Like Froth Floating on the Sea

The World of Pirates and Seafarers in Late Imperial South China

Robert J. Antony

• Publisher: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley
• Year: 2003
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781557292179
• Subtopic: Chinese History
• Index: History

This book explores the world of pirates and seafarers and the integral role they played in shaping maritime society in Fujian and Guangdong during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The study is an attempt to understand piracy for what it can tell us about the nature of socioeconomic change in maritime South China during the late imperial age. The approach, what has been called "history from the bottom up," seeks to look at ordinary seafarers and pirates on their own terms and to reconstruct their daily lives and aspirations. By reclaiming their social, economic, and cultural history, the book not only furthers our understanding of maritime society as a whole, but also demonstrates how dynamic economic growth, commercial change, and population explosion promoted dislocation, conflict, and violence on China's southern coast.

Table of contents

• Front cover
• Notes to this edition
• Dedication
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Tables and Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Conventions and Equivalencies
• 1. Prelude: The Empress of Heaven Saves Dianbai
• 2. Waves of Piracy in Late Imperial China
• 3. Prosperity and Poverty in Maritime South China
• 4. Fishermen, Sailors, and Pirates
• 5. Pirate Brutality and Hegemony
• 6. Piracy and Seafaring Society
• 7. The Cultural World of Seafarers and Pirates
• Conclusion: Maritime History from the Bottom Up
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Back cover