Uninspired look back

Local bookstores are filled with volumes describing China's relationship with the West. Many appeal to those fascinated by the days before communism, when Shanghai was called the 'Paris of the East'. Britain In China is not one that will entice those readers.

Robert Bickers, a history lecturer at the University of Bristol, lays out his theories in rather leaden prose, following the style of an academic journal. But some may find reading it worth the effort. This book contains interesting theories about British residents in China.

As part of a series entitled Studies In Imperialism, it takes a slightly different angle than do most books dealing with China's contact with the West. Bickers looks at how the British in China fit into British society rather than dealing exclusively with how Sino-British relations affected Chinese society and history. It also deals with the social structures of society within British communities in China, many of which bear an interesting resemblance to social structures in modern Hong Kong.

Until recently F.I.L.T.H. - failed in London, try Hong Kong - was an insult Britons hurled at their own in Hong Kong. Bickers portrays the British who built Shanghai and other treaty port settlements in China in much the same way. He describes them as people with poor to mediocre education and qualifications, who obtained much of their knowledge of China through 'middle brow' literature.

Bickers argues that Shanghai's social climate offered immediate rewards in job and social status to those unable to make a good life for themselves in conservative Victorian England. It was this lifestyle that Shanghai's residents, whom Bickers describes as settlers rather than colonials, sought to defend. This often meant the British in China had an agenda fundamentally at odds with the goals of the British government.

Bickers provides what is perhaps a new perspective on Sino-British relations, but his perspective is overly narrow. Britain In China is merely 200-odd pages - hardly enough to explore such a complex subject, particularly when his long-winded writing style is taken into account.