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To kowtow or not kowtow

Episode 2 of 4

How did the world's greatest civilisation find itself dragged into two Opium Wars and a century of humiliation? Misha Glenny heads to Hong Kong to find out.

Britain was late in its contacts with China and the Qing dynasty - the Portuguese, the Dutch and the Spanish had all headed east long before Lord McCartney's embassy tried to establish a formal relationship in 1792/3. Although it failed, this mission is famous for one thing - whether the British envoy did or did not kowtow to the Chinese Emperor. So began a fractious, ultimately shameful century for Anglo-Chinese relations. Travelling to Hong Kong, taken by the British following the First Opium War, Misha Glenny and Miles Warde find a city still marked by its colonial heritage, but also increasingly under the thumb of its new masters in Beijing.

Contributors include Hong Kong activist, Nathan Law; Henrietta Harrison, author of The Perils of Interpreting and Professor of Chinese history; and Frances Wood, author of No Dogs and Not Many Chinese History: Treaty Port Life in China

This is episode 56 of How to Invent a Country on 大象传媒 Sounds and is a 大象传媒 Studios production

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42 minutes

Last on

Sun 5 May 2024 17:10

Broadcasts

  • Mon 29 Apr 2024 11:00
  • Sun 5 May 2024 17:10