Join us on July 12 for an online book discussion of Chinese Dreams in Romantic England: The Life and Times of Thomas Manning with author Edward Weech.

Thomas Manning (1772-1840) was one of England's first scholars of Chinese. In his youth, Manning was a brilliant mathematician at Cambridge, and befriended Romantic authors such as Charles Lamb and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Inspired by the French Revolution to search for new ideas to shape society, Manning turned not to the English countryside or poetic imagination like other English Romantics, but to China, one of the world's most ancient and sophisticated civilizations. China being poorly understood within Britain, Manning arrived in Canton (Guangzhou) in 1807 to try and learn Chinese, hoping eventually to explore the interior of the country, which was closed to Europeans. He joined the Amherst Embassy to Peking in 1816, and undertook a trek through the Himalayas to Lhasa, capital of Tibet, where he met the Dalai Lama; while his travels also saw him face-to-face with Napoleon, detained as a prisoner of war, and shipwrecked in the Java Sea. This talk will explore how Manning's extraordinary story helps us re-interpret English Romanticism, and understand the significance of China within British culture at the dawn of the nineteenth century.

The hardcover book​ is available for purchase from Manchester University Press (event registrants can get a 30% discount code) and the e-book ​is available on Amazon.

This event is free for Members and Friends of RAS China. For more information about membership, click here​.