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The Back Door (fiction)
''The Back Door'' was an anonymous work of invasion literature serialised in Hong Kong newspaper ''The China Mail'' from 30 September through 8 October 1897. The work, written in the form of a historical account, describes an imagined Russian and French landing at Hong Kong's Deep Water Bay, followed by shelling of Victoria Peak, a sea battle in the Sulphur Channel between Hong Kong Island and Green Island, and a last stand at Stonecutters Island in which British forces were decisively defeated. The story was intended as a criticism of the lack of British funding for the defence of Hong Kong; fears of invasion were driven by French expansionism in Southeast Asia and increasing Russian influence in Manchuria. It was speculated, but never proven, that members of the Imperial Japanese Army read the book in preparation for the 1941 Battle of Hong Kong, in which Japanese forces overran Hong Kong (via the New Territories, rather than Hong Kong Island) in just 18 days. In terms of its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Invasion Literature
Invasion literature (also the invasion novel) is a literary genre that was popular in the period between 1871 and the First World War (1914–1918). The invasion novel first was recognized as a literary genre in the UK, with the novella '' The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer'' (1871), an account of a German invasion of England, which, in the Western world, aroused the national imaginations and anxieties about hypothetical invasions by foreign powers; by 1914 the genre of invasion literature comprised more than 400 novels and stories.. The genre was influential in Britain in shaping politics, national policies, and popular perceptions in the years leading up to the First World War, and remains a part of popular culture to this day. Several of the books were written by or ghostwritten for military officers and experts of the day who believed that the nation would be saved if the particular tactic that they favoured was or would be adopted. Pre-"Dorking" Nearly a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manchuria). Its meaning may vary depending on the context: * Historical polities and geographical regions usually referred to as Manchuria: ** The Later Jin (1616–1636), the Manchu-led dynasty which renamed itself from "Jin" to "Qing", and the ethnicity from "Jurchen" to "Manchu" in 1636 ** the subsequent duration of the Qing dynasty prior to its conquest of China proper (1644) ** the northeastern region of Qing dynasty China, the homeland of Manchus, known as "Guandong" or "Guanwai" during the Qing dynasty ** The region of Northeast Asia that served as the historical homeland of the Jurchens and later their descendants Manchus ***Qing control of Dauria (the region north of the Amur River, but in its watershed) was contested in 1643 when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Invasion Literature
Invasion literature (also the invasion novel) is a literary genre that was popular in the period between 1871 and the First World War (1914–1918). The invasion novel first was recognized as a literary genre in the UK, with the novella '' The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer'' (1871), an account of a German invasion of England, which, in the Western world, aroused the national imaginations and anxieties about hypothetical invasions by foreign powers; by 1914 the genre of invasion literature comprised more than 400 novels and stories.. The genre was influential in Britain in shaping politics, national policies, and popular perceptions in the years leading up to the First World War, and remains a part of popular culture to this day. Several of the books were written by or ghostwritten for military officers and experts of the day who believed that the nation would be saved if the particular tactic that they favoured was or would be adopted. Pre-"Dorking" Nearly a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1897 Novels
Events January–March * January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City. * January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a punitive expedition against Benin. * January 7 – A cyclone destroys Darwin, Australia. * January 8 – Lady Flora Shaw, future wife of Governor General Lord Lugard, officially proposes the name "Nigeria" in a newspaper contest, to be given to the British Niger Coast Protectorate. * January 22 – In this date's issue of the journal ''Engineering'', the word ''computer'' is first used to refer to a mechanical calculation device. * January 23 – Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only capital case in United States history, where spectral evidence helps secure a conviction. * January 31 – The Czechoslovak Trade Union Association is f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transfer Of The Sovereignty Of Hong Kong
Sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China (PRC) at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony. Hong Kong was established as a special administrative region of China (SAR) for 50 years, maintaining its own economic and governing systems from those of mainland China during this time, although influence from the central government in Beijing increased after the passing of the Hong Kong national security law in 2020. Hong Kong had been a colony of the British Empire since 1841, except for four years of Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945. After the First Opium War, its territory was expanded on two occasions; in 1860 with the addition of Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island, and again in 1898, when Britain obtained a 99-year lease for the New Territories. The date of the handover in 1997 marked the end of this lease. The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration had set the con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hong Kong University
The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the first university established by the British in East Asia. As of December 2022, HKU ranks 21st internationally and third in Asia by '' QS'', and 31st internationally and fourth in Asia by ''Times Higher Education''. It has been ranked as the most international university in the world as well as one of the most prestigious universities in Asia. Today, HKU has ten academic faculties with English as the main language of instruction. The University of Hong Kong was also the first team in the world to successfully isolate the coronavirus SARS-CoV, the causative agent of SARS. History Founding The origins of The University of Hong Kong can be traced back to the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese founded in 1887 by Ho Kai later known as S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Romance Of Disaster And Recovery
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cleveland Moffett
Cleveland Moffett (April 27, 1863 – October 14, 1926) was an American journalist, author, and playwright. Cleveland was born in Boonville, New York, the son of William Henry Moffett and Mary Jane (Cleveland). After an education at St. Paul's School in Garden City, New York, he matriculated at Yale College in Connecticut, graduating in 1883. In 1887, he joined the staff of the ''New York Herald'', where he worked until 1892. Until 1891, his time at the Herald was spent as a foreign correspondent in Europe and Asia, where he had the opportunity to perform interviews with prominent leaders. In 1893, he became foreign editor of the '' New York Recorder''. On February 11, 1899, he was married to Mary E. Lusk. From 1908–1909, he worked as Sunday editor for the Herald. During his journalism career he contributed articles and stories to magazines and weeklies. In 1894, he translated ''Cosmopolis'', an 1892 novel by French author Paul Bourget Paul Charles Joseph Bourget (; 2 Sep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Invasion Of 1910
''The Invasion of 1910'' is a 1906 novel written mainly by William Le Queux (along with H. W. Wilson providing the naval chapters). It is one of the most famous examples of invasion literature. It is viewed by some as an example of pre-World War I Germanophobia. It can also be viewed as prescient, as it preached the need to prepare for war with Germany. Background The novel was originally commissioned by Alfred Harmsworth as a serial which appeared in the ''Daily Mail'' from 10 March 1906. According to historian of Germany Sir Richard Evans, the paper built up "mass alarm" by dressing its London newspaper vendors as Prussian soldiers complete with pickelhaube helmet and placards showing maps of where the 'troops' would be next day. The rewrite of the story, featuring towns and villages with large readership of the ''Daily Mail'', greatly increased the newspaper's circulation and made a small fortune for Le Queux; it was translated into twenty-seven languages, and over one mill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Le Queux
William Tufnell Le Queux ( , ; 2 July 1864 – 13 October 1927) was an Anglo-French journalist and writer. He was also a diplomat (honorary consul for San Marino), a traveller (in Europe, the Balkans and North Africa), a flying buff who officiated at the first British air meeting at Doncaster in 1909, and a wireless pioneer who broadcast music from his own station long before radio was generally available; his claims regarding his own abilities and exploits, however, were usually exaggerated. His best-known works are the anti-French and anti-Russian invasion fantasy '' The Great War in England in 1897'' (1894) and the anti-German invasion fantasy ''The Invasion of 1910'' (1906), the latter becoming a bestseller. Early life Le Queux was born in London. His father was a French draper's assistant and his mother was English. He was educated in Europe and studied art under Ignazio (or Ignace) Spiridon in Paris. He carried out a foot tour of Europe as a young man before supporting him ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Battle Of Dorking
''The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer'' is an 1871 novella by George Tomkyns Chesney, starting the genre of invasion literature and an important precursor of science fiction. Written just after the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War, it describes an invasion of Britain by a German-speaking country referred to in oblique terms as The Other Power or The Enemy. Background Chesney was a captain in the Royal Engineers and had grown concerned over the ramshackle state of Britain's armed forces. He used fiction as a device to promote his views after letters and journalism on the issue had failed to impress public opinion. The Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) had just demonstrated the speed, superiority and adaptability of the Prussian Army, which meant that Chesney's depiction of a fast-moving and determined invader hit a nerve. Plot The story is told as a narrative by an unnamed veteran who participated in the Battle of Dorking. He is recounting the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Tomkyns Chesney
Sir George Tomkyns Chesney (30 April 1830 – 31 March 1895) was a British Army general, politician, and writer of fiction. He is remembered as the author of the novella ''The Battle of Dorking'' (1871), a founding work in the genre of invasion literature. Early life and education George Tomkyns Chesney was born on 30 April 1830 in Tiverton, Devon, one of six children of Sophia Augusta (Cauty) Chesney and Charles Cornwallis Chesney. His brother, Colonel Charles Cornwallis Chesney, achieved prominence as a soldier and military writer; and his sister Matilda Marian Pullan, as a writer on needlework. He was educated at Blundell's School, Tiverton, and at Addiscombe Military Seminary (1847–48). Military career Chesney joined the Bengal Engineers as a second lieutenant in 1848. He was employed for some years in the public works department and, on the outbreak of the Indian rebellion of 1857, joined the Ambala column and was field engineer at the battle of Badli-ki-Serai, brigad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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