RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 59 prevail elsewhere, and some of the descriptions held good for the whole of China. But,' continued Mesny, 'China is a large Empire, and General Tcheng was too young when he left China for Europe to have seen much of his own country. He was no doubt much better acquainted with Parisian manners and customs than with many manners and customs which prevail in many parts of the Chinese Empire. Nevertheless, his book deserves to be read more than once, even by me, who have seen so much more of China and the Chinese than General Tcheng has so far. Had I the literary qualifications of the writer of Les Chinois, Peints par Eux-memes, I could write at least a dozen such books on China and the Chinese without exhausting the stock of information I have acquired during my forty-four years' residence in the country. I have been treated in some parts of China much the same as General Tcheng was treated in Paris,' The Miscellany probably just about paid its way though from the occasional note of sadness though not despair which appears from time to time, Mesny must have continued more for the desire to make a living and perhaps also to keep his name before the public eye rather than to earn a fortune. It was by no means smooth going and at times he must have upset individuals and even groups such as the announcement he made in July 1899 that his Miscellany was being boycotted by the press, bankers, insurance and shipping agencies and by shopkeepers. He bemoaned the fact [Volume II, Issue 28: Sep 1896] that the loss on the first year's publication was over $2,000. Several times in the course of his Miscellanies Mesny repeats a disclosure of a titbit of news or political scandal to prove that he was first and that the North China Daily News and the Shanghai Mercury had simply copied his original scoop without attribution. A number of magazines were being published around this time on the China Coast such as The East of Asia Magazine, printed and published by the North China Herald Office in Shanghai, a quarterly illustrated consisting of essays on topical subjects such as Chinese customs and superstitions, gems of Chinese poetry, bits of Fukien travel, Ningpo under the T'ai-ping's, etc mostly written by reasonably well known people. It only ran for a couple of years. Another was Social Shanghai, a monthly glossy journal relating western social happenings mostly in Shanghai but in a few instances referring to the outports. It consisted of the usual society articles, including births, deaths and marriages, the races, and lengthy pieces about the Shanghai Volunteer Corps. This ran ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 61 November 1862 1863 March 1863 May 1864 April 1864 1864-1865 1867 Winter 1867 his junk and three others Captured at Fu-shan-chan by Taiping rebels. Mesny held first in Soochow and Chang-shu, then at Pao-ying the Taiping camp, and finally in Nanking Rescued by Adkins, the British Consul at Chin-kiang aboard HMS Slaney and taken back to Chin-kiang Joined Chinese Imperial Customs Service, Hankow Resigned from Customs Service after fourteen months Involved in cotton broking Established the Hankow Horse Bazaar, a private hotel in Hankow, and set up Hupei Iron and Brassworks, Han-yang Romantic interlude with a Chinese widow in Hankow Mesny called on Tso Tsung-tang during the latter's visit to Hankow and was appointed his French and English Secretary, and was further offered the opportunity to accompany Tso on his campaign to the Northwest. Mesny also claimed that he had made recommendations to Marquis Tso Tsung-tang for a number of undertakings to help modernise China Sold the Huper Iron and Brassworks to officials of the Viceroy of Szechuan province Mesny's trek to war 1868 June Late July or early August Late August September Left Hankow, after five year's residence, for Szechuan to become a drill instructor with the Szechuan Force Arrived Chungking Departed Chungking for Kueichou to join the Szechuan Force suppressing the Miao rebellion: he accepted employment as a military instructor (wu-chiao hsi) Arrived Niu-ch'ang, the headquarters of the Szechuan Force in Kueichou September 1868-May 1874 Involved in the military campaigns to suppress the Miao The Advance: Late Summer 1868-March 1869 1869 Promoted Colonel, awarded the Star of China and the Flowery Plume The Retreat: Summer 1869-Summer 1870 1870/1871 1871 1872 Helped form a joint stock company in Kuei-yang to "recover mercury" The Withdrawal: mid-August 1870-Lunar New Year 1871 ca 1873 1873 1874 Spring Established a small day school for poor boys and girls in the Jade Emperor temple in Kuei-yang, importing suitable books and paying a Chinese teacher, a struggling student painter, Chin Yü-t'ang Siege of Hsin-ch'eng in upper Kueichou (Mesny involved in preparations for the siege during 1871) Went to Szechuan with General Chou Ta-wu Promoted Major-General and awarded the Ying-yung Pa-t'u-lu Left Kueichou for Szechuan: Margary expected to meet Mesny in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 47 Meredith, George (1956), ‘An Essay on Comedy,’ Comedy, John Hopkins University Press. Minchin, James (1986) No Man is an Island, A Study of Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, Allen and Unwin. Muir, Frank (1990), The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose, From William Caxton to P.G. Wodehouse, a Conducted Tour, Oxford University Press. Orwell, George (1945), 'The Art of Donald McGill,' Collected Essays, Mercury Books No 17. Pan, Lynn (1990), Sons of the Yellow Emperor: The Story of the Overseas Chinese, Secker and Warburg. The Penguin Book of Modern Humour (1982), A personal anthology selected by Alan Coren, Penguin. Peters, Arnold (1998, September 25), 'Racist Remarks at Legco.' Hong Kong Standard. 'Pharaoh's thigh-slapper' (c.1998), South China Morning Post, extracted from The Sunday Times (London), exact date not known. Popular Chinese Jokes (1994), ed. Tian Hengyu, Asiapac, Singapore. Potter, Stephen (1954), The Sense of Humour, Penguin. Rosser, Nigel (1990, March 4), ‘Lucy Sheen, Actress,’ South China Morning Post magazine. Selected Jokes from Past Chinese Dynasties (1997) Sinolingua, Beijing, vols 1 to 4. Smith, Arthur H. (1988), Pearls of Wisdom from China, Graham Brash, Singapore, first published 1888. ================================================================================