116
CARL T. SMITH
Mrs. Andersen was one of the founders of the Chinese Red Cross Society, serving as its first Vice President. In recognition, the Chinese Emperor granted her a large honorary board. Their only daughter, K. Ruth Andersen, married in 1905, Donald R. McEuen, son of a former Captain superintendent of Police at Shanghai.
A younger daughter of Chan Lai-sun married a businessman, Mr. W. Buchanan, presumably the same as listed in the 1884 Chronicle and Directory of China as a land agent and broker with J. P. Bisset and Co. of Shanghai.
This, then, is a record of a Chinese family living in a marginal situation. Both Lai-sun and his wife were born in Southeast Asian overseas Chinese communities. Both in childhood became caught up in English language missionary education, which served to further alienate them from Chinese tradition. Lai-sun started his career as a missionary assistant, but to make better provision for his growing family turned to business, associating himself with foreign businessmen, not as compradore but as assistant and partner. However, the very fact of his marginal background qualified him, as a member of Li Hung-chang's staff, to make a particular contribution to China's developing relations with foreign powers. His children received a solid western-style education. Of the two sons who grew to maturity, one was an engineer the other a journalist, and both for a part of their career served the Chinese government. The daughters left the Chinese community, but the eldest took her place in public life as a founder of the Chinese Red Cross.
This partial reconstruction of the life history of one China Coast family is perhaps more than a mere historical exercise in reconstructing a family history from scattered sources. It can also be viewed as an illustration of the social processes at work in creating a distinctive culture in the port cities of China, including Hong Kong.
116
CARL T. SMITH
Mrs. Andersen was one of the founders of the Chinese Red Cross Society, serving as its first Vice President. In recognition, the Chinese Emperor granted her a large honorary board. Their only daughter, K. Ruth Andersen, married in 1905, Donald R. McEuen, son of a former Captain superintendent of Police at Shanghai.
A younger daughter of Chan Lai-sun married a businessman, Mr. W. Buchanan, presumably the same as listed in the 1884 Chronicle and Directory of China as a land agent and broker with J. P. Bisset and Co. of Shanghai.
This, then, is a record of a Chinese family living in a marginal situation. Both Lai-sun and his wife were born in Southeast Asian overseas Chinese communities. Both in childhood became caught up in English language missionary education, which served to further alienate them from Chinese tradition. Lai-sun started his career as a missionary assistant, but to make better provision for his growing family turned to business, associating himself with foreign businessmen, not as compradore but as assistant and part- ner. However, the very fact of his marginal background qualified him, as a member of Li Hung-chang's staff, to make a particular contribution to China's developing relations with foreign powers. His children received a solid western-style education. Of the two sons who grew to maturity, one was an engineer the other a jour- nalist, and both for a part of their career served the Chinese govern- ment. The daughters left the Chinese community, but the eldest took her place in public life as a founder of the Chinese Red Cross.
This partial reconstruction of the life history of one China Coast family is perhaps more than a mere historical exercise in recon- structing a family history from scattered sources. It can also be viewed as an illustration of the social processes at work in creat- ing a distinctive culture in the port cities of China, including Hong Kong.
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