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An Australian in China — Context and Discussion
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Project Gutenberg
2006
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China -- Description and travel
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92,231
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402 min
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12
For An Australian in China — Context and Discussion, the stored edition analysis reports 92,231 words, 6 hr 42 min estimated reading time, and 12 detected text sections.
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Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “China -- Description and travel,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.
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Project Gutenberg record #19172
George Ernest Morrison's 1894 journey from Shanghai to Burma, blending travelogue with observations on missionaries, Chinese customs, telegraph construction, and the gold trade in Yunnan.
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CHAPTER I. PAGES INTRODUCTORY--MAINLY ABOUT MISSIONARIES AND THE CITY OF HANKOW 1-11
CHAPTER II. FROM HANKOW TO WANHSIEN, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF CHINESE WOMEN AND THE RAPIDS OF THE YANGTSE 12-23
CHAPTER III. THE CITY OF WANHSIEN, AND THE JOURNEY FROM WANHSIEN TO CHUNGKING 24-34
CHAPTER IV. THE CITY OF CHUNGKING--THE CHINESE CUSTOMS--THE FAMOUS MONSIEUR HAAS, AND A FEW WORDS ON THE OPIUM FALLACY 35-49
CHAPTER V. THE JOURNEY FROM CHUNGKING TO SUIFU--CHINESE INNS 50-62
CHAPTER VI. THE CITY OF SUIFU--THE CHINA INLAND MISSION, WITH SOME GENERAL REMARKS ABOUT MISSIONARIES IN CHINA 63-75
CHAPTER VII. SUIFU TO CHAOTONG, WITH SOME REMARKS ON THE PROVINCE OF YUNNAN--CHINESE PORTERS, POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS, AND BANKS 76-96
CHAPTER VIII. THE CITY OF CHAOTONG, WITH SOME REMARKS ON ITS POVERTY, INFANTICIDE, SELLING FEMALE CHILDREN INTO SLAVERY, TORTURES, AND THE CHINESE INSENSIBILITY TO PAIN 97-106
CHAPTER IX. MAINLY ABOUT CHINESE DOCTORS 107-114
CHAPTER X. THE JOURNEY FROM CHAOTONG TO TONGCHUAN 115-124
CHAPTER XI. THE CITY OF TONGCHUAN, WITH SOME REMARKS UPON INFANTICIDE 125-134
CHAPTER XII. TONGCHUAN TO YUNNAN CITY 135-147
CHAPTER XIII. AT YUNNAN CITY 148-157
CHAPTER XIV. GOLD, BANKS, AND TELEGRAPHS IN YUNNAN 158-170
CHAPTER XV. THE FRENCH MISSION AND THE ARSENAL IN YUNNAN CITY 171-182
CHAPTER XVI. THE JOURNEY FROM YUNNAN CITY TO TALIFU 183-201
CHAPTER XVII. THE CITY OF TALI--PRISONS--POISONING--PLAGUES AND MISSIONS 202-217
CHAPTER XVIII. THE JOURNEY FROM TALI, WITH SOME REMARKS ON THE CHARACTER OF THE CANTONESE, CHINESE EMIGRANTS, CRETINS, AND WIFE-BEATING IN CHINA 218-232
CHAPTER XIX. THE MEKONG AND SALWEEN RIVERS--HOW TO TRAVEL IN CHINA 233-243
CHAPTER XX. THE CITY OF TENGYUEH--THE CELEBRATED WUNTHO SAWBWA--SHAN SOLDIERS 244-259
CHAPTER XXI. THE SHAN TOWN OF SANTA, AND MANYUEN, THE SCENE OF CONSUL MARGARY'S MURDER 260-269
CHAPTER XXII. CHINA AS A FIGHTING POWER--THE KACHINS--AND THE LAST STAGE INTO BHAMO 270-281
CHAPTER XXIII. BHAMO, MANDALAY, RANGOON, AND CALCUTTA 282-291
_Mostly from Photographs by_ MR. C. JENSEN _of the Imperial Chinese Telegraphs._
THE AUTHOR IN WESTERN CHINA _Frontispiece._
THE AUTHOR'S CHINESE PASSPORT _page_ 8
ON A BALCONY IN WESTERN CHINA 14
THE RIVER YANGTSE AT TUNG-LO-HSIA 34
MEMORIAL ARCHWAY AT THE FORT OF FU-TO-KUAN 34
CHUNGKING, FROM THE OPPOSITE BANK OF THE YANGTSE 38
A TEMPLE THEATRE IN CHUNGKING 44
ON THE MAIN ROAD TO SUIFU 52
CULTIVATION IN TERRACES 58
A TEMPLE IN SZECHUEN 84
THE OPIUM-SMOKER OF ROMANCE 93
PAGODA BY THE WAYSIDE, WESTERN CHINA 118
THE BIG EAST GATE OF YUNNAN CITY 146
VIEW IN YUNNAN CITY 156
SOLDIERS ON THE WALL OF YUNNAN CITY 168
THE PAGODA OF YUNNAN CITY, 250 FEET HIGH 174
THE VICEROY OF TWO PROVINCES 180
THE AUTHOR'S CHINESE NAME 182
THE GIANT OF YUNNAN 184
THE "EAGLE NEST BARRIER," ON THE ROAD TO TALIFU 192
SNOW-CLAD MOUNTAINS BEHIND TALIFU 204
MEMORIAL IN A TEMPLE NEAR TALIFU 220
THE DESCENT TO THE RIVER MEKONG 232
INSIDE VIEW OF A SUSPENSION BRIDGE 236
THE RIVER SALWEEN 240
THE RIVER SHWELI AND ITS SUSPENSION BRIDGE 242
THE SUBURB BEYOND THE SOUTH GATE OF TENGYUEH 250
CHINESE MAP OF CHUNGKING 292
ROUGH SKETCH-MAP OF CHINA AND BURMA _at end._
AN AUSTRALIAN IN CHINA.
INTRODUCTORY--MAINLY ABOUT MISSIONARIES AND THE CITY OF HANKOW.
In the first week of February, 1894, I returned to Shanghai from Japan. It was my intention to go up the Yangtse River as far as Chungking, and then, dressed as a Chinese, to cross quietly over Western China, the Chinese Shan States, and Kachin Hills to the frontier of Burma. The ensuing narrative will tell how easily and pleasantly this journey, which a few years ago would have been regarded as a formidable undertaking, can now be done.
The journey was, of course, in no sense one of exploration; it consisted simply of a voyage of 1500 miles up the Yangtse River, followed by a quiet, though extended, excursion of another 1500 miles along the great overland highway into Burma, taken by one who spoke no Chinese, who had no interpreter or companion, who was unarmed, but who trusted implicitly in the good faith of the Chinese. Anyone in the world can cross over to Burma in the way I did, provided he be willing to exercise for a certain number of weeks or months some endurance--for he will have to travel many miles on foot over a mountainous country--and much forbearance.
I went to China possessed with the strong racial antipathy to the Chinese common to my countrymen, but that feeling has long since given way to one of lively sympathy and gratitude, and I shall always look back with pleasure to this journey, during which I experienced, while traversing provinces as wide as European kingdoms, uniform kindness and hospitality, and the most charming courtesy. In my case, at least, the Chinese did not forget their precept, "deal gently with strangers from afar."
Morrison's narrative opens not with a grand departure but with a sustained focus on the practicalities of travel: the cost of chairs, the reliability of porters, and the condition of inns. His eye for detail extends to the Chinese telegraph system, whose construction he documents through the career of Mr. C. Jensen, a Danish engineer who supervised over 2,350 miles of lines. The text repeatedly pauses to examine the tension between foreign infrastructure and local beliefs—telegraph poles were once cut down for spoiling fungshui, until a magistrate's harsh punishment of ear-cutting deterred further sabotage.
The Telegraph as a Lens on Chinese Society
Morrison devotes unusual attention to the Imperial Telegraphs, using them as a case study in Sino-foreign cooperation and resistance. He records that the first Chinese telegraph line opened in 1881 from Shanghai to Tientsin, and that by 1890 the system had linked with French lines at Laokai. The narrative highlights Mr. Jensen, who in 1889 lost fifty-six of sixty workmen to plague while repairing a line. Yet the most telling episode involves the cutting of poles by villagers who saw them as a threat to good fortune. The magistrate's response—arresting two men, likely innocent, and having their ears cut off before parading them along the line—effectively stopped the sabotage. Morrison reports this without overt judgment, letting the brutality and efficacy of the measure speak for itself.
Gold, Banks, and the Yunnan Economy
Yunnan City emerges as the great gold emporium of China. Morrison notes that wealthy Chinese returning from Yunnan carry gold rather than silver, and that gold leaf from the province gilds temples in Thibet and pagodas in Indo-China. Caravans returning to Burma exchange spare silver for gold leaf. The text also describes the banking system, where remittances are handled by native banks with remarkable efficiency. Morrison's observations are grounded in commercial detail: he records that the telegraph line from Yunnan City through Tali to Tengyueh was built to eventually connect with the Indian telegraph system, linking the province to global networks. The gold trade, he implies, is both ancient and modern, sustaining a regional economy that reaches beyond China's borders.
Missionaries, Medicine, and Moral Judgments
Morrison, a medical doctor himself, devotes several chapters to missionaries and their work. He is critical of some, praising others, and his assessments are tied to specific practices. He discusses the China Inland Mission's methods, the medical work of missionary doctors, and the opium trade—which he calls a fallacy. The text includes a chapter on Chinese doctors, where Morrison compares their methods to Western medicine, noting both deficiencies and occasional successes. He also records instances of infanticide and the selling of female children into slavery, reporting these as observed facts rather than sensationalism. His tone is clinical, but the cumulative effect is a portrait of a society in flux, where foreign interventions—telegraphs, medicine, missions—are met with a mixture of acceptance, resistance, and adaptation.
Morrison's account is less a continuous narrative than a series of embedded reports—on telegraph construction, gold trading, missionary work, and local customs. Readers should approach it as a documentary record of late-Qing China seen through the eyes of a trained observer who is neither a missionary nor a diplomat but a traveler with a professional interest in infrastructure and medicine. The book rewards those who read for concrete detail rather than dramatic arc.
That rainy afternoon, Morrison’s Yunnan felt impossibly distant, yet oddly intimate—the mud, the patient mules, the quiet foreignness. Later, with tea gone cold, I found myself reaching for an older traveler’s diary, another man’s careful notes on unfamiliar roads. The same unhurried ache of being far from home. That’s how I found Travels through the states of North America, and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1795, 1796, and 1797 [Vol. 1 of 2] — Story, Setting & Ideas, another century, same quiet wondering at the world.
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