
The Making of China's Post Office
Sovereignty, Modernization, and the Connection of a Nation
Weipin Tsai(Author)
Harvard University Press
Published on 20. February 2024
Book
Hardback
450 pages
978-0-674-29588-9 (ISBN)
Description
The Making of China's Post Office traces the origins and early development of the country's modern postal system. Sweeping in perspective, it goes beyond the bounds of institutional history to explore the political maneuverings, economic imperatives, and societal pressures both inhibiting and driving forward postal development. Although its prime mover was Robert Hart, Inspector General of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, the wider cast of characters includes foreign and native staff, Qing officials, local administrations, commercial interests, and foreign governments.
Drawing extensively on archival material from the Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing, the Tianjin Municipal Archives, and the Archive of Queen's University Belfast, Weipin Tsai contextualizes the making of the post office within the country's long and contested path of modernization, bringing Chinese voices to the fore. Tsai illustrates the extent to which local agency shaped the design and development of the service as it expanded from experimental coastal operation into China's interior and on to its border periphery, the first nationwide modernization project to directly impact people's daily lives. Ultimately, the grand spatial reach of the Post Office carried significant symbolic meaning in relation to sovereignty for the Qing government and for later Republican administrations.
Drawing extensively on archival material from the Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing, the Tianjin Municipal Archives, and the Archive of Queen's University Belfast, Weipin Tsai contextualizes the making of the post office within the country's long and contested path of modernization, bringing Chinese voices to the fore. Tsai illustrates the extent to which local agency shaped the design and development of the service as it expanded from experimental coastal operation into China's interior and on to its border periphery, the first nationwide modernization project to directly impact people's daily lives. Ultimately, the grand spatial reach of the Post Office carried significant symbolic meaning in relation to sovereignty for the Qing government and for later Republican administrations.
Reviews / Votes
An important and original contribution to our understanding of the late-Qing state...filled with [the author's] wonderful analytical insights into archival sources...essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the late-Qing state, the role of powerful foreigners in its transformation, and the government's momentous decision to establish a national postal service as an arm of an expansionist state. -- Lane J. Harris * China Quarterly *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
16 photos, 6 color photos, 11 illus., 1 color illus., 16 maps, 13 tables
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
1081 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-674-29588-9 (9780674295889)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Weipin Tsai is Senior Lecturer in Modern Chinese History at Royal Holloway, University of London.