Tsingtao

Former western postal name of Qingdao, China a major seaport, naval base, and industrial centre on the Shandong Peninsula on the Yellow Sea. China conceded the area to Germany in 1898, and the Kiautschou Bay concession, as it became known, existed from 1898 to 1914.

After a minor British naval attack on the German colony in 1914, Japan occupied the city and the surrounding province during the Siege of Tsingtao after Japan's declaration of war on Germany in accordance with the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. The failure of the Allied powers to restore Chinese rule to Shandong after the war triggered the May Fourth Movement. The city reverted to Chinese rule in December, 1922, under control of the Republic of China. The city became a direct-controlled municipality of the Chinese Government in 1929. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry visited the port between July 29th and 1st August 1927 on his voyage to the Far East aboard the Pyrrhus. Lowry arrived from Dairen before sailing onto Keelung.

Lowry refers to the port in his novel Ultramarine; "He was thinking of the first time he had seen Andy in the booth, where he had been talking about a girl at Tsintao, on the bathing beach there." (Pg. 25); "A white motor boat came curtsying out of the harbour, rolling nearer and nearer: as she rounded the stern of the Oedipus Tyrannus her name was visible, Mabel-Tsintao." (Pg. 28); "In Tsintao I defrauded a Chinaman of a bottle of Batavian arak, weeping afterwards, when he refused publicly, to shake hands with me." (Pg. 93/94) and " 'Aw, you mean Tsintao, boy' ' No, I don't mean Tsintao' 'E means Tsintao all the bloody same.' (Pg. 161).

Stan Hugill in his book recalls the sailortown area of Tsingtao:

Tsingtao, in China, having been taken over by the Japanese after the First world war, was in these days very Japanese in character, although the imprint of its previous owner, Germany- with a dash of Russian, and a bottom layer of China - was also present. In the early thirties it was quite a busy port and consequently had many drinking dives fro seamen. The first one, outside the dock gates, was the Port Lunch. Up the Kuan Hsieh and Liao Cheng Roads stood many more , with brothels in Lin Hsing Road. Here we give some of the better known of these joints: cafe Ginza, the Korean Bar, Sapporo Cabaret, Slick's Bar, Jimmy's Bar, Bright Eyes, Kismet, the St. France, the Kiharu Baru, and the New Bluejacket Bar.

In the Lin Hsing Road were the 'cages' with Japanese joro gazing outwards while they knitted, embroidered, or chatted to each other. Korean kisnangs or Geisha, all of whom, unlike Japanese Geisha, were harlots, were also to be found in houses in this street. (Sailortown Pg.332).

Foochow

Former name of Fuzhou the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. Fuzhou became one of the five Chinese treaty ports following the 1842 peace treaty which concluded the First Opium War, becoming completely open to Western merchants and missionaries. It declined in importance due to the sand bars and shallows in the Min River delta on which it is built. However, it was still an important regional port until World War II. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry visited the port between 6th August and 7th August 1927 on his voyage to the Far East aboard the Pyrrhus. Lowry arrived from Keelung before sailing onto Manila. Lowry made no reference to the port in his works or letters.

Manchuria

Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast China. This region is the traditional homeland of the Xianbei, Khitan, and Jurchen peoples, who built several dynasties in northern China. The region is also the home of the Manchus, after whom Manchuria is named. Japan replaced Russian influence in the southern half of Inner Manchuria as a result of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904–1905. Most of the southern branch of the Chinese Eastern Railway was transferred from Russia to Japan, and became the South Manchurian Railway. Japanese influence extended into Outer Manchuria in the wake of the Russian Revolution of 1917, but Outer Manchuria had reverted to Soviet control by 1925. Manchuria was an important region for its rich mineral and coal reserves, and its soil is perfect for soy and barley production. For pre–World War II Japan, Manchuria was an essential source of raw materials.

Lowry visited at least one port in Manchuria during his 1927 Voyage to the Far east - Dairen. Lowry refers to the area in his novel Ultramarine as his ship approaches Dairen; "Once he saw him level his binoculars at the coast of Manchuria, a mile or so to port." (Pg.23).

Cathay

The Fra Mauro map. Part of China. 1459

Cathay is the Anglicized version of "Catai" and an alternative name for China in English. It originates from the word Khitan, the name of a nomadic people who founded the Liao Dynasty which ruled much of Northern China from 907 to 1125, and who had a state of their own (Kara-Khitan Khanate) centered around today's Kyrgyzstan for another century thereafter.

Originally, Catai was the name applied by Central and Western Asians and Europeans to northern China; it obtained wide currency in Europe after the publication of Marco Polo's book (he referred to southern China as Manji). For centuries Cathay and China were believed by Europeans to be distinct nations with distinct cultures. However, by the late 1600s Europeans had mostly become aware that these were in fact the same nation.


Lowry uses the word in his novel Under The Volcano to describe Hugh's trip to the Far East; "Hugh himself, not knowing whether he voyaged east or west.......set sail for Cathay and the brothels of Palambang." Pg. 163

Yellow Sea

The Yellow Sea is the name given to the northern part of the East China Sea, which is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It is located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula. Its name comes from the sand particles from Gobi Desert sand storms that turn the surface of the water golden yellow. In Korea, the sea is sometimes called the West Sea.

Lowry would have sailed through the Yellow Sea en route to Dairen on his 1927 voyage to the Far East. Lowry refers to the sea in his first novel Ultramarine; "refuse was splashing from her rusty side into the Yellow Sea." (Pg. 24); "yellow sea of his consciousness?" (Pg. 25) and later the crew of the Oedipus Tyrannus discover a pigeon out the sea; "I wonder why it had a message from Swansea round its leg. It makes you think, that, doesn't it? In the Yellow Sea." (Pg. 33); "The Yellow Sea........and all of the seventy-seven seas, and more than seas, lie between us." (Pg. 133); and "Well we were in the Yeller Sea and a typhoon comes on and we was an empty ship and suddenly we see this old cow of a junk." (Pg. 174) . Lowry's poem 'The Glory of the Sea' is dated Yellow Sea August 1927.

Chinese Labour Corps.

The Chinese Labour Corps was a force of workers nearly 100,000 strong recruited by the British government in World War I to support the troops by performing support work and manual labour. 

In 1916, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig requested that 21,000 labourers be recruited to fill the manpower shortage caused by casualties during World War I. As China was initially not a belligerent nation, her nationals were not allowed by their government to participate in the fighting - although the Chinese later declared war against Germany and Austria–Hungary, on 14 August 1917. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the Corps in a derogatory/racist manner in his first novel Ultramarine; "We'll put you in the Chinese Labour Corps. The order of the rising sun - tee hee! - for promiscuous gallantry." (Pg.112).

H.M.S. Proteus

H.M.S. Emerald at Shanghai June 1927

Lowry refers to a British Warship named H.M.S Proteus in his short story 'China' whose crew play cricket with the merchant seamen of the narrator's ship in Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War in 1927. The ship is called H.M.S. Proteus.

To date, the only ship with that name I have found was a Parthian-class submarine designed and built by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering in Barrow-in-Furness for the Royal Navy, and launched on 22 August 1929. Like other submarines in her class she served in China before the war. But this would have been after Lowry was in the Far East aboard the Blue Funnel line ship Pyrrhus. Nor does this fit with Lowry's description of the ship in the story; "We were moored nose on to the English battle-cruiser, H.M.S. Proteus". Blue Funnel line boats usually moored across the Yangste River at the Butterfield and Swire berths opposite the Bund.

Ships across the river at Shanghai 1927

One intriguing possibility is that Lowry may have seen a British Pathe news item about the launch of H.M.S. Proteus in 1929 while he was writing the story which may have provided the name and link to China.

Hoellischer Proteus

Lowry also may have been alluding to Greek mythology - Proteus is an early sea-god, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea". Some who ascribe to him a specific domain call him the god of "elusive sea change," which suggests the constantly changing nature of the sea or the liquid quality of water in general. Read more on Wikipedia

However, further research has shown that during the period when Lowry would have been in Shanghai in late June1927 (he was definitely in Singapore on June 1927 en route to Shanghai - the Royal Navy would have had several ships from the "China Station" at Shanghai in response to the  crisis caused by the Chinese Civil War. You can see another news item on British Pathe news about the ships at Shanghai.

I have managed to find a full list of the ships from all nations which participated in the response according to the Times Naval Correspondent for 4th June 1927:


GREAT BRITAIN - Hawkins (flagship), Emerald (cruisers); Keppel (flotilla leader); Petersfield (minesweeper), Cockchafer, Cricket, Mantis, Widgeon (gunboats); Wishart (destroyer) ; and at Woosung, Despatch (cruiser) and Argus (aircraft-carrier); total 11.

UNITED STATES - Pittsburg (flagship), Richmond (flagship) (cruisers) ; Bulmer, Hart, Noa, Parrott, Paul Jones, Pillsbury, Pope, Preble, Preston, Pruitt, Truxton (destroyers); Black Hawk (destroyer tender); Elcano (gunboat); Chaumont and Henderson (transports); and at Woosung, Marblehead (cruiser) ; total, 18.

JAPAN - Tone (flagship), Hirado, Tenryu, Yahagi, Yakurno (cruisers); Kashi, Take (destroyers); Torpedo-boats 10, 16, 18; Seta, Toba (gunboats); Tsurumi (oiler); total, 13.

FRANCE - Jules Michelet (cruiser, flagship), Cassiopee, Craonne, Marne (dispatch vessels); total, 4.

PORTUGAL - Republica (sloop).

SPAIN - Blas de Lezo (cruiser).

ITALY - Libia (cruiser); E Carlotto (gunboat); Volta (submarine depot) total, 3.

There is no "Proteus" among the list. The only British cruiser was the Emerald. Given the number of ships at Shanghai - it is possible that the ships were "nose" to "nose" as described by Lowry in his 'China' story.

According to Times Naval Correspondent, a further 2 British cruisers - Durban and Vindictive - where upstream from Shanghai at Hankow. By coincidence, the crew of the Durban had a cricket team and played a match at Hankow Race Course on 11th June 1927.

For further details - see H.M.S Durban, China Station, 1926-28

The above details demonstrate that there was considerable naval activity in Shanghai during Lowry's visit which probably inspired the mention of the cricket match in his short story.

Lowry refers to the same incident in his novel Ultramarine in which he calls the ship H.M.S Danae.

Broken Blossoms 1919

Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl is a 1919 silent film directed by D.W. Griffith. It was distributed by United Artists and premiered on May 13, 1919. It stars Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess and Donald Crisp, and tells the story of young girl, Lucy Burrows, who is abused by her alcoholic prizefighting father, Battling Burrows, and meets Cheng Huan, a kind-hearted Chinese man who falls in love with her. It is based on Thomas Burke's short story 'The Chink and the Child' from the 1916 collection Limehouse Nights.

Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry held this film in high esteem; "I see it as one of the greatest and most moving films of all time, one that is also a return to a great tradition of the movies, something that should combine the emotional impact of Griffith's Broken Blossoms and Isn't Life Wonderful." Collected Letters Vol 2 Pg. 171 ; "Signs along the street mocked at him: Business as usual during alterations: Broken Blossoms: Dead End: No cover at any time. World's loveliest girls. Larger, more modern. He waved them aside" Lunar Caustic. 


You can watch the whole film here:

Bertram Martin Adams (Bill Adams) 1879–1953

Like Bill Adams I came fresh to sea life from an English public school where I wore a tophat and carried a silver topped cane. 'China'

Lowry appears to have been an avid reader of sea stories before he went to sea in 1927. It is easy to see why Lowry would identify himself with Bill Adams who had gone off to sea himself at 17 as had Lowry at the same age in 1927. Bill Adams also used his sea experiences as a source of inspiration for his writing. Similarly, Lowry used his experiences from his Far East voyage in 1927 for his early short stories 'China', 'Port Swettenham' and later his first novel Ultramarine.

Bill Adams would have also appealed to a young Lowry with his mentions of windjammers, Liverpool and the Mersey.

Bill Adams was born in England to American parents. He left college to go to sea at age seventeen in a career that lasted four or five years and logged seven passages around Cape Horn. Before his sailing career was ended by ill health, he had attained the rank of mate. After retiring from the sea, he lived in the San Francisco area, where he became involved in the socialist movement and found inspiration in Jack London’s writings of the sea. In 1921 Adams began a modest literary career of his own, culminating in 1937 with an autobiography, Ships and Women.

His early sea stories were collected in Fenceless Meadows (1923), and he published a volume of sea verse, Wind in the Topsails, in 1923. In the late 1920s and early 1930s he published several good sea stories. Although they appeared in such excellent magazines as The Atlantic Monthly and Esquire, and there were enough for another volume of stories, he never collected them. At least three of his stories appeared in O. Henry collections of best short stories of the year: 'Jukes' (1927), 'Home Is the Sailor' (1928), and 'The Lubber' (1933). 'The Foreigner' appeared in Best Short Stories of America (1932). As ex- pressions of his socialist values, his stories often celebrate the lives of working sailors, and they are notable for their frequent inclusion of sea songs.

Many of his poems were previously published in magazines such as Adventure, The Outlook, Pictorial Review, The Saturday Evening Post, Short Stories, McCure's, Premier, London, Neptune's Log, Hearst's International and Blue Peter.

Blue Peter

Launched in July 1921, The Blue Peter: The Magazine of Sea Travel published maps, historical articles, short fiction, and features on ships - merchant sailing ships, passenger liners, excursion steamers, steamships, yachts, luxury steam yachts and motor cruisers - both the famous and not so well known, and articles on voyages, naval subjects, travel, and yarns of the sea, etc. Edited by A.M. and Frederick Arthur Hook, whose other publications included Merchant Adventurers, 1914-1918 (1920), Sail: The Romance of the Clipper Ships(1929), and Eastwards (1929). Photo-illustrations throughout, with full-colour advertisements and reproductions of paintings of sailing ships, it was to be found in the saloons of numerous passengers ships of the day. Published in London, price 1/-. Succeeded in May 1939 by The Trident.

Lowry refers to reading the magazine in his first novel Ultramarine; "or reading The Blue Peter" (Pg. 111) "The copy of the Blue Peter on top of my heaped clothes" (Pg. 133). A possible source for many nautical references in Lowry's work and his knowledge of Joseph Conrad and Bill Adams whose work was published in the magazine.

Tsjang-Tsjang

A fictional sea port that occurs in Lowry's works including 'Tramps' and Ultramarine. Commentators including Gordon Bowker have identified the sea port asYokahama, Japan probably because of the Japanese references used and that was also the final port on Lowry's 1927 Far East voyage.

However, close reading identifies the sea port as Dairen (now Dalian) in China formerly Manchuria then occupied by Japan and visited by Lowry in 1927. The origins of the words Tsjang-tsjang may be the Dutch intepretation of Chinese words with the English equivalent of Chang Chang.

Other commentators have also identified the port as being in Manchuria; "Now, out of the mortuary of expired novels comes a re-edition of this first book by Malcolm Lowry, ... with the tough talk and the one- track sport of the foc's'le hands in the disenchanting Manchurian port of Tsjang-Tsjang. ..." The Canadian Forum: a monthly journal of literature and public affairs: Volume 43 and Barry Wood Malcolm Lowry: The Writer and his Critics Pg. 5.

Dairen is actually mentioned 5 times by name in the Ultramarine but there are many descriptions of the port which establish the fictional Tsjang Tsjang as Dairen (See entry for Dairen for full details); "At Tsjang-Tsjang, he supposed, the same interminable performance would be gone through as before; the usual stream of hawkers would surge on to the ship; stevedores would clamber up the side from lighters, or swing in on the derricks; the winchmen would soon be seated on their straw mats.." (Ultramarine Pg 16); "This evening we reach Tsjang-Tsjang.. (Ultramarine Pg. 18); "They were now sailing into Tsjang-Tsjang harbour.." (Pg. 29);  "Tsjang-Tsjang was by now all around and over the Oedipus Tyrannus, with what he took to be rice fields, formed in steps, sloping perilously down to the sea: the port itself, grouped a the bottom of the cliffs, was every moment growing larger.(Ultramarine Pg. 30); Janet Travena addresses a letter to Dana Hilliot in Tsjang-Tsjang (Ultramarine Pg. 168); "Eight hours out of Tsjang-Tsjang (Ultramarine Pg. 169).

Joseph Conrad's Youth

'Youth' is an autobiographical short story by Joseph Conrad. It was written in 1898 and included as the first story in the 1902 volume Youth, a Narrative, and Two Other Stories. This volume also includes 'Heart of Darkness' and 'The End of the Tether', which are concerned with maturity and old age, respectively. "Youth" depicts a young man's first journey to the East. It is narrated by Charles Marlow who is also the narrator of 'Heart of Darkness', Lord Jim and Chance.

Lowry on his first voyage to the Far East in 1927 didn’t feel like Conrad when he quotes from 'Youth' in his short story 'China'; “that what expected had already gone, had passed unseen in a sigh, in a flash together with youth, with strength, with romance of illusions” (Psalms Pg 52). Yvonne in the 1940 Under The Volcano asks Hugh about his thoughts about Sokotra; "You mean you were disillusioned, like the man in Conrad's Youth".(Pg. 61)

China - short story

A short story, which remained unpublished in Lowry’s lifetime. Published in Psalms Pgs. 49-54 1974. Douglas Day states that the story was left by Lowry at the home of his friend James Stern in the summer of 1934. (Malcolm Lowry Pg. 188). Gordon Bowker says that the story was written at Inglewood after his return from the Far East along with ‘Tramps’ and ‘Enter One In Sumptuous Armour’ (Pursued By Furies Pg. 139). Judging by the style of the story, we must assume that this was one of the earliest pieces produced by Lowry after his trip to the Far East in 1927. The story has none of the modernist influences of later works based on the voyage such as ‘Goya The Obscure'. Perhaps it can be dated pre-1930 possibly before he went to Blackheath or University of Cambridge, which would date it as Summer/Autumn 1927.

The story is set in China in 1927 during the Chinese Civil War. The story may reflect an actual event experienced by Lowry on his 1927 Far East trip aboard Pyrrhus. ‘China’ explores the land between dream and reality. “For though I’ve been there it takes on a quality sometimes that my imagination bestowed on it before I went’ Psalms 21. The story is focused on the narrator’s issues with the organising of a cricket match between the crew of his fictional ship the Arcturion and the Royal Naval vessel H.M.S Proteus while in port.

The Arcturion is the name of Melville’s ship in Mardi. Melville’s writings were a big influence to Lowry’s early work with many allusions to Melville’s life and writings. Melville probably chose the name for the similarity to "Arcturus" (the brightest star in the constellation of Bootes) to make the link with the brightest star. . This is an early example of Lowry using stars/astronomy in his work. H.M.S Proteus remains unidentified as the name was used for a submarine that was only completed in 1930 after the story was written though it was laid down in 18th July 1928 though still a year after Lowry’s voyage to the East in 1927.

The port is not named but we must assume that it is Shanghai, which Lowry visited on his 1927 trip. The narrator says; “Just across the river from where we are moored, China thundered her guns” which would suggest that the ship is moored on the River Yangtze at the port facilities across the river from Bund. The presence of a British warship in port would also suggest this as Britain and other European powers held the International Settlement in Shanghai until 1941. The “terrible war on China” is a mere backdrop to the match. We get little understanding of the momentous events in China in 1927. The voyage to China seems to have left him unable to empathise with the Chinese; “I don’t believe in China” Psalms 21. Lowry develops idea that you can read about a war in a newspaper which can seem more real that actually being there but not actually part of the fighting.

The narrator finds it hard to believe that he is actually in China – “not China at all but right here, on this wharf”. He didn’t feel like Joseph Conrad “that what expected had already gone, had passed unseen in a sigh, in a flash together with youth, with strength, with romance of illusions”. This quote from Conrad’s ‘Youth’ is what Lowry had read and probably thought he would feel on the voyage – that he would mature when in fact he is driven back to play cricket, which becomes synonymous with his past life.

Patrick McCarthy identifies in ‘China’ the recurring Lowryan theme of almost solipsistic rejection of any reality other than one’s own (Forest of Symbols Pg. 12). McCarthy states that “since he always regards wherever he is located here rather than there: unable to cope with difference, his imagination either domesticates or ignores everything that cannot be readily assimilated within his experience, seeing it only in terms of the values he brings with him.” (Forest of Symbols Pgs. 12-13).

McCarthy has also identified the political content of the story (Forest of Symbols Pg.13). The story seems to be an indictment of the Western attitude to China, which was one of racist insularity to the problems in 1920’s China. There is a certain irony in the playing of the archetypal English game of cricket whilst a bitter war goes on around the game. As the game continues with an indifferent air, the crew standby and watch the ships cargo of weapons unloaded to be used in the surrounding conflict.

Lowry was probably exposed to the type of lurid “yellow peril” writing starting with De Quincey moving through Conan Doyle’s short stories to one of the main perpetrators Thomas Burke in his Limehouse Nights 1921. D.W. Griffith used Burke’s short story "The Chink and the Child" from Limehouse Nights as basis for his silent film Broken Blossoms (1919) which Lowry considered one of the greatest films ever made (Pursued By Furies Pg. 16).

This prevalent anti-Chinese mentality was also apparent in the cinema and the newspapers. The Liverpool Daily Post ran a campaign in the 1920’s to have Chinese seaman living in Liverpool returned to China. Lowry himself refers to Chinese deportees on board Pyrrhus in his novel Ultramarine; "Later I had discovered that five Chinese deportees were berthed there, and they had remained there as far as Shanghai". (Ultramarine Pg. 77).

On the other hand, Lowry also had a romantic view of China developed through a reading of the novels of Conrad and the plays of O’Neill and other readings. In the late 1920’s, the “exotic east” was obviously one of the draws of going to sea for a youthful Lowry. Lowry wrote a song called ‘I’ve Said Goodbye to Shanghai’ with Ronald Hill while still at his school The Leys before had been to China. Russell Lowry also related to Muriel Bradbrook that Lowry also wrote a song entitled I'll take my Alice to the Crystal Palace at the end of the Chinese War" (Muriel Bradbrook His Art and Early Life: A Study in Transformation Pg.27).

The story has links to O’Neill with the narrator’ home being Hoboken, New Jersey. Lowry would have been aware that O’Neill was married there having read and posted on his dormitory wall an article on O’Neill from Life magazine.

The story is also an early example to demonstrate the depth of Lowry’s reading of sea literature. The narrator likens himself to the English/American writer Bill Adams who wrote about the sea based on his adventures. Bill Adams left college aged 17 to go to sea as had Lowry. Adams wrote a story called ‘China Road’ published in the Saturday Evening Post September 11th 1926, which Lowry may have read. 

McCarthy also identifies the story as an early example of Lowry exploring social themes. (Forest of Symbols Pg. 13). ‘China’ has some biographical semblance; “I came fresh to sea life from an English public school where I wore a tophat and carried a silver-tipped cane” As ever with Lowry, we get a certain exaggeration of his time at The Leys. Lowry assumes the persona of a fireman, which was the first time a Lowryan character assumed this guise.

The narrator describes that his ship is moored across the river from the “terrible war” describing the guns thundering “Doom! Doom Doom!” The Arcturion is moored “nose on to the English battle-cruiser H.M.S. Proteus. “ The narrator looks back to early in the voyage when the steward decides to organise the match. The narrator describes his contempt for the crew of his ship and the problems he is having with them because of his class and background. This mirrors the tensions, which afflicted Lowry’s real voyage. He stands with the other firemen who he sees as comrades to watch with contempt as the crew practice for the match. The steward eventually discovers that the narrator has played for Eton and England.

This sporting persona adopted by Lowry’s narrator is similar to the one Lowry adopted for himself in pretending/wanting to be a golf champion. The narrator is forced to participate in the cricket match but deliberately gets one of his own team run out to show his disgust at being the only fireman asked to play.

The story ends with the narrator re-joining his fellow firemen on the Arcturion. The sense of unreality is increased as the firemen watch stevedores unload a cargo of armaments as the cricket match and the war continue. The narrator concludes; “And you carry your horizon in you pocket wherever you are” providing us with an early insight into Lowry’s philosophy of life which accompanied his wanderings.