chonski, M. de. Établissement portugais de Macao: Chine. Paris: Impr. de Pommeret et Moreau, 1850 Coates, Austin. Macao and the British 1637–1842. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009. Colomban, Eudore de. Resumo da historia de Macau. Macau: Tipografia Mandarin, 1980. Conim, Custodio N. P. S., and Maria Fernanda Braganca Teixeira. Macau e a sua populacao, 1500–2000: aspectos demograficos, sociais e economicos. Macau: Direccao dos Servicos de Estatistica e Censos, 1998. Cordier, Henri. Notice sur la Chine. Paris: H. Lamirault, 1890. ———. “L’arrivée des Portugais En Chine.” T’oung Pao, no. 4 (1911): 483–543. ———. “La Première légation de France en Chine (1847).” T’oung Pao (1906a) 7, no. 3: 351–68. ———. La Mission Dubois de Jancigny dans l’Extrême-Orient (1841–1846). Paris: Edouard Champion; Emile Larose, 1916. ———. “La correspondance générale de la Cochinchine (1785–1791).” T’oung Pao, second series 7, no. 5 (1906b): 557–670. Cothonay, Marie Bertrand. Deux ans en Chine, extrait du journal d’un missionnaire dominicain. Tours: Alfred Cattier, (1902). ———. Trinidad: Journal d’un missionnaire dominicain des Antilles Anglaises Paris: V. Retaux, 1893. ———. Lives of Four Martyrs of Tonkin Who Belonged to the Dominican Province of the Holy Rosary in the Philippine Islands; Beatified the 20th of May, 1906. New York: Kennedy, 1911. Cousin-Montauban, Charle, comte de Palikao. L’Expédition de Chine en 1860. Souvenirs du général Cousin de Montauban, comte de Palikao: publiés par son petit-fils, le comte de Palikao. Paris: Librairie Plon, 1932. Cunningham, Alfred. The French in Tonkin and South China. Hong Kong: Office of the “Hong Kong Daily Press,” 1902. Dehergne, Joseph. Répertoire des jésuites de Chine de 1552 à 1800. Roma: Institutum historicum Societatis Iesu, Paris: Letouzey & Ané; Roma: Istituto storico S. J., 1973.

186 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dobel, Pierre. Sept années en Chine: nouvelles observations sur cet empire: l’archipel Indo-Chinois, les Philippines et les îles Sandwich, traduit du russe par le prince Emmanuel Galitzin, nouv. éd. Paris: Librairie d’Amyot, éditeur, 1842. Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste. Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l’Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise: enrichie des cartes générales et particulières de ces pays, de la carte générale & des cartes particulières du Thibet, & de la Corée, & ornée d’un grand nombre de figures & de vignettes gravées en taille-douce. Paris: P.G. le Mercier: 1735. Durand-Lapie, Paul. Le Comte d’Escayrac de Lauture, voyageur et explorateur français commandeur de la Légion d’honneur. Sa vie et ses ouvrages. Paris: Honoré Champion, 1899. Duret, Théodore. Voyage en Asie. Le Japon  – la Chine  – la Mongolie  – Java  – Ceylan – l’Inde. Paris: Michel Lévy Frères, 1874. Elliott, Florence, and Michael Summerskill. A Dictionary of Politics. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1957. Euben, Roxanne L. Journeys to the Other Shore: Muslim and Western Travelers in Search of Knowledge. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006. Escayrac de Lauture, Pierre Henri Stanislas de. La Chine et les chinois, illustrée de 120 dessins et cartes. Paris: Adolphe Delahays, libraire-éditeur, 1878. ———. Le Désert et le Soudan. Paris: J. Dumaine, 1853. ———. Mémoire sur le Ragle ou hallucination du désert: adressé à l’Académie des sciences. Paris: J. Dumaine: F. Klincksieck, 1855. ———. De la Turquie et des états musulmans en général. Paris: Amyot, 1858. Fauduet, Louise. “Napoléon François Libois, procureur de la Société des Missions étrangères de Paris à Macao et Hong Kong (1837–1866).” Diploma thesis, Ecole nationale des chartes, 2007. http://theses.enc.sorbonne.fr/2007/fauduet Faye, J. de la. Histoire de l’amiral Courbet, avec une préface du vice-amiral Jurien de la Gravière. Paris: Librairie Bloud & Barral, 1891. Ferréol, Joseph. “Lettre de M. Ferréol; évêque de Belline, vicaire apostolique de la Corée, à M.  Barron, directeur au Séminaire des Missions-étrangères.” In Annales de la propagation de la foi. Recueil périodique des lettres des évêques et des missionnaires des missions des deux mondes, et de tous les documents relatifs aux missions et à l’Association de la propagation de la foi, tome 19. Lyon: M.-P. Rusand, 1846. Ferrière, Joseph, Georges Garros, Alfred Meynard, and Alfred Raquez. L’Indo-­ Chine 1906 [S.l.]: [s.n.], (1906?). Fieldhouse, D.  K. Colonialism 1870–1945: An Introduction. London: George Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981. Flammarion, Camille, and Charles Boissay. De Paris à Vaucouleurs à vol d’oiseau, relation d’un voyage scientifique en ballon. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1873.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

187

Fok, Kai Cheong. “The Macao Formula: A Study of Chinese Management of Westerners from the Mid-Sixteenth Century to the Opium War Period.” PhD diss., University of Hawaii, 1978. Forêt, Philippe. “De la vertu au vice: l’espace des loisirs à Macao (1910–1930).” In Freizeit und Vergnügen/Temps libre et loisirs, edited by Hans-Jörg Gilomen, Beatrice Schumacher, and Laurent Tissot. Zurich: Chronos Verlag, 2005. Foucault, Michel. Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison. Paris: Gallimard, 1975. Frèches, José. “Une Vue de Macao vers la fin du XVIIe siècle.” Arts asiatiques, tome 26 (1973): 265–70. Gefen, Alexandre. La Mimésis. Paris: GF Flammarion, 2003. Ginzburg, Carlo. The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth Century Miller. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980. Guadalupi, Gianni. China through the Eyes of the West: From Marco Polo to the Last Emperor, translated by A. B. A., Milan. Vercelli, Italy: White Star, 2004. Guizot, François. Introduction to Narrative of the Earl of Elgin’s Mission to China and Japan in the Years 1857, ‘58, ‘59, by Laurence Oliphant, 59. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1860. Haussmann, Auguste. Voyage en Chine Cochinchine Inde et Malaisie. Première partie.  – Voyage.  – Du cap au nord de la Chine. Paris: Desessart éditeur; G. Olivier, 1847. Hillard, Harriet (Low). My Mother’s Journal; a Young Lady’s Diary of Five Years Spent in Manila, Macao, and the Cape of Good Hope from 1829–1834. Edited by Katharine Hillard. Boston: G. H. Ellis, 1900. Hedde, Isidore. Description méthodique des produits divers recueillis dans un voyage en Chine. Saint-Etienne: Impr. de Théolier ainé, 1848. Helgesen, Moira Anna (Curr). “Forgues: Nineteenth Century Anglophile.” PhD diss., University of Colorado, 1955. ProQuest (AAT 0016937). Heywood, Christopher. “French and American Sources of Victorian Realism.” In Vol. 1 of Comparative Criticism: A Yearbook, edited by Elinor Shaffer. London: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Hoijer, Olof. Le Trafic de l’opium et d’autres stupéfiants. Étude de droit international et d’histoire diplomatique. Paris: Editions Spes, 1925. Hübner, Joseph Alexander von. Promenade autour du monde, 6ème éd. Paris: Librairie Hachette et Cie, 1877. ———. Ein Jahr meines Lebens, 1848–1849. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1891. ———. Neun Jahre der Erinnerungen eines österreichischen Botschafters in Paris unter dem zweiten Kaiserreich 1851–1859. Berlin: Gebrüder Paetel, 1904. Huang, Qichen 黃啟臣. “澳門主權問題的歷史審視 (1553–1999)” “Aomen Zhuquan Wenti de Lishi Shenshi (1553–1999)” [A Historical Retrospect of the Sovereignty over Macao]. 中山大學學報 Zhongshan Daxue Xuebao, no. 3 (1999): 15–24.

188 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Huc, Evariste Régis. L’Empire chinois: faisant suite à l’ouvrage intitulé Souvenirs d’un voyage dans la Tartarie et le Tibet, tome premier. Paris: Librairie de Gaume frère, 1854. Itier, Jules. Journal d’un voyage en Chine en 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846. Paris: Chez Dauvin et Fontaine, libraires-éditeurs, 1848. Jeanneret-Oehl, Auguste. Souvenirs du séjour d’un horloger neuchâtelois en Chine. Neuchâtel: Chez l’auteur, 1866. Kammerer, Albert, and Paul Pelliot. “La Découverte de la Chine par les Portugais au XVIème siècle et la cartographie des Portulans.” T’oung Pao 39, (1944): 1–260. Kennedy, Paul. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. New York: Vintage, 1989. LaCroix, Frederic. Annuaire des voyages et de la géographie pour l’année 1844–1845, par une réunion de géographes et de voyageurs, sous la direction de M. Frédéric Lacroix, 2ème année. Paris: Gide et Cie, librairies-éditeurs, 1845. Landry-Deron, Isabelle. “Les Mathématiciens envoyés en Chine par Louis XIV en 1685.” Archive for History of Exact Sciences 55, no. 5 (2001): 423–63. Lavollée, Charles Hubert. Voyage en Chine: Ténériffe, Rio Janeiro, le Cap, Ile Bourbon, Malacca, Singapore, Manille, Macao, Canton, ports chinois, Cochinchine, Java. Paris: Just Rouvier & A Ledoyen, 1852. Ljungstedt, Andrew. A Historical Sketch of the Portuguese Settlements in China. Boston: James Munroe & Co., 1836. Lord Macartney. Voyage dans l’intérieur de la Chine et en Tartarie: fait dans les années 1792, 1793 et 1794, traduit de l’anglais, avec des notes, par J. Castéra, tome 5. Paris: Chez F. Buisson, imprimeur-libraire, 1799. Luo, Guihuan羅桂環. 近代西方識華生物史 Jindai Xifang Shihua Shengwushi [History of Western Botanical and Zoological Studies in China] (秀威資訊·台 北 [Taipei: Showwe Information], 2018). Lemaire, Gabriel, and Prosper Giquel. Dictionnaire de poche français-chinois suivi d’un dictionnaire technique des mots usités à l’Arsenal de Fou-Tcheou 漢法語彙 便覽. Shanghae: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1874. Madrolle, Claudius. L’Empire de Chine: Hai-Nan et la côte continentale voisine. Paris: A. Challamel, 1900. ———. Sud de la Chine. Hong kong, Canton, Macao, le Si-kiang. Paris: Comité de l’Asie française; Chang-hai: Kelly & Walsh Limited, 1904. Marcel, Gabriel. La Pérouse: récit de son voyage, expédition envoyée à sa recherche, le capitaine Dillon, Dumont d’Urville, reliques de l’expédition. Ed du centenaire. Paris: Librairie illustrée, 1888. ———. Un Texte ethnographique inédit du XVIIIe Siècle. Paris: Au Siège de la Société, 1904. ———. Un Episode de notre histoire coloniale: l’expédition de Siam en 1687. (1883?). Michel, Ernest. Le Tour du monde en 240 jours. Limoges: Eugène Ardant et Cie, éditeurs, 1893.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

189

Missions étrangères de Paris. Bulletin de la Société des Missions étrangères de Paris. Hong Kong: Imprimerie de Nazareth, 1 janvier 1923. Montalto de Jesus, C. A. Historic Macao. Hongkong: Kelly & Walsh, Limited, 1902. Montigny, Charles Louis de. Manuel du négociant français en Chine: ou, commerce de la Chine considéré au point de vue français. Paris: Imprimerie de Paul Dupont, 1846. Morse, Hosea Ballou. The Chronicles of the East India Company, Trading to China 1635–1834, Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926. ———. The International Relations of the Chinese Empire, Vol. 1. Taipei: Ch’eng Wen Publishing Company, 1978. Mungello, David Emil. The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500–1800. 3rd ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009. Nieuhof, Johannes. L’Ambassade de la Compagnie orientale des provinces unies vers l’empereur de la Chine, ou Grand Cam de Tartarie, faite par les Srs. Pierre de Goyer, & Jacob de Keyser. Leyde: Pour J. de Meurs, 1665. Novaresio, Paolo. The Explorers: From the Ancient World to the Present. Stewart Tabori & Chang, 1996. Old Nick [pseud.]. La Chine ouverte: aventures d’un Fan-Koueï dans le pays de Tsin, ouvrage illustré par Auguste Borget. Paris: H. Fournier, Editeur, 1845. Pelliot, Paul. “Un Ouvrage sur les premiers temps de Macao.” T’oung Pao 31, no. 1/2 (1934): 58–94. Oliphant, Laurence. Narrative of the Earl of Elgin’s Mission to China and Japan in the Years 1857, ‘58, ‘59. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1860. Plas, François de. Campagne du “Cassini” dans les mers de Chine, 1851–1854: d’après les rapports, lettres et notes du Commandant de Plas. Paris: Retaux-­ Bray, 1889. Pinvert, Lucien. Un Ami de Stendhal, le critique E. D. Forgues: 1813–1883. Paris: Librairie Henri Leclerc, 1915. Raquez, A. Au Pays des pagodes, notes de voyage. Shanghai: Imprimerie de la presse orientale, 1900. ———. Pages laotiennes. Le Haut-Laos. Le Moyen-Laos. Le Bas-Laos. Hanoï: F.-H. Schneider, 1902. ———. Entrée gratuite. Saigon: Claude, 1903. ———. Les Boursiers de voyage de l’Université de Paris, Hanoï: F.-H. Schneider, 1905. Roy, Just-Jean-Étienne. Un Français en Chine pendant les années 1850 à 1856. Tours: A. Mame, 1857. Said, Edward W. Orientalism. London and Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978. Sanchez-Tarrago, N., I.  Castellanos-Gallardo, and L.  S. Bufrem. “Academic Library Contributions to Internationalization: A Systematic Review.” Perspectivas em Ciencia da Informacao 22, no. 3 (Jul–Sep 2017): 186–209.

190 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sartre, Jean-Paul. L’Être et le néant. Essai d’ontologie phénoménologique. Paris: Gallimard, 1943. Société de Saint-Augustin. La Chine. Lille: Société de Saint Augustin, 1889. Soothill, William Edward. China and the West: A Short History of Their Contact from Ancient Times to the Fall of the Manchu Dynasty. Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2009. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Selected Subaltern Studies. London: Oxford University Press, 1988. Tcheng, Ki-tong. Préface to Au Pays des pagodes, notes de voyage by Alfred Raquez, vi. Shanghai: Imprimerie de la presse orientale, 1900. Tissot, Victor. La Chine, d’après les voyageurs les plus récents. Paris: Jouvet, 1885. Valette, E. de. Chronique et faits divers. L’Ami de la religion et du roi: journal ecclésiastique, politique et littéraire, tome cent cinquante-cinquième. Paris: A.  Le Clère, 1852. https://books.google.com/books?id=jldY47JFjaEC&pg=PA17 1&dq=le+cassini+la+capricieuse&hl=zh-TW&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjswsi1 ssLiAhVUIIgKHXpCA-­AQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=le%20cassini%2C%20 la%20capricieuse&f=false Vénard, Eusèbe, Louis-Édouard Pie, and Jean-Baptiste Chauvin. Vie et correspondance de J.-Théophane Vénard, prêtre de la Société des Missions étrangères, décapité pour la foi au Tong-King, le 2 février 1861. Augmenté du discours d’anniversaire prononcé à Saint-Loup par Mgr l’évêque de Poitiers. [Hymne en l’honneur du Martyr J.-Théophane Vénard. Par M. l’Abbé J.-B.  Chauvin]. Poitiers: H. Oudin, 1864. Villion, A. “Réminiscences d’un ancien, en procure de Kongkong (1866–1868).” In Bulletin de la Société des Missions étrangères de Paris. Hong Kong: Imprimerie de Nazareth, 1 janvier 1923: 205–11. Vogel, Charles. Le Portugal et ses colonies, tableau politique et commercial de la monarchie portugaise dans son état actuel avec des annexes et les notes supplémentaires. Paris: Guillaumin et Cie, libraires-éditeurs, 1860. Wei, Tsing-sing Louis. La Politique missionnaire de la France en Chine 1842–1856: l’ouverture des cinq ports chinois à commerce étranger et la liberté religieuse. Paris: Nouvelles éditions latines, 1961. Weulersee, Georges. Chine ancienne et nouvelle: impressions et réflexions. Paris: Librairie Armand Colin, 1902. William, G. Hunter. Bits of Old China. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co., 1885. Xie, Jingzhen. “The Octagonal Pavilion Library of Macao: A Study in Uniqueness.” Information & Culture 52, no. 1 (2017): 114–37. Xie, Jingzhen. “A Partial Picture: Nineteenth-Century China in the Eyes of a FanKoueï.” MLN 136, no. 6 (2021): S-31. Ying, Jia應檟.蒼梧總督軍門志 Cangwu Zongdu Junmenzhi [Cangwu Governor’s Military Histories], Vol. 5. 長沙: 岳麓書社 [Changsha: Yuelu Publishing House], 2015. “鬼” [oracle bone script], Han Dian漢典, zdic.net

index1

NUMBERS AND SYMBOLS 鬼, 71–73 A Abbe Huc, see Huc, Abbe Africa, 53, 76, 113, 114, 175 Alfred Raquez, see Raquez, Alfred A-Ma Temple, 20, 21, 47, 48, 51, 58 António Bocarro, 2 Auguste Haussmann, see Haussmann, Auguste Australia, 67, 88, 93–95, 110 B Barracon, 89, 90, 90n39, 147 Beauvoir, Ludovic de, vii, 16, 20, 20n5, 21, 24, 26, 44, 88, 93, 145, 164, 174, 180

Benjamin Lincoln Ball, 34, 38, 49, 59 Boa Vista Hotel, 160 Boissay, Charles, 19n1, 93, 180 Borget, Auguste, 16, 46, 48, 58, 59, 69, 71, 72n11, 74, 179 Bousquet, Georges, ix, 16, 91, 91n41, 144, 145n129, 167, 180 Brest, 6, 67, 125, 134 Britain, 7, 9, 27, 32, 50, 62, 78, 117, 157, 175 C Cadix, 97 California, 67, 94, 95, 110 Callery, Joseph Maxime Marie, 124n94, 129n101, 138–144, 140n120, 140n122, 141n123, 141n124, 142n125, 143n126, 144n127, 144n128, 179

 Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.

1

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Xie, The French in Macao in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Chinese Literature and Culture in the World, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94665-4

191

192 

INDEX

Camões, viii, 32, 54, 61, 87, 97, 100, 102, 111, 148, 155, 173 Casa Branca, 14, 128–130, 133 Catholicism, 84, 107, 166 Cécille, Jean-Baptiste, 6, 129n101, 140 China, v, vii–ix, 1, 1n1, 2n5, 3–7, 8n13, 8n14, 9, 13–15, 15n6, 17, 19, 21, 22, 24–26, 27n24, 32, 33n7, 34, 34n8, 35, 35n10, 36n13, 37, 39–41, 45, 46, 48, 50–53, 58, 61, 62, 69–76, 78, 80, 82–87, 89–91, 93, 95–98, 100–104, 106, 108, 109, 112, 114–119, 122, 124–126, 128–131, 133, 134, 138–143, 139n119, 146, 153, 155–160, 156n4, 157n6, 159n8, 159n9, 159n10, 160n11, 162–167, 164n18, 164n19, 165n20, 171–175, 177, 178 Chonski, Henri de, 16, 75, 179 Christianity, 1, 4, 83–85, 101, 102, 126, 155 Colonialism, vii, 9, 25, 43, 49, 50, 52, 54, 57, 141 Coolie trade, viii, 44, 61, 89–91, 93, 94, 96–99, 146, 147, 162–164, 173 Cordier, Henri, 5, 6n11, 7, 68n3, 68n4, 140, 140n121 Cothonay, Marie Bertrand, 104–106, 104n62, 180, 181 Cuba, 90, 94–96 D de Bourboulon, Alphonse, 16, 101, 157 de Jancigny, 6, 6n11, 6n12, 75, 76n17, 76n19

Diderot, 171 Djinriksha, 110 du Halde, Jean-Baptiste, 2, 3n6, 37n17 Durand Forgues, Paul-Emile, 16 Duret, Théodore, 16, 24, 24n14, 93, 95, 180 The Dutch, 9, 26, 106, 155 E East India Company, 2, 2n5, 157, 162 Edward W. Said, see Said, Edward W. Emperor Kangxi, 68 Escayrac de Lauture, 5, 5n9, 16, 113–119, 113n69, 114n70, 114n72, 115n73, 115n74, 116n76, 116n77, 117n79, 117n80, 135, 171 F Fan-koueï, 71, 72, 74, 87 Fantan, 111 First Opium War, 5, 13, 15, 53, 70, 75, 126, 156 First Sino-Japanese War, 13, 106 Fou-Tchéou Arsenal, 100–106 France, xii, 5–8, 14–16, 23, 48, 60, 65–67, 66n1, 70, 70n9, 71, 75, 78, 80, 81, 83, 85, 86n30, 88, 94, 96, 102, 104, 106, 109, 113–116, 113n68, 119, 124, 125, 129n101, 131, 133, 139, 140n121, 144–148, 144n127, 153, 156–160, 164, 166, 174, 175 Franco-British Expeditionary Force, 117 François de Plas, see Plas, François de French navy, 66, 67, 100, 119

 INDEX 

G Gambling, viii, 35, 36, 61, 90, 92, 94, 98, 108, 110, 111, 116, 121, 132, 147, 153, 161, 162, 173 Grotto of Camões, 32n4, 33, 61, 74, 89, 107, 108, 111, 134, 136, 148, 155 Guizot, François, 7, 8n14, 133 H Hainan, 8, 92, 102 Harriet Low Hillard, see Hillard, Harriet Low Haussmann, Auguste, 58, 58n2, 124n94, 125, 133–138, 134n109, 135n110, 136n111, 136n112, 136n113, 137n114, 137n115, 137n116, 138n117, 179 Havanna, 164 Henri le Béarnais, 111 Herodotus, 114 Hillard, Harriet Low, 39 Hong Kong, viii, 2n3, 3, 8, 9, 14, 16, 16n7, 24, 32, 34–36, 35n11, 41, 58, 61, 62, 74, 76–78, 83, 84, 88, 91, 93–96, 102, 103, 106–109, 111, 116, 118, 120, 122, 126, 145–147, 153, 156, 158, 159, 160n11, 161–163 Hübner, Joseph Alexander, 16, 96–100, 97n51, 98n52, 98n53, 99n54, 100n55, 121, 180 Huc, Abbe, 4, 16, 87, 102, 166, 171–173 I Itier, Jules, 14n4, 16, 124n94, 125, 128, 128n99, 130, 179

193

J Japan, 8n14, 16, 27n24, 32, 39, 67, 87, 91, 93, 95, 97, 100, 108, 144–146, 176 Java, 20n5, 21n11, 24n14, 24n15, 28n29, 34, 88, 88n34, 89n38, 91n40, 91n42, 93, 95, 125, 145, 167n30, 174n5, 179, 180 Jean François de Galaup, see La Pérouse João Maria Ferreira do Amaral, 15, 52 Joseph Maxime Marie Callery, see Callery, Joseph Maxime Marie K Kuan-in-tan̂, 143 Ky-ing, 124, 127, 142–144 L La Mission Dubois de Jancigny dans l’Extrême-Orient, 5, 6, 6n11 La Pérouse, 4, 4n7, 15, 15n5, 65–67, 66n1, 68n5, 78, 103, 180 L’Archimède, 128, 134, 137 Lagrené, Théodore de, 7, 8n13, 124, 124n94, 133, 138–144, 158 Lavollée, Charles-Hubert, 16, 28n29, 61, 61n4, 85, 86, 86n27, 124n94, 125, 126n95, 126n96, 127, 127n97, 129, 129n100, 129n102, 130, 133n107, 166, 166n23, 179 Lien-fun-miao, 143 Lin Zexu, 156 Lord Macartney, 39, 39n21 Louis XVI, 4, 65, 66

194 

INDEX

M The Macanese, 19–28, 27n25, 38, 43, 62–63, 78, 111, 117, 119, 121, 123n93, 127, 147, 167, 174 Madrolle, Claudius, 8, 8n15, 153, 180 Marcel, Gabriel, 4n7, 66n1, 67, 180 Marie Bertrand Cothonay, see Cothonay, Marie Bertrand Metis, 2, 68, 76, 167 Michel, Ernest, 5, 5n10, 44, 89, 108, 180 Ming Dynasty, 2, 15, 51, 176 Monchion, 82 Monga, 126, 134 Mongha, 82, 92 Montesquieu, 171 Montigny, Charles Louis de, 16, 20, 20n8, 78, 80–82, 130, 179

The Philippines, 95 Pierre Henri Stanislas d’Escayrac de Lauture, see Escayrac de Lauture Plas, François de, 101, 101n56, 102, 104, 173, 180 Pope Gregory XIII, 107 Portugal, 9, 14, 24, 53, 54, 76n18, 85, 88, 97, 98, 112, 123n93, 126, 136, 146–148, 157, 177 Portuguese settlement, vii–ix, 2, 4, 21, 26–27, 32, 40, 51, 52, 61, 91, 95, 132, 135, 136, 160, 165, 167, 173, 174, 176, 177 Prosper Giquel, 106

O Old Nick, 16, 41, 60, 69, 70, 72n11, 74n13, 75n14, 179 Oliphant, Laurence, 8n14, 27n24, 32 Opium, viii, 35, 36, 61, 89, 94, 96, 110, 135, 156, 162, 165, 165n21, 166n22, 173 Opium trade, 35, 36, 61, 89, 95, 162

R Raquez, Alfred, 16, 109, 109n65, 109n66, 111, 112, 112n67, 155n3, 165, 180 Ratti-Menton, Ulysse de, 7, 140 Rhodes, Alexandre de, 4, 71n10 Ricci, Matteo, 1 Rousseau, 171

P Parkes, Harry Smith, 114 Paris Foreign Missions Society, 16, 83, 107, 139 Patane, 82, 124, 126, 134 Paul-Emile Daurand-Forgues, see Durand Forgues, Paul-Emile Pelliot, Paul, 20n7, 52, 176n9 Persians, 134, 135 Peru, 90, 94–96, 147, 163, 164

Q Qing Dynasty, 13, 104, 124

S Said, Edward W., 43, 44n2 Saint-Lazare, 82, 134 Second Opium War, 13, 26, 32, 114, 115, 117, 119 Shanghai, 3, 14, 16, 35, 35n10, 83, 93, 95, 102, 103, 109, 109n65, 109n66, 114, 120, 139, 158, 180 Siam, 20n5, 21n11, 24n15, 66n1, 88, 88n34, 89n38, 91n40, 91n42, 95, 167n30, 174n5, 180

 INDEX 

Singapore, 6, 16, 26n20, 28n29, 34, 93, 95, 103, 110, 125, 145, 179 Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking, 24, 53, 157 Société de géographie of Paris, 113 Société de Saint-Augustin, 106, 107n63, 180 Sovereignty, viii, 24, 47, 52, 54, 175 Summer Palace, 117 T Taiping Rebellion, 13, 90, 101, 104, 173 Tasso, Torquato, 100 Tcheng Ki-tong, 109, 109n65 Théodore de Lagrené, see Lagrené, Théodore de Tissot, Victor, 16, 99, 120, 121, 180 Tonkin, 83, 87, 104, 107, 159, 160n11, 160n12 Travel accounts, 5, 45, 46, 49, 50, 57

195

Treaty of Nanjing, 41, 50, 71, 75, 78, 126, 141 Treaty of Tianjin, 50, 117 Treaty of Tordesillas, 85 Treaty of Wangxia, 124, 140, 143, 156 Treaty of Whampoa, viii, 7, 8n13, 16, 78, 83, 103, 124, 128, 129n101, 130, 133, 143, 144, 156, 158, 160, 166 Trigault, Nicolas, 4 V Vénard, J. Théophane, 16, 84n25, 180 Vietnam, 4, 83, 87, 103, 104, 156 Voltaire, 171 X Xiangshan, 21, 54, 77, 128, 129, 132