Chinese Propaganda Against Western Missionaries

CHOU HAN:

The Cause of the Riots in the Yangtse Valley. A “Complete Picture Gallery”.

Translated by Griffith John (1831-1912).

Hankow, 1891.

Title-pages in Chinese and English, Chinese title printed in red, green and black. With 32 woodblock plates printed in color. Oblong 4to, original printed wrappers, sewn spine (soiling, repairs).

This work by Chou Han, described by John as ‘a gentleman of high official rank (Taotai) in Hunan’, was part of an orchestrated propaganda campaign aimed at preventing Western Christian missionaries from working and traveling in China.

‘Chou Han … was at the head of the Hunan reptile press, and some of the vilest and most violent of its publications are to be ascribed to him’ (John, A voice from China, 1907, p.220). Chou Han himself is probably represented in plates IX, XIII, XXVI and XXIX; the images are virulently anti-foreigner, and specifically anti-Christian. John translated and circulated the present work for his own propaganda purposes, in order to draw attention to the British authorities of the problems faced by missionaries in China.

Very Rare. ONLY 3 COPIES CAN BE TRACED AT AUCTION IN THE PAST 40 YEARS (ABPC & RBH).