Death and Emotions in Anglo-China

Negotiating Grief Across Cultures in the Nineteenth Century
This book analyses the history of emotions surrounding death in 19th-century treaty-port China, to understand how this universal experience was understood and expressed across cultural lines.

This book uncovers the history of emotions surrounding death in colonial and semi-colonial Anglo-China during the 19th century. Engaging with both English and Chinese sources, including obituaries, memoirs, personal correspondence, missionary publications, mourning poetry and travel accounts, Death and Emotions in Anglo-China explores how this common human experience was understood, expressed, and felt across different cultures, where it became not merely a personal matter but a hotly contested issue.

Illustrating how emotions of death solidified communities, buttressed regimes and galvanised political movements, the book pays attention to the dilemma between perso