No Foreign Bones in China: Memoirs of Imperialism and Its Ending

No Foreign Bones in China tells a story of China through the eyes of a British colonial family. Through the Opium Wars, the Boxer Rebellion, two world wars, and the rise of Mao, the Shaws were witness to the turbulent birth of modern China. Captain Samuel Lewis Shaw, a merchant seaman, arrived in China in the 1830s. After a long and colourful career, he settled in the port of Foochow, married a Japanese woman, and started a family. The Shaw children grew up in Pagoda Anchorage, the heart of the Chinese tea trade, and expected to spend their lives in this beautiful place. But a few years later, they were forced to leave. In a dramatic display of pro-Chinese nationalism, foreigners were expelled from the country—even to the bones lying in their graves. Told with emotion and insight, No Foreign Bones in China explores cultural history in lavish detail. In re-creating the story of his family, Peter Stursberg reveals history as it was lived and made.