Before taking a vacation to explore a different culture, one thing we do is check the exchange rates between the local and foreign currencies. Today, it takes seconds to know the best rates with an application or on the internet. But do you know how this information was disseminated one hundred years ago? One way …
Before the First Opium War (1839–1842), Westerners’ activities were confined to provincial city of Guangdong province–Canton (now Guangzhou). As described in William Hunter’s book The ‘Fan Kwae’ at Canton,the trading houses and dwellings of the Western traders usually called the “Thirteen Factories”, were located at southwestern Canton, along the Pearl River. Like today, one of …
Titled “A coolie of Hongkong”, the featured postcard portrays a rather unusual representation of coolies – unhassled and calm. On the back of the postcard, there is a short message: “This is a common sight here – everything is carried by coolies they put the pole over their shoulders & a basket on each end. …
If a caption is needed for the featured image above, it would be: “Boy, go catchee two piecey tea.” Where is the “boy”? It is the man standing in the middle of the photograph. Although his appearance suggests a rather mature age, he was designated the “boy” back in the 19th and 20th centuries. Such …
Female domestic workers occupy an important role in the family. During the rule of the East India Company and the British government, the female servants who cared for children in European families in India were called ayahs, i.e., nursemaids. The Hobson-Jobson dictionary of Anglo-Indian words suggests that ayah is derived from the Portuguese aia ‘a …
The featured photography shows two Europeans and a group of South Asians. At the back of the photograph is: “Frank Arthur & servants. 3 years old!” So, this short phrase tells us the relationship between the European woman and the boy and the South Asians. Nowadays, it is unusual to have so many servants at …
In the last post (12. Chin-chin joss), the object of chin-chin ‘worship’ can be a joss, that is, in Chinese tradition a god, goddess, or deity.The word is considered to be connected with the Portuguese word deus,meaning ‘God’. In Chinese Pidgin English, joss can form new words denoting Chinese and Western religious concepts and activities, …
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 …