Baark examines the transfer of telegraph technology to China in
the late nineteenth century. He shows how the initial Chinese
rejection of the telegraph as an inconvenient technology
contributed to violent conflicts between foreigners and the
Chinese, but that this resistence gradually gave way to an
assimilation of the telegraph into Chinese society.
The transfer and assimilation of advanced technology has been an
important challenge for China's modernization for more than a
century. Baark examines some of the dilemmas faced by Chinese
modernizers of the "yangwu" (Western affairs) movement from the
1860s to the 1890s. Telegraph technology emerged in the West on the
basis of scientific discoveries in electricity in the early
nineteenth century, and was greeted with enthusiasm by governments
and the public alike.
The Chinese attitudes to the telegraph, however, were informed
by entirely different political and cultural priorities. Baark
examines the tensions which existed between the Chinese and the
foreign companies seeking to extend telegraph technology to East
Asian cities, and he shows how the domestic network was shaped by
indigenous social and cultural forces. This book will be of
considerable interest to historians of modern China, technology,
and economic development.
General
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