Günter Dinhobl (Hrsg.): Sonderband 7. Eisenbahn/Kultur – Railway/Culture (2004)
II. Die Wahrnehmungen von Raum / The perceptions of space - Robert Lee: Railways, space and imperialism
Robert Lee pan’s adoption of British railway technology, Japan’s railways were never agents of British imperialism. Quite the opposite, they were agents for the strengthening of the Japanese state. In China the situation was far more complex. Although the Self-Strengthening Movement (1861-1894) saw Chinese provincial authorities implement significant programs of economic and military modernisation, railways were not adopted in any significant way at this time. This was not due to any lack of awareness of the importance of railways on the part of the self-strengtheners in the Chinese elite. However, the court in Beijing was fundamentally hostile to Western innovations, which would impinge on it too closely, despite its recognition that some modernisation was essential for its own survival. Beijing was willing to tolerate modernisation programs the self-strengtheners undertook in the provinces - indeed it supported them - but it remained hostile to railway construction until the 1890s. Indeed, a short British-built unauthorised light railway near Shanghai was actually demolished by Chinese authorities in 1877. There were four reasons why the self-strengtheners were hesitant about building railways and why the court in Beijing was downright hostile. First, the railway could offend Chinese cultural values, especially by damaging the fengshui (or spiritual forces running through the landscape) and spoiling the appearance of towns. Second, it could create unemployment among workers in traditional transport industries. Third, it would involve large numbers of Europeans or Westernised Chinese working permanently over a large area, with all the threats to Chinese culture and social integration that would imply. Finally, railways would require large foreign loans, which the Chinese government managed to avoid until obliged to pay indemnities in 1895 following its defeat by Japan." During the 1880s, the leading self-strengthener, Zhili viceroy Li Hongzhang, was able to build the first Chinese railway from his provincial capital, Tianjin to the Manchurian border. However, it was only the defeat by Japan in 1894 and the subsequent imperialist ‘scramble for concessions’ that led to railway development in China on a large scale. 100 On China's ability to fund its modernisation until 1895, see King, Frank H H : Money and Monetary Policy in China, 1845-1895. Cambridge, Massachusetts 1965 and Feuerwerker, Albert: China's Early industrialization: Sheng Hsiian huai and mandarin enterprise. New York 1870.
