The following book review was written for the Mark Twain Forum by Martin
Zehr.


_Mark Twain in China_. By Selina Lai-Henderson. Stanford University Press,
2015. Pp. 164. Hardbound. 6"x 9" ISBN 978-0-8047-9475-6. $45.00.

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 Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by
Martin Zehr


Copyright (c) 2015 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
redistributed in any medium without permission.


In _Mark Twain in China_ Selina Lai-Henderson provides a broad overview
that underscores Twain’s iconic status as an American and international
celebrity, as well as an acute observer of racially-based behavior on a
worldwide stage. Mark Twain never visited China and his cumulative writings
on the subject of the Chinese and anti-imperialism have flown under the
radar of all but the most determined Twain scholars. Lai-Henderson joins
the focused efforts of a cadre of Twain scholars during the last two
decades to bring these concerns to greater awareness.


Jim Zwick's _Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on
the Philippine-American War_ broke the ground in 1992. Subsequent studies
include Tsuyoshi Ishihara's _Mark Twain in Japan_ (2005), Susan Harris's
_God's Arbiters: Americans and the Philippines, 1898-1902_ (2011) and Hsuan
L. Hsu's _Sitting in Darkness: Mark Twain's Asia and Comparative
Racialization_. In 2010, the republication of "The Treaty with China: Its
Provisions Explained," appeared in the _Journal of Transnational American
Studies_. First published in 1868, this essay provides cogent evidence that
concerns over racism and anti-imperialism with an Asian focus were evident
very early in Mark Twain's career.


Implicit in _Mark Twain in China_ is the assumption that the reader is
already conversant with Twain's writings on the subject of race relations
with respect to African Americans in the United States during the slavery,
Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras. In her introduction, Lai-Henderson
asserts "the fact that the oppression of the Chinese in California prompted
him to write satires that were, in effect, a rehearsal for his satires
focused on racism toward African Americans lays before us a fruitful
perspective from which to examine his intricate relationship with the
Chinese" (p. 5). Twain scholars would readily acknowledge the possibility
of a "fruitful perspective," but the notion that Twain's writings about the
Chinese served a "rehearsal" function is questionable. During the period in
which he observed the predations on Chinese immigrants which he wrote
about, Twain had written a satire of hecklers watching blacks march in a
Fourth of July parade in 1865 in Virginia City. Prior to writing the three
pieces with Chinese themes for the 1870 edition of _The Galaxy_ discussed
by Lai-Henderson, he wrote "Only a Nigger" for an August 1869 issue of the
_Buffalo Express_. That essay is a vicious satirical attack on southern
gentility, inspired by a "mistaken" lynching. In "The Treaty with China:
Its Provisions Explained" (1868), Twain makes very explicit comparisons of
racism toward the Chinese and African Americans and acknowledges his
heretofore opposition to "the idea of making negroes citizens of the United
States" as a prelude to changing his opinion on the same subject with
respect to Chinese in the United States. It is at least arguable that
Twain's growing empathy with the plight of African-Americans in his country
served a "rehearsal" function with respect to his "Chinese/China" writings.


Lai-Henderson traces Twain's literary legacy with respect to "Chinese"
subjects back to his early journalism in Virginia City and California,
while writing for the _Territorial Enterprise_ and the San Francisco
_Call_. She notes Twain's ambivalence in his early pieces about Chinese
American immigrants, based partly on his lack of familiarity with the
customs and culture of these new arrivals, and on the pressures to temper
his opinions in deference to a readership not generally in sympathy with
Twain's relative openness. Lai-Henderson discusses the evidence that the
printed media of the era "and even journals that prided themselves on their
honest reportage" (p. 21) were replete with negative portrayals of the
Chinese, creating grotesque stereotypes that unquestioning readers adopted
and which served as a powerful impetus for the federal Chinese Exclusion
Act, adopted in 1882. That this early exposure to the Chinese immigrants
and their travails, often due to legal persecution, had a lasting impact on
Twain is clearly conveyed in three early sketches: "Disgraceful Persecution
of a Boy," "John Chinaman in New York," and "Goldsmith's Friend Abroad
Again," published in 1870 issues of _The Galaxy_. Lai-Henderson discusses
these three early examples of Twain's maturing racial attitudes in the
context of a populace alarmed by the prospect of Chinese "cheap labor,"
popular depictions of the new immigrants as subhuman, and Twain's
"educating his audience, however subtly, on the fallacy of these images"
(p. 23).


Lai-Henderson includes a brief discussion of "The Treaty with China: Its
Provisions Explained (1868)." This is perhaps the seminal statement by
which all Twain's subsequent "Chinese" writings should be analyzed. The
issues which are the basis for the three _Galaxy_ pieces, published two
years subsequent to "The Treaty," are based on Twain's direct observations
of the Chinese in the West and the history of Chinese-American relations
imparted to him by his friend, mentor, and diplomat, Anson Burlingame, an
emissary of the Chinese delegation in the United States. Lai Henderson
provides a history of Twain's association with Burlingame, whom he met in
the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) in 1866, as a figure who had a significant
impact on Twain's maturing attitudes regarding race and imperialism, and
especially his attitudes toward the Chinese and China.


Lai-Henderson's discussion of the 1877 collaboration between Twain and Bret
Harte, the ill-fated play _Ah Sin_, follows the detailed analysis of this
work provided by Hsu in _Sitting in Darkness: Mark Twain's Asia and
Comparative Racialization_. Like Hsu, Lai-Henderson sees the play as a
condemnation of the legal discrimination imposed on Chinese immigrants, who
could not testify against white citizens in California courts, juxtaposed
against the ingenuity of the title character, who manages to get the
evidence he possesses into a court proceeding to ensure the conviction of a
murderer and simultaneously spare the falsely accused. Whether contemporary
audiences, whose reception assured the early demise of this production,
understood its political underpinnings, is uncertain, but this newly minted
perspective of this hitherto neglected work has the promise of reviving
interest among Twain scholars. Lai-Henderson contrasts the reception of _Ah
Sin_ with the poem by Bret Harte popularly known as "The Heathen Chinee"
with its satire of attitudes toward the Chinese immigrant. Its satire was
largely missed by its readers, all too willing to take his cataloguing of
Chinese stereotypical characteristics seriously.


Chapter 4, the most important section of Lai-Henderson’s book, is titled
"Lighting Out for the Pacific: Mark Twain's Posthumous Journey Across
China." It provides the reader with a history of Twain's publication,
reception and interpretation in China. His first introduction to Chinese
readers appeared in 1905 with the publication of his photograph in the
journal _Xin Xiao Shuo_ (the title translates to _New Fiction_), founded by
Liang Qichao, one of the leaders of a "reform" movement in Chinese
literature in the early twentieth century. The survey provided in
Lai-Henderson's book makes it clear that Twain's reception among modern
Chinese writers and readers is based on many of the same qualities that
made him popular with their western counterparts. Twain's acceptance in
China by early adherents like Liang Qichao was based on the idea that
"political fiction should have the most impact on society amid the social
progress and political change that China was experiencing" (p. 80). Other
Chinese writers appreciated Twain's use of the vernacular in his writing.
Lai-Henderson traces the Chinese translations of Twain's works of _Eve's
Diary_, by Lu Xun, in 1931, and the first Chinese translation of
_Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_, by Zhang Duosheng, in 1942.


A separate chapter devoted to the difficulties of translation associated
with _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ makes clear the problems,
particularly in dealing with sarcasm and irony, that have plagued attempts
to convey the more subtle aspects of Twain's writing, even extending to
translation of "the 'N' word," as Lai-Henderson puts it, which is
problematic because "Chinese as a language is generally euphemistic" (p.
118). Although China's population is classified as over 90 percent Han
Chinese, there are over fifty-five additional ethnic groups scattered in
border areas. Thus, there are continuing problems with racism in China that
warrant the deliberate focus provided in works like _Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn_.


Lai-Henderson points out the popularity of _The Gilded Age_ (1873) in
China, which "spoke to a lot of Chinese because it reflects human greed and
the evils of capitalism" (p. 88). Cultural and political differences are
also underscored by her observation that "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of
Calaveras County," likely Twain's most popular short story in the U.S., is
largely unfamiliar to Chinese readers, while the sketch "Running for
Governor," originally published in _The Galaxy_ and the _Buffalo Express_
in 1870, is common in the curricula of schools in China as because of its
focus on "the hypocrisy of a capitalist country that shouts false slogans
of democracy" (p. 89).


Lai-Henderson’s book is generally accurate but does have proofreading
errors and inaccuracies. A discussion of Twain's "The United States of
Lyncherdom," for example, asserts that "Perhaps the most appalling gesture
made by Twain in this work is not merely raising the subject of lynching
but going so far as to invite China to witness the lynching activities in
his southern hometown" (p. 72). It would certainly have been "appalling"
for Twain to have gone "so far," but no such invitation to China is
contained in the piece, although Twain discusses his plan to bring back
_American missionaries_ from China and "send them into the lynching field."
There are no recorded lynchings in Twain's hometown, Hannibal, Missouri.
For the most part, lynchings in Missouri, including the incident that
inspired Twain's "The United States of Lyncherdom," took place in southern
Missouri towns, e.g., Sikeston, Joplin and Springfield.


Elsewhere, Lai-Henderson attributes, in part, Twain's declination, in
February 1868, of the possibility of succeeding his mentor and friend Anson
Burlingame in a diplomatic post with China to the fact that "he wanted to
settle down with his then future wife, Olivia (Livy) Langdon" (p. 41).
Although Twain and Livy met in New York City in December 1867, their
courtship would not begin until September 1868, following Twain's first
visit to the Langdon family's home in Elmira, New York. Also misdated is
the first publication of "The Treaty with China," in the _New York
Tribune_. It was first printed in the August 4, 1868 edition, not August
28.


In addition to the Introduction and the primary text (130 pages), this book
includes a section of notes (18 pages), a bibliography (10 pages) and an
Index (6 pages). Primary Chinese sources are listed in both English and
original Chinese characters, and the author indicates that translations are
her own. With one exception, the black-and-white illustrations are from
Chinese-language publications of Twain's works, including the cover of the
first mainland China translation of _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ (1942).


_Mark Twain in China_ provides a concise history of Twain's preoccupations
with China and the issues of race, politics and culture that were directly
analogous to those evident in his writings regarding anti-imperialism and
racial discrimination in his own country. This new addition to Twain
critical literature also provides a window to his reception by readers in
an Asian culture who found in his writings affirmation of universal
humanitarian values. As such, Selina Lai-Henderson's _Mark Twain in China_
can be seen as a natural product of this increasing interest, another nail,
if needed, in the coffin of the "mere humorist" appellation.


Selina Lai-Henderson is Research Assistant Professor of American Studies at
The University of Hong Kong.

_____


About the reviewer: Martin Zehr is a psychologist in private practice in
Kansas City, Missouri. He presented "Mark Twain's Chinese Connection:
Empathy, Politics & Race" for "The Trouble Begins at Eight" series of the
Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies in 2014 and republished the
complete text of Twain's August 4,1868 _New York Tribune_ article, "The
Treaty With China: Its Provisions Explained," in 2010.