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People · comprador, merchant reformer, author

Zheng Guanying

郑观应Zhèng Guānyìng · 1842–1922

Guangdong-born comprador of Butterfield & Swire and author of Shengshi weiyan (1893), who argued for parliamentary government and commercial reform.

Black-and-white full-length photograph of an older man in a long dark gown standing on garden steps, with Chinese calligraphy written over the picture.
Zheng Guanying, 1910s.Photo: unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Zheng Guanying (郑观应, Zhèng Guānyìng) was a comprador who became one of the late Qing’s best-known advocates of reform. Born in Xiangshan, Guangdong, he reached Shanghai around 1858 and worked for British firms, among them Overweg & Co. and Dent & Co. Yen-p’ing Hao lists him as Butterfield & Swire’s Shanghai comprador from 1873 to 1881.

He later set up as an independent merchant, and in 1882 joined the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company; he left in 1884. In 1879 he had been given daotai rank for public service.

His book Shengshi weiyan (盛世危言, Warnings to a Prosperous Age), published in 1893, urged reforms including representative government, and is the work for which he is remembered. He returned to Macau in late 1886 and spent much of his later life there. Sources give his death as 1922 or 1923.

Timeline

  1. 1842Born in Xiangshan, Guangdong (24 July)1
  2. 1858Reaches Shanghai1
  3. 1873Comprador of Butterfield & Swire (to 1881)4
  4. 1882Joins China Merchants at Li Hongzhang's invitation1
  5. 1893Shengshi weiyan published1

Connections

  • Butterfield & Swire太古洋行Comprador of Butterfield & Swire at Shanghai, 1873-81
  • Dent & Co.宝顺洋行Worked as a comprador for Dent & Co., among other firms
  • Black-and-white portrait of a man with a moustache wearing a skullcap and a dark silk jacket with toggle buttons.Tong King-sing唐廷枢Fellow Guangdong comprador who reached Shanghai in the same period; later colleague at China Merchants

Stories

Sources

  1. 1.Zheng Guanying (Wikipedia) (Zheng Guanying), Wikimedia Foundation — infobox and references; early career; career; writingswikipedia
  2. 2.Zheng Guanying 1842-1922/3 (Zheng Guanying 1842-1922/3), Renditions, Chinese University of Hong Kong — dates 1842-1922/3website
  3. 3.MUST research | The Guangdong rivals and friends who roamed Macau and Shanghai (MUST research | The Guangdong rivals and friends who roamed Macau and Shanghai), Julie Zhu, Macau Daily Times (information from the Research Office of Tong King-sing, Macau University of Science and Technology), 2019 — Zheng Guanying sectionarticle
  4. 4.A 'New Class' in China's Treaty Ports: The Rise of the Comprador-Merchants (A 'New Class' in China's Treaty Ports: The Rise of the Comprador-Merchants), Yen-p'ing Hao, Business History Review 44(4), pp. 446-459, 1970 — fn. 40article