University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Colonialism in contention: the 1874 and 1898 Siming gongsuo riots in Qing China

Yang, Taoyu

Content Files
YANG-THESIS-2017.pdf

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/97468

Description

Title
Colonialism in contention: the 1874 and 1898 Siming gongsuo riots in Qing China
Author(s)
Yang, Taoyu
Issue Date
2017-04-25
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Chow, Kai-Wing
Department of Study
E. Asian Languages & Cultures
Discipline
East Asian Studies
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Level
Thesis
Date of Ingest
2017-08-10T19:16:06Z
Keyword(s)
  • Siming gongsuo
  • Colonialism
  • China
  • The French concession
  • Shanghai
Abstract
The 1874 and 1898 Siming gongsuo riots were two violent conflicts that occurred between a local commercial guild and the French authority in the French concession in Shanghai. Arguably, these two incidents were the greatest popular disturbances in the history of foreign concessions in Shanghai. Although previous scholarship has shed light on the reasons for and the repercussion of the riots, a rigid Sino-France dichotomy and China-centered approach seem to have been uncritically applied. Based upon voluminous multi-lingual primary sources housed in the Shanghai Municipal Archive and the Shanghai Library, this study, first and foremost, suggests that the 1874 and 1898 riots are much more complicated than a simplistic Sino-France binary. Also, this study aims to draw attention to the multi-dimensional challenges with which the French colonial institutions were confronted in these cases. In order to better conceptualize the two riots, I propose the concept of “the modern colonial quandary” to describe the convergence of local opposition from China, imperial rivalry between Britain and France and the internal discord within the French colonial institutions. Moreover, this study draws heavily on the recent studies of empire and its correlation with colonialism which highlight empire not as an invincible and all-powerful hegemon but as a constantly expanding entity replete with anxiety and vulnerability. Lastly, the present study also attempts to contribute to the growing body of scholarship on examining Chinese history from an international perspective.
Graduation Semester
2017-05
Type of Resource
text
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/97468
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2017 Taoyu Yang

Owning Collections

Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois PRIMARY
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois
Dissertations and Theses - East Asian Languages and Cultures