Review | Book review: In the Land of Pagodas – Canton and Hong Kong through the eyes of a 19th century French charmer

In the Land of Pagodas: A Classic Account of Travel in Hong Kong, Macao, Shanghai, Hubei, Hunan and Guizhou

by Alfred Raquez (edited and translated by William L. Gibson and Paul Bruthiaux)

Nordic Institute of Asian Studies

4 stars

On September 1, 1898, a mysterious Frenchman stepped off a riverboat, and began a new life in Canton, now known as Guangzhou. A bright, educated 30-something, he soon expanded his social circle from largely Catholic missionary introductions and then charmed his way to good addresses in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and then on a mining expedition up the Yangtze to Guizhou.

He recorded his eight-month trip in a diary and from it in 1900 published his first book, Au Pays des Pagodes, under the pseudonym “Alfred Raquez”. Like many other contemporary memoirs, the book gathered pixels in the public domain, until the Jakarta-based American author William Gibson invited Chiang Mai-based translator Paul Bruthiaux to help him research the author’s work more deeply.