Empire Made Me

by Robert Bickers

'This is a biography of a nobody that offers a window into an otherwise closed world. It is a life which manages to touch us all...' Empire Made Me Shanghai in the wake of the First World War was one of the world's most dynamic, brutal and exciting cities - an incredible panorama of nightclubs, opium-dens, gambling and murder. Threatened from within by communist workers and from without by Chinese warlords and Japanese troops, and governed by an ever more desperate British-dominated administration, Shanghai was both mesmerising and terrible.Into this maelstrom stepped a tough and resourceful ex-veteran Englishman to join the police. It is his story, told in part through his rediscovered photo-albums and letters, that Robert Bickers has uncovered in this remarkable, moving book.

Genres: China, History, Biography, Nonfiction

410 pages, Paperback

First published January 26, 2003

About the author

Robert Bickers is Professor of History and Director of the 'Historical Photographs of China' project at the University of Bristol.

Reviews

[Arjen Taselaar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an extraordinary portrait of an English ex-soldier turned policeman in Shanghai, 1919. Maurice Tinkler was a low-ranking police officer whose career was not successful. A violent racist, he was untenable in the early 1930s. After a period as an almost homeless heavy drinker, he got a job as security officer and labour supervisor for a British industrial firm in Shanghai. Being in an area outside the International Settlement, the plant after 1937 was in Japanese-occupied territory, and it was by Japanese hands that Tinkler was killed in 1939. Empire was not kind to Tinkler, but what struck me most in this book is how much Tinkler comes to life and how incredibly credible this portrait of a very ordinary - though rather unsympathetic - man is, and how close his time comes to ours.

[Ian Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting history of the city of Shanghai and of British colonial policing methods. Professor Bickers does not however give ex-inspector Tinkler enough credit, portraying him as something of a low level imperialist brute. After leaving the police, Tinkler became head of security for a big British industrial firm. With Japanese efforts to influence Chinese politics by fomenting industrial unrest, Tinkler confronted a detachment of Japanese marines. When some junior executives tried to remonstrate, thus distracting him, the marines knocked his Mauser pistol away and clubbed and bayoneted him to the ground, then held him up for the officer to beat over the head with scabarded sword. The author also denies credit for Tinkler's artwork as a young soldier in the ww1 trenches, illustrated in the book. He does concede that Tinkler's photography, some of which is illustrated, was exceptional. An artistic student who became a teenage world war soldier, then imperial policemen, and who was later killed in quite valiant circumstances as a Shanghai security manager.

[Garry Nixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book whilst living and working in Shanghai. And it does that thing that the best of non-fiction does, it's almost a novel. Tinkler, the figure at the centre of the narrative, is not a sympathetic character, being a racist and a bully, but he is a compelling character. Some of his views, I'm sorry to say, made uncomfortable reading when living in the ex-pat community in Shanghai 70 years later, despite the intervening world war and revolution.

I would strongly recommend this story, especially to anyone who enjoyed JG Ballard's Empire of the Sun, this book being almost a prequel.

[julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, I finally finished the book. In the end, it was quite sad, even as unlikeable and racist Tinkler became. What ended up getting me through was the documentation of the rising presence of Chinese agitation and how the Communist and Kuomintang fighting changed Shanghai - and empire life there - irrevocably. It was a conscious decision of the author to use pidgin English and outdated spelling for place names and streets in Shanghai. For a reader outside of China this probably wouldn't matter, but to constantly in my head think "nanking = nanjing" or "Hongkew = Hongqiao" was distracting. But I did it because making the connection between Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s and the Shanghai of today was one of the more interesting aspects of reading the book.

Anyway, the book remains an insightful portrait of English empire told from an unusual perspective, of Shanghai and foreigners, of the rise of the Communist and Kuomintang ... but a bit of a slog. My lasting impression will be that while living abroad can expand one's experience and worldliness, it can also bring out more unappealing traits, like racism and anger. It's depressing that this fact hasn't changed much over the years, and I wonder if it ever will.

[Charles Inglin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Richard Maurice Tinkler was a member of the Shanghai Municipal Police in the 1920's and represents in many respects the men who made the British Empire and in turn were made what they were by the Empire. The author, through a meticulous study of Tinkler's letters, letters from his sister and one time fiance, records of the SMP, and other records, recreates the life of Tinkler, who fought in World War I, having lied about his age, then seeking work, applied for an was accepted by the SMP. He was a working class man, as were most of the British members of the police, which was composed of "foreigners" i.e. British, Sikhs recruited from India, Chinese, and White Russian refugees from the Revolution. The International Settlement in Shanghai was a peculiarity. It was not legally part of the British Empire, since it remained Chinese territory, but the Chinese had granted extraterritoriality to the multinational settlement, which was governed by the Shanghai Municipal Council, effectively controlled by the British. A sort of caste system existed, as it did throughout the empire, with the British ruling class on top and the natives on the bottom. Policemen, like Tinkler, occupied a place in the middle, considered socially inferior by the administrators and wealthy businessmen, and in their turn considering the Chinese and other non-Europeans to be their inferiors. Pay was adequate but not overly generous. Alcohol was freely available, including in the police station canteens. Corruption was endemic. It was not a situation to bring out the best in anyone. Tinkler, with an aptitude for languages, rose quickly to detective. He was by nature a bully and a racist. His racism extended not just to Asians, but to Russians, the Scots and the Irish. He wasn't terribly fond of Britain either and was drawn to America, adopting American slang and patterning himself after the hard-boiled characters in the detective fiction popular at the time. He had a fondness for nightlife and lived paycheck to paycheck. He was not a terribly likable person. Ultimately he was forced out of the police. After a short trip to the US he returned to Shanghai, finding a series of jobs, the last with the British textiles firm China Printing and Finishing, managing native labor. Unfortunately, Chinese nationalism was growing, the communists were fomenting labor problems, and the Japanese were taking control of Shanghai. Tinkler's ultimate undoing would foreshadow the demise of the Empire at the hands of colonial subjects who were no longer going to put up with being bullied.

[Joshua Marney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot, and its one of the most unique history books I have read. Ostensibly taking as its subject the life of a relatively unremarkable British policeman in Shanghai during the 1920s, the book is able to effectively discuss a wide range of issues.

[Tim Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing historical tale

In focusing on the life of one Englishman who went to Shanghai to join the interwar police force, the author has woven a fascinating look into colonial-era Shanghai and how it operated. Compelling reading.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating look at what it was like to be a white man (sorry for the sexism but that is the way of the early 20th century - it is hard to avoid) who was not in the charmed inner privileged circle of white men (again apologies for the sexism) flitting though clubs, bars, brothels and opium dens in fabulous white suiting and looking glamorously debauched as employed by major companies, all Western owned, earning bucket loads of cash that allowed you to live like an oriental despot (and that is what they expected to do because they were living in the 'orient') - but one of the 'other ranks' without whom so much of the British Empire, formal or informal, would not have been possible - particular in those places were the locals were:

'...new caught sullen peoples, half devil and half child...'

and it is a fascinating and important insight into the lives of all those others who '...took up the white man's burden...' I sweated and died but got very little cash, and even less respect from those who benefited from the Empire either at home or abroad. People like the subject of this fascinating biography, Maurice Tinkler, in the Shanghai police, through whom the life of men like him in the Empire is examined and the whole hypocrisy of the whole project revealed - particularly and glaringly in the way men like Tinkler were used but never accepted, or respected and certainly not valued simply used and discarded.

This probably makes this book sound like a didactic history - but it isn't and the letters that Tinkler sent home to his family and other documents provide a fascinating insight into the man and his times - it certainly humanizes and makes him real and, if he is not always a man it is easy to admire, he is a man of his times and very much formed by them. I must admit if I had ever had to deal with a fraction of the bullshit class attitudes that Tinkler and men like him had to put up with (and I must be honest that I would have been more likely to be the one giving that awful attitude then having to put up with it if I had lived back then - embarrassing to admit but we can't deny our roots) I think I would have been a far nastier person then he ever was.

Although as an Irishman I find it hard to believe that anyone can be so foolish as to think that Empire was anything but a bad idea - particularly for those who were subjects of the Empire (Neil Fergusson please note) - but anyone who has such foolish ideas should read this and understand the unattractive realities of Empire.

Splendid book, wonderful story and I am left with a great sympathy for poor Tinkler who may not have always been a likeable man but he was always a man you would be proud to have at your back in a serious, dangerous or unpleasant situation.

[L · Rating 2 out of 5]

原文3.5*，譯文 2*
- 佩服畢可思在檔案中重構一個普通在滬英籍警察以及所需時間與魄力，可說是用盡所有可用途徑把這個普通人面貌重塑出來，寫就一本英國鄉下仔憑白人身分在滬謀職記

- 即使是英格蘭、蘇格蘭或愛爾蘭來的警員，到上海都難免腐敗，雖然租界內有報紙，但亦有新聞審查（特別股下析新聞審查處，詳見 https://muse.jhu.edu/article/789838/s... ），對工部局權力難免有所忌憚（反倒是批評國民政府）。傳媒若能充分監察，能把黑暗面曝光，構成壓力，令警方行事可以得到監督，即使不能避免腐敗但也可以盡量減少。
- 「不會因為誠實就獲得特別的信任…每個人都認為偵探是『腐敗的』，除非他瘋了」（p. 113）
- 對上海租界時代習用事物的中文名調查，譯者還不是很純熟。舉例「法國城」應稱法租界、「中國偵探」一般稱華探等等，凡Chinese就譯中國，很不自然
- 在英招聘工部局警察時過於倉卒以至未能在品格上好好查核應徵者是否勝任，引致了後來巡捕、探長有若干品行問題，解僱的話又會造成流浪的洋人人口，必生事端
- 工部局過分關心帝國/白種人的名譽，而不允許警官在首張合約期內結婚和回國省親，更不允許在滬整段期間與華人結婚，影響士氣

- 赫德工作的地方是海關總稅務司，新中國建立的才是中國海關總署，譯者連最簡單的名字差別都不知道，毀了這部作品
- 環境改變了廷克勒的心態，以致對其他種族的人絲毫沒有同情心，因為他的人生已經與帝國(海外屬土等)的命運相結合，「沒有帝國就什麼都不是」(p. 174)，自然練精學懶
- 有些地方記得工部局最高負責人是費信惇，有些卻寫費森登(p. 175)，而且費信惇是總董/總裁，不是主席。嚴重懷疑是機器翻譯後沒有複檢。
- 廷克勒處理Kao Veng-mieu (高永苗)和Yung Foo (榮福)匯報美國總綁架案被指態度傲慢，甚至將報案人關起來，將他們「的腦袋往一起撞」(p. 191)，致1930年8月因在上班時酗酒而被降職為探長也就不足為怪了
- 衝動是害死廷克勒的最終原因，在浦東的一家工廠與日方對峙明知對方大軍壓境也要衝動行事，活該

- 譯筆頗差，為見字譯字式譯法，能看懂但絕不可說通暢易讀。總是在一詞多義下選了錯的詞義。「被」字句用得太多，甚至在應該用「獲」等正面字義的地方都用了「被」，看得很礙眼。
- 文革之盛遍及檔案館，租界工部局遺下的文件要蓋上「敵檔」章，令人惋惜
- 全書毫不介紹譯者金建是何人，令人對其資格生疑竇
- 滿洲和滿洲里明顯是兩個地方，卻也混淆(p. 220, 259)
- 譯者有意不把British Museum 譯成大英博物館，譯成英國博物館，有其考慮
- 編輯也沒有檢查明顯錯的同音近音字，如第三极>級、所有我>所以我、帝遮普省>旁遮普、法外治權>治外法權(法外治權甚至成了另一意思，很離譜)、吳鐵成>城(p. 221)、香港和上海銀行>滙豐(p. 235, 241等)
- 19世紀30年代末(想寫20世紀)，接著不久便提1934年，明顯是連世紀的用法也不會了，譯者和編輯是睡著了？
- China Hong List 稍查便知是中國行名錄/簿，Hong是商行的行不是紅色的紅
- 還有︰阿莫伊路 (應是廈門路) (p. 237, 241)、塞隆(應是錫蘭) (p. 243)、United Services (是三軍，不是聯合服務) (p. 243)、Richard Eves (不是伊文思，伊文思 Richard Evans 是1980及90年代的英國外交官)(p. 243)、曼達來(Mandalay應是曼德勒，後文卻有某處用對)(p. 243)、外交部長(應是大臣) (p. 322)、Seremban (應是芙容市，不是色萊姆本) (p. 338)

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating insight into one man's life in the turmoil of the mid 20th century that is well written and explained without dumbing anything down. Its books like this that really bring history to life and shows you the wider picture when it comes to the effect the Empire had ion its own subjects as much as the Empire itself. I've always been fascinated by Shanghai and its role in the 20th Century before during and after the war and I got a lot from this book in terms of daily life for an ex-pat Shanghai policeman.