William Wightman Wood ( ?1804 – ?) was an American journalist, businessman, naturalist and poet based in
Macau
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...
and
Canton, China.
Biography
He was the son of celebrated actors
William B. Wood and
Juliana Westray Wood.
In 1827, Wood was a founder and editor of one of the first English-language newspapers in China, ''
The Canton Register
''The Canton Register'' was an English language newspaper founded by Scottish merchants James Matheson and his nephew Alexander
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancie ...
'', which he printed himself on a hand press donated by
James
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguati ...
and
Alexander Matheson, partners in the trading house
Jardine, Matheson & Co. Starting with the second issue of ''The Canton Register'', Wood began to criticise the censorial policies of the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...
as well as the "despotic and corrupt manner" in which the Chinese operated the
Canton System
The Canton System (1757–1842; zh, t=一口通商, p=Yīkǒu tōngshāng, "Single orttrading relations") served as a means for Qing China to control trade with the West within its own country by focusing all trade on the southern port of ...
of trade. He also expressed strong opposition to the idea that Westerners in China should be subject to the "impositions" of the Chinese authorities. The powerful East India Company and the resident British community saw such comments as an attack on British trade policy and forced Wood to resign after editing the sixth issue of the newspaper.
After a spell in Philadelphia, Wood returned to Canton in February 1831 aboard the American ship ''Fanny'' where he joined the
trading company Russell & Co. as secretary to
William Henry Low, one of the partners.
However, Wood lacked business acumen and never achieved monetary success.
After leaving Russell & Co, the first edition of Wood's own publication, ''The Chinese Courier and Canton Gazette'' came off the presses on July 28, 1831. The title was later shortened to ''The Chinese Courier'' in 1832 but the paper succumbed to competition from other periodicals and ceased publication on September 23, 1833
A clever poet, Wood composed parodies of well known poems based on life in Canton, including one by
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...
.
He was also a skilled draughtsman and caricaturist who offered art lessons to the foreign community and wrote and illustrated his own book, ''Sketches of China'', published in 1830.
Wood fell in love with the diarist
Harriet Low and frequently visited her home in
Macao
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a po ...
, ostensibly to give her drawing lessons. When he secretly asked for her hand in marriage, she accepted but her uncle and Wood's employer, William Henry Low objected to his niece marrying a "penniless adventurer"and forced her to abandon the arrangement.
Wood spent the rest of his life as a bachelor.
After moving to the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, Wood became manager of a coffee and sugar plantation in
Jalajala, Rizal and subsequently joined the office of Messrs. Russell & Sturgis in
Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
. He is credited with introducing photography to the Philippines.
References
Bibliography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, William Wightman
American expatriates in China
People of the First Opium War