Search results for ""Author John D. Meehan""

Canadians share a long history with China. Canada is home to a large Chinese diaspora, it appointed a trade commissioner to Shanghai over a century ago, and it was one of the first Western nations to recognize the People’s Republic of China.This absorbing account of Canadian sojourners in Shanghai, from the arrival of Lord Elgin in 1858 to the closing of the consulate general in 1952, gives a human face to that history. Some Canadians came to save souls, nourish bodies, and educate minds; others sought financial and political gain. Their experiences – which unfolded against a backdrop of civil war, invasion, and revolution in China and were coloured by Canada’s evolution from colony to nation – reflected Canada’s deepening relationship with China and the troubling asymmetries that underpinned it.Although Canadians, like other foreigners, had left Shanghai by the early 1950s, their lives and activities foreshadowed more recent Canadian initiatives in that city, and in China more generally.

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The Dominion and the Rising Sun is the first major study ofCanada’s diplomatic arrival in Japan and, by extension, EastAsia. It examines the political, economic, and cultural relationsforged during this seminal period between the foremost power in Asiaand the young dominion tentatively establishing itself in worldaffairs. The book begins with the opening in 1929 of the Canadian legation inTokyo -- Canada’s third such office overseas -- and concludeswith the outbreak of hostilities in 1941. Primarily a diplomatichistory, the book also assesses the impact of traders, interest groups,and missionaries on Canadian attitudes toward Japan during the interwaryears. More fundamentally, it examines Canada’s diplomatic comingof age closely, revealing its important Pacific dimension and thetension between Canada’s commitment to peace and its trade withan aggressor.

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