A Dance with the Dragon

With its fossil hunters and philosophers, diplomats, dropouts, writers and explorers, missionaries and refugees, Peking's foreign community in the early 20th century was as exotic as the city itself. Always a magnet for larger than life individuals, Peking attracted characters as diverse as Reginald Johnston (tutor to the last emperor), Bertrand Russell, Pierre Loti, Rabrindranath Tagore, Sven Hedin, Peter Fleming, Wallis Simpson and Cecil Lewis. The last great capital to remain untouched by the modern world, Peking both entranced and horrified its foreign residents. Ignoring the poverty outside their gates, they danced, played and squabbled among themselves, oblivious to the great political events that were to shape modern China unfolding around them. This is a dazzling portrait of an eclectic foreign community and of China itself.

Julia Boyd worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum before accompanying her diplomat husband on various foreign postings. An accomplished researcher, she has published a number of books including Hannah Riddell: An Englishwoman in Japan, and A Dance with the Dragon: the Vanished World of Peking's Foreign Colony.

List of plates
Acknowledgements
Note on Chinese Spelling
Prologue
1. Boxers v. Barbarians
2. Clearing up
3. Retrospect
4. Imperial Sunset
5. Changing China
6. Republican Dreams
7. War
8. Peking Joins Up
9. Professors and Prophets
10. Picnics and Ponies
11. Russians Red and White
12. Nanking Interlude
13. Dragon Bone Hunters
14. Gathering Menace
15. Last Days of Paradise
16. After the Party
17. End Game
Archival Sources
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index