The epic story of foreign impact on China from the early 19th century to the start of the First World War is told in a new book by Professor Robert Bickers of the University of Bristol, published today.

The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914 tells a story that is crucially important to our understanding of China today as its government and people are still steeped in stories of this terrible time and driven by the desire never to appear weak again.

The book begins just before the First Opium War when China remained almost untouched by Britain and other European powers.  Ferocious laws forbade all trade with the West outside one tiny area of Canton, and anyone teaching a European to speak Chinese was executed.

But as new technology began to unbalance the relationship, foreigners gathered like wolves around the weakening Qing Empire.  Humiliated by military disaster, racked by rebellions that cost millions of lives and ultimately invaded by thousands of foreign soldiers during the Boxer Rebellion, the fate of China hung in the balance.  Would it be carved into pieces by the Europeans, just as Africa had been, or would the Chinese adapt rapidly enough to maintain their independence? 

Professor Bickers said: “The history of Sino-foreign interaction is very well known in China today, and is embedded in its education system and museums as part of a ‘Patriotic Education’ movement.  It's a very important part of modern Chinese nationalism and modern Chinese identity but it's largely unknown in the West, and especially so in Britain.

“The overall aim of this book is to show to Western readers what the British and others did in China, but also why they did it.  It's about clashing notions of honour, and violence and misunderstanding.  This saga still matters in China, and if anything has become more important and prominent over the last 20 years.  However, it is barely taught in the UK.”

Research for the book was done in archives in China and the UK, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the British Inter-university China Centre.

An international conference on Sino-British relations, convened by Professor Bickers, will be held at the University of Bristol in August 2011.

The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914 is published by Penguin. £30