Jan 28, 2014

Check SEARC Feb seminar 1: Liberalism, Free Trade and Empire: The diverse roles of John Bowring in Asia by Mr Philip Bowring

There will be a seminar organized by SEARC in February:

Liberalism, Free Trade and Empire:
The diverse roles of John Bowring in Asia

by Mr Philip Bowring,

17 Feb (Mon), 4 pm
(Y4-702, AC 1, City University of Hong Kong)



Abstract

This paper looks at the impact of various strands and contradictions of western liberalism and imperialism through the career of Sir John Bowring, 1792-1892. Bowring was a hyperactive poloyglot and polymath, a liberal writer, trader and entrepreneur who was deeply engaged with democratic reform movements in Europe, a radical member of parliament in Britain and supporter of Chartism, a pioneering advocate of free trade, became consul in Canton and then governor of Hongkong, a peace advocate who started a war with China but also negotiated the Bowring Treaty with King Mongkut which proved a crucial event in Southeast Asian history. His career not only spanned the 60 years of Britain's global pre-eminence from the defeat of Napoleon to the rise of the US and of united Germany but was engaged with several of its key issues in Britain, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The paper will place his roles in China and Hongkong in a wider context than normally viewed by historians of Hongkong.

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