The signing of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 after the end of the First Opium War (1839-1842) resulted in the opening of more treaty ports for foreign trade in addition to Canton. The most important of these new ports was Shanghai. British, French and American began to settle in the city. The Shanghai International …
In Hong Kong, Caucasian men are known as gweilo (鬼佬 gwaai2 lou2) literally ‘ghost man’. Caucasians women are called gweimui (鬼妹 gwaai2 mui1)or gweipo (鬼婆 gwaai2 po2) ‘ghost woman’, the former name is used for younger women. Today, these colloquial terms are generally not considered as derogatory, and the terms are used among the white …
The Portuguese gained rights to settle and trade in Macau in 1557. The Dutch, a constant rivalry of the Portuguese, attempted to invade Macau in 1622. The 3-day attack ended in victory of the Portuguese. The Dutch occupied southern Taiwan (formerly called Formosa) in 1624 as a base to trade with China and Japan, while …
The image shows a cover celebrating the 150th anniversary (1789-1939) of Hawaiʻi and Chinese interaction. For the past 200 years, Chinese has become an important part in the history of Hawaiʻi. Chinese people call Honolulu 檀香山 (pronounced taan4 hoeng1 saan1 in Cantonese) meaning ‘sandalwood mountains’. Around 1790, American merchants began trade in sandalwood (‘iliahi) between …
Hawaiʻi is made up of a group of islands located in the central Pacific Ocean. The state capital and the largest city, Honolulu, is situated on O‘ahu. It is believed that the earliest inhabitants were Polynesian settlers from the Marquesas Islands. In 1778, British explorer Captain James Cook landed at Kauaʻi and named the archipelago …
Courtesy is important in social interactions. Therefore, the first Chinese Pidgin English expression introduced here is chin-chin, an expression of salutation. The featured postcard travelled from Honolulu, Hawai‘i to Hong Kong in 1888. The sender correctly showed us how the word was used then. “Chin Chin to all old acquaintances” Chin is derived from the …
Postcards are the most representative type of printed ephemera. When the idea of writing a message on a card without an envelope was proposed, people were suspicious of this new mode of communication. For example, one of the concerns was privacy as messages were not covered. The practice of pre-paying the postage for postcards was …