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oapen-20.500.12657-879822024-03-28T14:03:23Z A Young Englishman in Victorian Hong Kong Penny, Benjamin Hong Kong Alabaster Victorian period China Consular Service diary thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DN Biography and non-fiction prose::DND Diaries, letters and journals thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTQ Colonialism and imperialism In August 1855, 16-year-old Chaloner Alabaster left England for Hong Kong, to take up a position as a student interpreter in the China Consular Service. He would stay for almost 40 years, climbing the rungs of the service and eventually becoming consul-general of Canton. When he retired he returned to England and received a knighthood. He died in 1898. Throughout his adult life, Alabaster kept diaries. In the first four volumes of these diaries, collected here by Benjamin Penny, the teenage Alabaster recorded his thoughts and observations, told himself anecdotes, and exploded in outbursts of anger and frustration. He was young and enthusiastic, and the everyday sights, sounds and smells of Hong Kong were novel to him. He describes how the Chinese people around him ironed clothes, dried flour and threshed rice; how they gambled, prepared their food and made bean curd; and what opera, new year festivities and the birthday of the Heavenly Empress were like. Like many a young Victorian, he was also a keen observer of natural history, fascinated by fireflies and ants, corals and sea slugs, and the volcanic origins of the landscape. Alabaster's diaries are a unique, vibrant and riveting record of life in the young British colony on the cusp of the Second Opium War. With A Young Englishman in Victorian Hong Kong, Penny sheds new light on the history of the region. 2024-02-23T15:41:14Z 2024-02-23T15:41:14Z 2023 book ONIX_20240223_9781760465926_12 9781760465926 9781760465919 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/87982 eng application/pdf Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International book.pdf ANU Press ANU Press 10.22459/YEVHK.2023 10.22459/YEVHK.2023 ddc8cc3f-dd57-40ef-b8d5-06f839686b71 9781760465926 9781760465919 ANU Press 234 Canberra open access
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In August 1855, 16-year-old Chaloner Alabaster left England for
Hong Kong, to take up a position as a student interpreter in the China Consular
Service. He would stay for almost 40 years, climbing the rungs of the service
and eventually becoming consul-general of Canton. When he retired he returned to
England and received a knighthood. He died in 1898. Throughout his adult life,
Alabaster kept diaries. In the first four volumes of these diaries, collected
here by Benjamin Penny, the teenage Alabaster recorded his thoughts and
observations, told himself anecdotes, and exploded in outbursts of anger and
frustration. He was young and enthusiastic, and the everyday sights, sounds and
smells of Hong Kong were novel to him. He describes how the Chinese people
around him ironed clothes, dried flour and threshed rice; how they gambled,
prepared their food and made bean curd; and what opera, new year festivities and
the birthday of the Heavenly Empress were like. Like many a young Victorian, he
was also a keen observer of natural history, fascinated by fireflies and ants,
corals and sea slugs, and the volcanic origins of the landscape.
Alabaster's diaries are a unique, vibrant and riveting record of life in
the young British colony on the cusp of the Second Opium War. With A Young
Englishman in Victorian Hong Kong, Penny sheds new light on the history of the
region.
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