A young Englishman in Victorian Hong Kong : the diaries of Chaloner Alabaster, 1855-1856 / Benjamin Penny
- Bib ID:
- 10009474
- Format:
- Book
- Author:
- Penny, Benjamin, author
- Online Access:
- National edeposit
- Related Online Resources:
- Access Conditions:
- National edeposit: Available online
- Description:
-
- Canberra, Australian Capital Territory : ANU Press, 2023
- 1 online resource (234 pages)
- File Characteristics:
- text file PDF 5.1MB
- ISBN:
-
- 1760465925
- 9781760465926
- Summary:
-
"In August 1855, sixteen-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 forty 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." -- Publisher website.
- Full contents:
-
- Introduction
- The cast of the diaries
- Alabaster diary, volume 1
- Alabaster diary, volume 2
- Alabaster diary, volume 3
- Alabaster diary, volume 4.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references.
- Subject:
- Genre/Form:
- Electronic books
- Terms of Use:
- Licensed under Creative Commons. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
- Copyright Information:
- Unless stated otherwise, the author retains copyright to their work while ANU Press retains exclusive worldwide rights for the distribution of the book. From 2018, the majority of ANU Press titles are published under a Creative Commons licence (CC BY-NC-ND; creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which broadens the ways in which works can be used and distributed. Please refer to the copyright page of each book for more information on a specific title's copyright licensing.
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
You may copy under some circumstances, for example you may copy a portion for research or study. Order a copy through Copies Direct to the extent allowed under fair dealing. Contact us for further information about copying.
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary, dramatic or musical work
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 2023
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.