All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French

Frances Wood’s Picnics Prohibited: Diplomacy in a Chaotic China during the First World War: Penguin Special

Posted: August 27th, 2014 | No Comments »

Frances Wood’s addition to the growing Penguin China & World War One series (which includes my own Betrayal in Paris) is now available – Picnics Prohibited (here on Amazon.co.uk and here on Penguin Australia)….

Picnic Prohibited

At the time of the First World War, the Chinese republic was in its infancy. It had joined a number of international organizations and ratified the Hague Conventions, but found its diplomatic efforts hampered by its young, inexperienced leadership, its factional and regional divisions and the foreign-held treaty ports and concessions held over from the imperial period. The foreign powers treaded a fine diplomatic tightrope, caught between carrying out their patriotic duty to support war efforts and making sure their ‘hosts’, the Chinese, did not take advantage of the turbulence to gain the upper hand against the imperialists. For the Americans, British, French, German and Japanese, the legation quarters became a microcosm of the intrigues and conflicts back home.



Leave a Reply