One of my favourite literary genres
is travel reports by chic English ladies in really rough areas. Among
some of the best works in this genre, the 1929 book “an English
Lady in Chinese Turkestan” really stands out (not in the last place
because of its wonderfully straightforward title). As one might
expect, this book relates the story of an English lady spending time
in Chinese Turkestan. The lady in question is Mrs. Macartney, who
left England on the 6th of October 1898 to live in the
ancient Northern Silk Route City Kashgar, to live by the side of her
husband, who worked at the English Consulate in the city (and who sis
eventually promoted to Consul General in 1910).
What I particularly like about this
book is that Lady Macartney manages to build a comfortable English
upper middle class household in such a remote place. The family
breakfasts with buttered toast, and she even manages to serve cake,
despite quite some culinary difficulties:
“Cooking in Kashgar meant a great
deal more work than it does at home, for everything must be prepared
from the very beginning. To make a cake, for instance, cream must be
bought, and made into butter; flour sifted and dried, sugar pounded
in a mortar and sifted; almonds shelled, blanched and pounded, etc.,
before the real cake making began”.
Despite the conditions that are
unarguably rather averse to English cuisine, she doesn't let her
standards fall (I would probably desist blanching almonds at the
first sight of difficulty), and after a while it is decided to stop
buying cream at the store altogether, and just buy some cows for the
sake of better quality milk:
“We very soon found that we must
keep a cow of our own, for the milk from the bazaar had such an
unpleasant taste. The natives would mix sheep's milk with cow's, and
the horrible flavour of the sheep could not be covered by the
strongest tea or coffee.”
Even with the added care of keeping
cows (or rather: having more servants to care for the cows), she
keeps the household going.
Next to the focus on housekeeping
difficulties, another interesting part of the book is the description
she gives of the Western social circle in Kashgar. The Brits,
Americans, Swedes and Dutch that live in Kashgar would probably not
have formed a close circle of friends had they lived in a Western
city; the high diplomatic officials mingle with people of
considerably lower social standing, such as the Dutch Roman-Catholic
priest Hendricks (“a quaint figure, dressed in a dirty Chinese coat
and dilapidated black clerical hat”) who lives in the rougher parts
of Kashgar and is one of the closest friends of the Macartney family.
For however large social differences may seem in the West; these turn
out to be quite small indeed when surrounded by many people of a
culture so very different from your own.
And these different cultures form a
large part of the book as well; for, being the wife of a high ranking
diplomatic official, Lady Macartney frequently has to entertain
Russian and Chinese guests, and likewise attend their social
gatherings. With which she has considerable difficulty; the Russians
are described as rather prone to drinking at such events (“By the
time the dinner was halfway through, many of the guests were
decidedly lively (…) and before it was over, some had disappeared
beneath the table”), and she often brings a jar of mustard to
Chinese dinners to cover the taste of some of the more advanced
dishes. The interactions with the 'natives' from the area (the
Kirgiz, Uyghur, Tibetans, Ladaki et cetera) are generally
limited to the ones in the employ as servants.
This whole social setting of upper
middle class life has a certain romantic appeal (though I'm not
certain why exactly), and this is further accentuated by the
occasional 'wind in the willows' style of prose:
“At night, the garden was filled
with exquisite music that, at first, puzzled me until I found out
that it came from swarms of frogs hopping all over the paths. They
were fascinating to watch. Mr. Frog hopped along, singing out in a
tenor voice: “Diddle-diddle”, and from a distance a treble voice
answered: “Diddle, diddle, diddle”. Away hopped the gentleman in
the direction of the voice, and towards him hopped the lady. They met
and sat side by side singing a duet in thirds, their throats swelling
out like tiny balloons.”
Apart from this romanticism, Lady
Macartney gives an interesting portrayal of Central Asia in the 19th
and early 20th century. She relates the family's
experiences during the Xinhai Revolution (1911 – 1912), which
resulted in the overthrow of Chinese Imperial rule. This is a
particularly unnerving event, and Lady Macartney's account gives an
insight in the people who were victims of this revolution; “the
poor old Tao-tai (…), his wife and the Hsien-Kuan”, and many
other members of the old government (along with their families) who
were murdered.
In one of the first chapters, Lady
Macartney explains the British interests in Chinese Turkestan; which
at the time of her arrival lie mainly in maintaining it as a neutral
buffer state against expansionism by the Russian Empire, thus
protecting British India. This fear of Russian expansionism was also
a motivation for the British Expedition to Tibet (1903 - 1904), which
was led by Captain Younghusband (later to become Lieutenant Colonel
Sir Francis Younghusband), in whose company Mr. Macartney first
arrived in Kashgar. This expedition is one marked by several
massacres of poorly armed Tibetan soldiers at the hands (or rather:
the modern machine guns) of the British, in perceived defence of an
empire begotten in the first place through cold blooded murder. Lady
Macartney's rather businesslike description of these politics reminds
one of the dark side of the romantic appeal of English upper middle
class life in Central Asia, and by extension that nostalgia for the
colonies, the empire or any tempo
doeloe is always tainted by inequality and murder.
Despite the sinister thought of the British empire in the background, the book has really made me want to visit Kashgar. And, who knows, when there I might even blanch some almonds.
Despite the sinister thought of the British empire in the background, the book has really made me want to visit Kashgar. And, who knows, when there I might even blanch some almonds.