Book highlights role played by British official
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Mark O'Neill, Hong Kong-based Irish author. [Photo provided to China Daily] |
Wang Zhenyao, a professor at Beijing Normal University who attended the book talk, says: "A lot of Chinese people criticize Hart, and a lot of people have forgotten him, even the British I talked to when I visited London.
"Hart is a very important example at this time, when the Chinese government is fighting corruption so hard."
Under Hart, the customs bureau grew in size－the number of its foreign staff grew from 93 in 1873 to more than 500 in 1885.
Hart writes: "I must try to induce among such Chinese as I can influence a friendlier feeling towards foreigners; right conduct; and in that way keep things straight and ensure peace..."
In a 1988 article titled Robert Hart: A Man of Two Worlds published by the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding, the writer Martin Lynn points out the mixed identification of Hart: "... he stood at the interface between China and the West, representing foreign influence in China, yet being used repeatedly by the Chinese government as its representative in dealing with foreign powers."
In the book, O'Neill says the amount of customs revenue collected rose from 8 million silver taels in 1865 to 14.5 million two decades later, or nearly 20 percent of the national revenue, and to more than 30 million three years before Hart left China.
Part of the funds went to the founding of Tong Wen Guan, the translation service for the Qing government, and sending the first 120 Chinese children to study in the United States.
Hart also proposed and helped minister Li Hongzhang to purchase the first two steel-plated warships which led to the founding of Qing government's Beiyang Navy.
The book contains details of many of Hart's works in China, including his negotiation with France to end the Sino-French War in Vietnam in the mid-1880s, and the founding of the imperial post office.
After Hart's departure for Hong Kong from his homeland in 1854, he went back to Europe just twice－once to get married in 1866 and then to oversee the Chinese pavilion at the World's Fair in Paris in 1889.
Hart left China at the age of 73 in 1908.
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