The Amoy Riots of 1852 317
work Yen Ch’ing-hwang reconβirmed the conventional image of Chinese
ofβicials as being timid and self-preserving. The organizational aspect
of the Chinese coolie trade and the abuses in general were described by
Wang Singwu in his book published in 1978.^2
Drawing its sources mainly from the British Foreign Ofβice documents,
including the seldom-used Amoy consular records that also contain
correspondence in Chinese, the purpose of this chapter is to reconstruct
the event from the local and treaty-port perspectives and re-examine the
stereotyped images of the Chinese and British ofβicials in their handling
of the matter.
Emigration and Abuses
Dr Charles Winchester, First Assistant to the British Consulate in Amoy,
provided an 1852 eyewitness account^3 of the emigration from this
locality during this speciβic period. He states that the Chinese emigration
from this port was conducted under both native and foreign contract
systems. In his estimate, the annual exodus from Fujian province involved
some 50,000 able-bodied men. The vast majority of them left under
arrangements they had made themselves, that were either voluntary or
by contract. In both cases, the emigrants would work overseas under
prosperous Chinese who had established themselves in the Malay
Archipelago. The native system had been in existence long before foreign
engagement in the export of Chinese laborers and had facilitated the
commencement of emigration under foreign contracts. Until August
1852, the total number of emigrants who had left under foreign contracts
was estimated to be 6,255. They were shipped to Havana, Demerara, Îsle
- See T’ien Ju-k’ang, “Yibawuer nian Xiamen renmin dui Yingguo shanghang
luemai huagong de fankang yundong” 1852 年厦门人民对英国商行掠卖华工
的反抗运动 [The opposition movement of the Amoy people to the seizing and
selling of Chinese laborers by the English commercial βirms in 1852], in T'ien
Ju-k'ang, Zhongguo fanchuan maoyi he duiwai guanxi shi lunji 中国帆船贸易
和对外关系史研究 [Collected papers on the history of China’s junk trade and
foreign relations] (Hangzhou: Zhejiang renmin chubanshe, 1987), pp. 214‒21;
Yen Ching-hwang, Coolies and Mandarins: China’s Protection of Overseas Chinese
during the Late Ch’ing Period, 1851‒ 1911 (Singapore: Singapore University
Press, 1985); and Sing-wu Wang, The Organization of Chinese Emigration,
1848 ‒1888: With Special Reference to Chinese Emigration to Australia (San
Francisco: Chinese Material Center, 1978). - See fn. 1.