The making of China's Post Office : sovereignty, modernization, and the connection of a nation / Weipin Tsai.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tsai, Weipin, 1974- author.

Series:

Harvard East Asian monographs ; 468.

Harvard East Asian monographs ; 468

Language:

Chinese

English

Subjects (All):

China. Hai guan zong shui wu si shu--History.

China.

China. You chuan bu--History.

Postal service--China--History--19th century.

Postal service.

Postal service--China--History--20th century.

China--History--1861-1912.

China. Hai guan zong shui wu si shu.

China. You chuan bu.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

xvi, 427 pages : illustrations (some color), map ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Harvard University Asia Center, [2024]

Language Note:

English, with some words and phrases in Chinese.

Summary:

"The Making of China's Post Office traces the origins and early development of the country's modern postal system. Sweeping in perspective, it goes beyond the bounds of institutional history to explore the political maneuverings, economic imperatives, and societal pressures both inhibiting and driving forward postal development. Although its prime mover was Robert Hart, Inspector General of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, the wider cast of characters includes foreign and native staff, Qing officials, local administrations, commercial interests, and foreign governments. Drawing extensively on archival material from the Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing, the Tianjin Municipal Archives, and the Archive of Queen's University Belfast, Weipin Tsai contextualizes the making of the post office within the country's long and contested path of modernization, bringing Chinese voices to the fore. Tsai illustrates the extent to which local agency shaped the design and development of the service as it expanded from experimental coastal operation into China's interior and on to its border periphery, the first nationwide modernization project to directly impact people's daily lives. Ultimately, the grand spatial reach of the Post Office carried significant symbolic meaning in relation to sovereignty for the Qing government and for later Republican administrations."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

A Long Gestation

Political Storms and Frustrated Reforms

The Customs Postal Service

All Eyes on the Prize

"Crawl, Walk, Trot, Gallop": Local Politics and the First Stages of Postal Expansion

Becoming Chinese

Magnum Opus and the Role of the Post Office in the Empire's Grand Design

The Year 1911: Separation, Revolution, and Disconnection

Myths, Legends, and the World's Longest Overland Postal Route.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674295889

0674295889

OCLC:

1402026062