Foreign devils on the Silk Road
By Peter Hopkirk.
Foreign devils on the Silk Road is one of the very few good books on the subject of the exploration of the Silk Road. This one is about foreigners exploring Chinese Turkestan (or Xinjiang, Sinkiang, Hsinkiang, High Tartary, Chinese Tartary, etc). Whichever region has so many names is bound to have had a busy history.
This is a wonderful book, with lots of vivid stories of the foreigners exploring China's westernmost province. This was a truly multinational project, to map out the Tarim basin and to clear it out of its archaeological treasures. There were the British, the French, the German, the Russians and the Japanese. By the time the Chinese woke up from their daze of domestic disturbances, the best pieces were already out of the country. Today they claim this to be their national treasure and resent the fact that it had been stolen from them. Well, it was not, all of these people were acting in full support of the local government, with passports and whatever permissions needed at the time. This was simply something that was OK at the time but was not afterwards. You cannot sell me your grandma's antique vase and then start badmouthing me for having stolen it from you, can you? But this is what I think, Hopkirk is actually quite sympathetic with the Chinese side of the story.
Foreign devils is very well written, Hopkirk used to be a journalist. This is why I find his malicious treatment of the Japanese Otani expeditions surprising because although admitting that it is mostly based on hearsay, he still goes on to depict Otani and his followers as but a bunch of spies. Especially Tachibana is described in unfavorable colors, as ever being "up to his old an unpriestly tricks."
Foreign devils on the Silk Road is one of the very few good books on the subject of the exploration of the Silk Road. This one is about foreigners exploring Chinese Turkestan (or Xinjiang, Sinkiang, Hsinkiang, High Tartary, Chinese Tartary, etc). Whichever region has so many names is bound to have had a busy history.
This is a wonderful book, with lots of vivid stories of the foreigners exploring China's westernmost province. This was a truly multinational project, to map out the Tarim basin and to clear it out of its archaeological treasures. There were the British, the French, the German, the Russians and the Japanese. By the time the Chinese woke up from their daze of domestic disturbances, the best pieces were already out of the country. Today they claim this to be their national treasure and resent the fact that it had been stolen from them. Well, it was not, all of these people were acting in full support of the local government, with passports and whatever permissions needed at the time. This was simply something that was OK at the time but was not afterwards. You cannot sell me your grandma's antique vase and then start badmouthing me for having stolen it from you, can you? But this is what I think, Hopkirk is actually quite sympathetic with the Chinese side of the story.
Foreign devils is very well written, Hopkirk used to be a journalist. This is why I find his malicious treatment of the Japanese Otani expeditions surprising because although admitting that it is mostly based on hearsay, he still goes on to depict Otani and his followers as but a bunch of spies. Especially Tachibana is described in unfavorable colors, as ever being "up to his old an unpriestly tricks."
posted by Steve Bekes at
3:10 PM
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