The Making of China’s Post Office: Sovereignty, Modernization, and the Connection of a Nation

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Weipin Tsai

The Making of China’s Post Office

Sovereignty, Modernization, and the Connection of a Nation

Weipin Tsai

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English

Harvard University Press
20 February 2024

Asian history; Social & cultural history; Media, information & communication industries

Series: Harvard East Asian Monographs

The Making of China's Post Office traces the origins and early development of the country's modern postal system. Sweeping in perspective, it goes beyond the bounds of institutional history to explore the political maneuverings, economic imperatives, and societal pressures both inhibiting and driving forward postal development. Although its prime mover was Robert Hart, Inspector General of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, the wider cast of characters includes foreign and native staff, Qing officials, local administrations, commercial interests, and foreign governments.

Drawing extensively on archival material from the Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing, the Tianjin Municipal Archives, and the Archive of Queen's University Belfast, Weipin Tsai contextualizes the making of the post office within the country's long and contested path of modernization, bringing Chinese voices to the fore. Tsai illustrates the extent to which local agency shaped the design and development of the service as it expanded from experimental coastal operation into China's interior and on to its border periphery, the first nationwide modernization project to directly impact people's daily lives. Ultimately, the grand spatial reach of the Post Office carried significant symbolic meaning in relation to sovereignty for the Qing government and for later Republican administrations.

By: Weipin Tsai
Imprint: Harvard University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 28mm
Weight: 1.066kg
ISBN: 9780674295889
ISBN 10: 0674295889
Series: Harvard East Asian Monographs
Pages: 450
Publication Date: 20 February 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Weipin Tsai is Senior Lecturer in Modern Chinese History at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Reviews for The Making of China’s Post Office: Sovereignty, Modernization, and the Connection of a Nation

An important and original contribution to our understanding of the late-Qing state…filled with [the author’s] wonderful analytical insights into archival sources…essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the late-Qing state, the role of powerful foreigners in its transformation, and the government’s momentous decision to establish a national postal service as an arm of an expansionist state. -- Lane J. Harris * China Quarterly *