On May 30, 1925 workers and students demonstrated on the Nanking Road, the main shopping thoroughfare in the International Concession, in Shanghai. They were shouting slogans, “Take back the concessions” and “down with the imperialists” and they were told to disperse. 10 seconds later the Shanghai Municipal Police, commanded by a British officer, opened fire on an unarmed crowd.  13 were killed and more than 20 wounded. The event mobilised Chinese nationalism “as a nation responded to a policeman’s bullet”, and was a direct challenge to British policy makers.  Shanghai was the most significant single element of British interest in China, and Britain sought to defend that interest but the Foreign Office was aware of the limits of British power. The Shanghailanders were not.  The Shanghailanders, as they called themselves, were the small treaty port people, whose fortunes were inextricably tied up with the existence of the British concessions and extraterritorial privileges in China. Even a Shanghailander himself called them, “the spoilt children of the Empire”. They were to complicate British policy making. Indeed “the ramifications of the imperialist mind” has been called “the barbed wire thread which bound together the whole fabric of foreign imperialism in China and made it so unbearable to Chinese nationalism.”  This talk will look at 3 things:

 

·       The clash between nationalism and imperialism and the challenge this brought to British policy makers

·       The views, actions, hopes and fears of the Shanghailanders.

·       The implications for today of the intertwined and interconnected histories of Britain and China.

 

Chris Corin is a member of The Meridian Society.  He taught History at Worthing College for many years.  With Terry Fiehn, he has written Russia under Tsarism and Communism 1881 – 1953 (2^nd edition 2011) and a number of articles for History Review and New Perspective.  He has a long standing interest in British Foreign Policy and, after a visit to Shanghai, became fascinated with the development of that great city.