The ‘English Experience’ among the humblest Chinese in the Canton Trade Era (1700s-1842)

This article contextualizes the unusual experience of Whang at Tong, the Chinese boy who was brought by John Bradby Blake from Canton to England, against a wider background of 18th and 19th century Canton where a considerable number of Chinese made a living from foreign trade. Referencing various source and circumstantial materials, I suggest that prior to his first departure for England, Whang at Tong had already been exposed to an English-Chinese environment in which he was able to make a living by being an in-between person, perhaps also picking up some English with a few English-learning kits. He might have benefited from existing foreign knowledge circulated in Canton when he was young; he might also have contributed to the enhancement of this pool of knowledge after he returned home from England in the 1780s. The experiences of Whang at Tong thus open a window to reconsider how cultural encounters between East and West could have taken place, including especially among ordinary people on a daily basis.