Stories Of First Chinese Migrants To Britain Revealed In New Book
The fascinating stories of the first Chinese migrants to Britain who arrived here more than 300 years ago have been revealed in a new book. Today, more than 400,000 Chinese people live in Britain, but up until the beginning of the 19th century only a handful of their countrymen had made the long, arduous journey over from the Far East. The first visitors were greeted with wonderment, enjoying audiences with monarchs of the day. But subsequent generations faced out-right hostility from locals who thought they were 'debaucherous' and corrupting British women.
In the early 19th century Chinese seaman who were employed in the tea trade on East India Company ships began temporarily lodging in London. Pictured is the crew of the warship Zhiyuan built by Armstrong Whitworth & Co in 1895 Between the years 1950 and 1960, a group of Chinese speakers were commissioned to create Miss Wang's Diary, a straightforward fictional account of a young female student in Britain, Wang Kwei Ying. The first episode saw Wang visit a student fair and be enlisted into the university student dramatic society Mr Wellington Koo (right and pictured with his wife) was the Chinese ambassador in the 1920s. Mrs Koo participated in a number of organisations, including as chairman of the Chinese Women's Association in Britain Pictured left are Ching Wing, Wong Ock and an unidentified person at the Salvation Army Exhibition in London.
The group carried out missionary work in the country, especially Ock who helped lead a major campaign to expose trafficking of young girls for prostitution. Pictured right is Xu Zhimo and Lu Xiaoman. The former was a Chinese poet who studied at King's College, Cambridge in the 1920s Charles Kao doing an early experiment on optical fibre at the Standard Telecommunications Laboratory at Harlow. He had fled the civil war in China to move to Britain in the 1950s and became a pioneer in fibre optics, paving the way for the internet The first Chinese launderette opened in 1877 and the first officially recorded Chinese restaurant was set up in Piccadilly Circus in 1908.
At the turn of the 20th century most Chinese settlers congregated in the east London district of Limehouse, the original Chinatown The trials and tribulations of the Chinese community in Britain are documented by historian Barclay Price in a new book, The Chinese in Britain. The first Chinese person to set foot in Britain was Michael Alphonsius Shen FuTsung in 1687, who travelled to Europe with the Belgian Jesuit Father Philippe Couplet. His arrival created immense interest and Lacquer painting Shen was given an audience by James ll. The king was so captivated by Shen's appearance he commissioned Sir Godfrey Kneller to paint his portrait, which he had hung in the room adjacent to his bedchamber.
RELATED ARTICLES Previous 1 Next This house really is fit for a king! Grade II-listed home... Tate buys four watercolours painted by leading suffragette... Historical issues of the Radio Times from the 1940s are... Share this article Share Shen, who also helped Places to sell lacquer paintings in tphcm translate Chinese works at Oxford University's Bodleian Library, returned home in 1691 after completing his Jesuit priest training. The early 18th century saw a boom in the importation of Chinese porcelain, silk and lacquer to Britain.
By the 1730s, most country houses had a Chinese room and numerous mock Confucian temples and Chinese bridges adorned estate gardens.
