The history of China in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is a story dominated by foreign intervention and imperialist predation. In 1842 Britain responded to Chinese efforts to halt the importation of opium from British India with a decisive show of force, imposing a humiliating set of treaties on China in the aftermath of the fighting. In the 1850s a new round of conflict with foreign powers led to fresh military defeats and another round of harsh treaties. The late nineteenth century saw significant reform efforts in China, but they proved to be too little and too late. Defeat in the 1894 Sino-Japanese War left China looking weaker than ever, and the Western nations moved in to grab what they could. A wave of antiforeign violence, culminating in the 1900 Boxer siege of the foreign legation quarter in Beijing, only served to unite the imperialist powers and further undermine the Chinese government. The fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 brought new political players to the fore, but it did not result in a strong and unified China. Nor did it bring foreign intervention to an end. Neither of these goals would be achieved until the middle of the twentieth century, and then only after the defeat of Japan in World War II and the victory of the Communists in the Chinese Civil War.

Ning Lao’s autobiography, A Daughter of Han, provides an opportunity to explore this period in Chinese history from the perspective of an ordinary Chinese woman. As you read the excerpts from her autobiography, think about how the China’s conflicts with the Western powers and Japan touched her life. How did Ning Lao view the presence of foreigners in China? What aspects of their presence seemed most important to her?