''The Back Door'' was an anonymous work of

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 B ...

serialised in Hong Kong newspaper ''

The China Mail ''The China Mail'' ( zh, t=德臣西報, also and ) was an English-language newspaper published in Hong Kong from 1845 to 1974, making it the longest-lived of any Hong Kong newspaper. The head office was in Wellington Street. History The Ch ...

'' from 30 September through 8 October 1897. The work, written in the form of a historical account, describes an imagined

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n and French landing at

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Deep Water Bay Deep Water Bay is a bay and residential area on the southern shore of Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. The bay is surrounded by Shouson Hill, Brick Hill, Violet Hill and Middle Island. As per Forbes (July 2015), with 19 of the city's ric ...

, followed by shelling of

Victoria Peak Victoria Peak is a hill on the western half of Hong Kong Island. It is also known as Mount Austin, and locally as The Peak only generally. With an elevation of , it is the highest hill on Hong Kong Island, ranked 29 in terms of elevation in H ...

, a sea battle in the

Sulphur Channel The Sulphur Channel is a narrow inshore passage between Green Island and the northwest tip of Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. The Sulphur Channel is mainly used by small craft and inter-island ferries passing between Victoria Harbour and the Eas ...

between

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island is an Islands and peninsulas of Hong Kong, island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km ...

and Green Island, and a

last stand A last stand is a military situation in which a body of troops holds a defensive position in the face of overwhelming and virtually insurmountable odds. Troops may make a last stand due to a sense of duty; because they are defending a tactic ...

Stonecutters Island Stonecutters Island or Ngong Shuen Chau is a former island in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong. Following land reclamation, it is now attached to the Kowloon Peninsula. Fauna The island once boasted at least three mating pairs of sulphur-crested c ...

in which

British forces The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, s ...

were decisively defeated. The story was intended as a criticism of the lack of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

funding for the defence of Hong Kong; fears of invasion were driven by French expansionism in Southeast Asia and increasing Russian influence in

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 Manc ...

. It was speculated, but never proven, that members of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

read the book in preparation for the 1941

Battle of Hong Kong The Battle of Hong Kong (8–25 December 1941), also known as the Defence of Hong Kong and the Fall of Hong Kong, was one of the first battles of the Pacific War in World War II. On the same morning as the attack on Pearl Harbor, forces of the ...

, in which Japanese forces overran Hong Kong (via the

New Territories The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...

, rather than

) in just 18 days. In terms of its style, it follows the model laid out by

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 ...

's ''

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 ...

'', but is noteworthy for its attention to detail, even giving real names of individual soldiers and ships; one reviewer described it as "unique" in its verisimilitude, stating that only

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 officiat ...

's ''

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 ...

'' and

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 ...

's '' The Conquest of America'' could compare to it. ''The Back Door'' received renewed attention in October 2001, when it was republished by

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 fir ...

Press under the title ''Hong Kong Invaded! A '97 Nightmare''. The republished edition, at 328 pages in length, was accompanied by a variety of scholarly discussion; the actual text of ''The Back Door'' itself occupied barely one-sixth of the book's length. The title of the republished edition was intended as a form of misdirection and a joke to the reader, evoking fears over the 1997

handover of Hong Kong Sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the China, People's Republic of China (PRC) at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the British Hong Kong, former colony. Hong Kong was establ ...

to the People's Republic of China. Bickley was criticised by one reviewer for the cartoon-like illustrations included with the book, and the fact that she had spent so much time on historical analysis of what was described as a "mediocre piece" of fiction.

References

External links

Hong Kong Invaded!
(publisher's official page) {{DEFAULTSORT:Back Door, The 1897 novels Invasion literature Hong Kong literature Military of Hong Kong under British rule