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Online Lecture - China Bound: John Swire & Sons and its World, 1816 - 1980 - Prof. Robert Bickers

This is an online Zoom lecture, delivered by author Robert Bickers on his book China Bound: John Swire & Sons and Its World, 1816 – 1980.

Details (from amazon.com)

From its origins in Liverpool in 1816, one unusual British firm has threaded a way through two centuries that have seen tumultuous events and epochal transformations in technologies and societies. John Swire & Sons, a small trading company that began by importing dyes, cotton and apples from the Americas, now directs a highly diversified group of interests operating across the globe but with a core focus on Asia. From 1866 its fate was intertwined with developments in China, with the story of steam, and later of flight, and with the movements of people and of goods that made the modern world.

China Bound charts the story of the firm, its family owners and staff, its operations, its successes and its disasters, as it endured wars, uprisings and revolutions, the rise and fall of empires - China's, Britain's, Japan's – and the twists and turns of the global economy. This is the story of a business that reshaped Hong Kong, developed Cathay Pacific Airways, dominated China's pre-Second World War shipping industry, and helped pioneer containerization.

Robert Bickers' remarkable new book is the history of a business, and of its worlds, of modern China, Britain, and of the globalization that entangled them, of compradors, ship-owners, and seamen, sugar travellers, tea- tasters, and stuff merchants, revolutionaries, pirates and Taipans. Essential reading for anyone with an interest in global commerce, China Bound provides an intimate history that helps explain the shape of Asia today.

The Speaker

Robert A. Bickers is a British historian of modern China and colonialism and well known to many of our members. He is currently a Professor of History at the University of Bristol. Bickers is the author of five books and editor/co-editor of three more.

Time: 7.00-8.00pm Hong Kong Time

Venue: Online over Zoom.

The RASHK hosts online lectures over the Zoom application, downloadable on computer at https://zoom.us/ or smartphone on any app store.

Specific details to access the Zoom calls that we will be using will be circulated via correspondence Emails prior to each online lecture.

If you would like to attend an online lecture, please email membership@royalasiaticsociety.org.hk so that we can send you the link to access the Zoom lecture.

Admission: No charge, please register your attendance in advance

Booking: Please email membership@royalasiaticsociety.org.hk in advance to register your attendance