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‘Industrious’ Chinese and British ‘Scoundrels’: Stereotypes of Asian and British Seamen in the 1908 Issues of The Seaman

Introduction: Competition on the Labour Market

‘A Carnival of Calumny’1—that was how The Seaman, the journal of the National Sailors’ and Firemen’s Union, described the situation facing its readers in the early twentieth century. The journal was dominated by a campaign claiming that Chinese seamen, who earned lower wages than European seafarers, were the main reason why British seamen were being ‘driven to the workhouse’ (Fig. 1). At the same time, officials of the Shipping Federation, the union’s antagonist, pitted the ‘industrious’2 Chinese against British ‘drunkard[s] and scoundrel[s]’,3 arguing that British seamen were at a disadvantage because of their alleged poor work ethic.

Continue reading ‘Industrious’ Chinese and British ‘Scoundrels’: Stereotypes of Asian and British Seamen in the 1908 Issues of The Seaman
  1. ‘A Carnival of Calumny: The Refuse of Labour’, The Seaman, 7/1 (May 1908), 2. []
  2. ‘Checking the Chinese: Some Consideration for British Sailors’, The Seaman, 4/1 (Feb. 1908), 3. []
  3. ‘A Carnival of Calumny’, 2. []

The Danish–English–Halle Mission (1706–1845) and its Connection to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge

My dissertation project is based on the relationship between the Lutheran–Pietist mission in Tranquebar (1706–1845) and similar locations, and the other Christian denominations, particularly the Roman Catholics, that also promoted their faith in southern India in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The first documented reference by a Lutheran to other Christians is found in the letters of Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (1682–1719), who was the first Pietist missionary to work in India and translated the Bible into Tamil. The German missionaries sent from Halle were able to establish themselves in Tranquebar thanks to the support of the Danish King, Frederick IV (1671–1730). Most of the Lutheran missionaries prepared for their missionary work at the educational institutions in Halle founded by August Hermann Francke (1663–1727). To explore this topic, I use the communications of the Tranquebar missionaries, which are known as the Halle Reports (Hallesche Berichte, 1710–72) and the New Halle Reports (Neue Hallesche Berichte, 1776–1848).

Continue reading The Danish–English–Halle Mission (1706–1845) and its Connection to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge