Creating a “Micro-colony” within a protectorate: the example of the french Concession of Tourane (Đà Nẵng), 1884–1889

Although history ultimately favored the portuary development of SàiGòn and HảiPhòng, it was Tourane (ĐNẵng) that was the initial target of French colonial ambitions in the Indochinese peninsula. For over a century (17401858), its bay and territory had been the scene and the epicenter of Franco-British overseas imperial rivalries, a fact which actively fostered an entire set of colonial images about the site, which was quite often referred to as potential base to serve the interests of commerce and the Navy. Despite these ambitions nurtured over a long period, it was only after the conquest of Tonkin, thirty years after the Cochinchina expedition, that its territory was finally established as a concession: on 3 October 1888, the French were finally seizing juridical control of Tourane. As a conceded territory, Tourane was essential to French colonial and imperial designs. The focal point of political and economic ambitions, it was both a gateway and a means to prepare and support the French colonial project in Indochina. A hybrid and previously unknown template, the conceded territory model designed for, and from, Tourane indeed allowed the French to implement new strategies to tighten colonial rule in Indochina. Offering an unprecedented analysis on the creation of the French concession of Tourane at the end of the 19th century, this research examines the political context during which it was conceived, the work and conclusions given by the commission in charge of studying its borders and jurisdiction, and the steps taken by the colonial administration in order to seize definitive control of a strategic territory inside what was then left of the Đại Nam Kingdom. All in all, comparing Tourane with others treaty ports, it shows how and why its territory stood out as a micro-colony in a protectorate territory (Annam-Tonkin).

Western Merchants and Intra-Asian Trade: John Henry Duus at Treaty port Hakodate (Part One 1861-68)

This article examines the business activities of John Henry Duus, a long-standing foreign resident of the treaty port of Hakodate. In the first of this two-part article, I trace Duus’ background and focus in on his efforts to conduct business at Hakodate in the 1860s. Though Duus’ efforts to foster trade between Japan and western countries proved largely fruitless, he played an important role as a local agent for Chinese and China-based western firms and thus was active in fostering intra-Asian trade. As an Asia-born Anglo-Dane who first came to Hakodate as a British merchant but later switched allegiances to Denmark and served as Danish consul, Duus’ career also points to the cosmopolitan background of western treaty porters at the more peripheral treaty ports such as Hakodate.

Shanghai

From the opening of treaty ports in 1843, the modern history of performing arts in Shanghai traces more than 170 years of development. This history not only summarizes the modern development of Chinese performing arts; it is also representative of the historical development of Chinese urban space and city culture. Theatre arts, culture, and urban development intertwine, as they are refracted through the rise and fall of theatre buildings, yielding a fascinating legacy of cosmopolitan Shanghai.

Shaping a New Profession

Not until the nineteenth century were the Japanese forced to confront and engage with the European conception of international law. In East Asia a Sinocentric regional order had governed their worldview for over a thousand years, and during the early modern period the Tokugawa dynasty then modified this outlook to place Japan in the centre of its own framework of international relations. Under the Tokugawa judicial system, moreover, the concept of a lawyer, international or otherwise, was practically unknown. It was the reluctant opening of treaty ports in 1859 that paved the way for Japan’s reception of international law. This chapter charts the shift from the early Japanese exploration of the outside world after centuries of self-imposed isolation, to the training of Japan’s first generation of international lawyers as the Meiji state embarked on reclaiming sovereign rights lost through the imposition of the treaty port regime.

Research on the Development of Cities and Architecture in the Open Ports (International Settlements and Foreign Concessions) of East Asia

In the past, to get from one country to another, a long journey on a ship was required. Trade between countries was also done using ships, which transported cargo via shipping routes across the globe. Ports in specific countries accommodated trade, including in East Asia where many were opened as a result of unequal treaties with western powers. Treaty ports were often agreed after western powers such as the UK and nUS defeated military powers in China, Japan and Korea and terms favouring the successful nations were agreed. Foreigners would arrive into the treaty ports, and commodities such as restaurants, foreigners clubs, churches and racecourses were built for these new citizens. Ultimately, colonisation occurred, with areas in China, Japan and Korea being commandeered by Western ways of life. A team of researchers led by Professor An-Suk Son, Research Center for Non Written Cultural Materials, Kanagawa University, Japan, is looking at the open ports of East Asia, investigating the history and architecture of the Japanese consulate, banks, schools, hospitals and spinning companies. A key focus for the researchers is on buildings that were developed during the time of foreign settlement. Previous studies that have been done in this area have tended to focus on Shanghai in China, Yokohama in Japan and Incheon in Korea, and Son's research is innovative in that it uses new materials that have emerged in the years since, such as English newspapers, magazines, pictures, leaflets and photo books. The team also plants to build on previous studies to include places such as Qingdao and Guangzhou.

Slave of the Colonizer

This chapter reads Chinese poetry, short stories, and novels (1900–30) that engage the much-despised figure of the Indian policeman stationed by the British in China’s semi-colonial treaty ports. Grappling with the challenge of apprehending this Indian figure—who held the unique capacity to frustrate entrenched binaries of colonized and colonizer, brother and enemy, self and other—the Chinese texts articulate an antagonism at once founded upon intimacy and yet in expression of conflict. The texts engage in an exercise of thinking China and India together outside the tenets of pan-Asianist solidarity, extending a form of relation born out of repulsion. Although it erodes friendly ties, this mode of China–India thought proves generative, reshaping debates on literary language, national autonomy, and revolution underway in late Qing and early Republican China, and telling the story of modern Chinese literature’s development anew from the perspective of this unlikely Indian interlocuter.