The Hobson-Jobson Being a Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial Words and Phrases and of Kindred Terms (1886) is an essential collection of words of Asian origins in English. The dictionary compilers, Henry Yule and Arthur Coke Burnell, meticulously explain the Asian words that entered the English language through the trade networks in the East. Some of …
Shanghai entered the international stage after being designated as one of the treaty ports in the Treaty of Nanking (1842). The internationalization of Shanghai included people, business, food, fashion, architecture, transportation, entertainment, education, sports, communication, language, and so on. In the International Settlement, you could hear different tongues: English, French, Russian, German, Italian, Japanese, you …
In the 18th century, Europeans and their employees worked in a “Factory”, not to produce goods but to engage in different commercial activities. The featured image above is an advertisement for a shop located at “Old Factory Street”. The advertisement appeared in a travel guide A Pictorial Handbook to Canton published in 1905. By this …
The compradores were the right-hand men of the taipans, and the taipans were the heads of the companies. The featured image above is a poster of the film Tai-pan, adapted from James Clavell’s 1966 novel of the same title. The novel is set after the conclusion of the First Opium War (1839–1842). The Treaty of …
A unique social class that emerged in the context of China trade was the compradores. Their education, manner, and lifestyle truly embraced the spirits of what they did – the “middlemen”. In order to excel in the business world, they stood between the Chinese and the Westerners hoping to find common grounds to achieve commercial …
As China opened up its market for foreign trade, the flow of people, money, ideas, and technologies from around the world expanded exponentially. The signing of the Treaty of Nanking (1842) after the First Opium War (1839-1842) meant enormous opportunities for investment in China. Trade was no longer restricted to Canton, new ports like Shanghai …
The foreignness of people and things often results in curiosity, suspicion, and hostility. Such feelings are sometimes reflected in language as people may create terms to call certain groups of people. Hong Kong is no exception. Cantonese also has terms to call specific ethnicities, for example, 「阿aa3差caa1」and 「摩mo1羅lo1差caa1」refer to the South Asians;「㗎gaa4仔zai2」and「㗎gaa4妹mui1」 are the Japanese. …
To the Hokkien-speaking Chinese, the term 紅hung4毛mou4 is familiar as it is traditionally used to refer to the Dutch and later Europeans. Hokkien (福fuk1建gin6話waa2) is spoken mainly in the Fujian (福fuk1建gin6) province of the south of China. As the province faces the South China Sea, Hokkien people are skilled seafarers and are significant diaspora groups …
Previously, we saw a postcard posted from Honolulu to Hong Kong dated 1888 (see 3. Chin-chin). As shown below, the beginning of the message was a usual note to tell the recipient of the sender’s safe passage. What is more informative is the return journey to Hong Kong. “According to promise I pen you a …
Hawaiʻi comprises a group of islands located in the central Pacific Ocean. The state capital and the largest city, Honolulu, is on O‘ahu. It is believed that the earliest inhabitants were Polynesian settlers from the Marquesas Islands. The first contact between Hawaiians and Europeans occurred in 1778. That year the British explorer Captain James Cook …