- Prosper Giquel
Prosper Giquel (1835-1886) first arrived in
China in 1857 as part of the allied assault forces of the Arrow War. Taking the opportunity that service in the Canton occupation force allowed, Giquel began the study of Chinese. In late 1861 he joined the Imperial Maritime Customs Service as the director of the Ningpo office and remained there until the city was captured by the Taiping forces in December. After spending the following spring working in the coordinated French and English campaign to drive the rebels from Shanghai, Giquel returned to Ningpo to organize the force which eventually became theEver-Triumphant Army .In 1866 Giquel became involved in the organization and planning for the Foochow Dockyard project envisioned by
Tso Tsung-t'ang . From 1867 to 1874 he served as European director of the project which Shen Pao-chen, as the imperial commissioner, headed. Having completed his direct administration of the project by 1874, Giquel continued to serve the dockyard by working as a consultant, purchasing agent, and co-director of the European Educational Mission in 1877. The educational mission's goal was to provide advanced technical training to complement the dockyard's instructional program.In the mid-1870s and 1880s Giquel became increasingly involved in international diplomacy. He first served as an adviser during the "Taiwan crisis;' a diplomatic clash between Japan and China in 1874. In 1881 he helped Tseng Chi-tse peacefully conclude the "IIi crisis" between China and Russia. Giquel spent his last years, 1883-1885, struggling to help end the Sino-French war which had broken out due to conflicting Sino-French claims to Indochina. Among the traumatic events of that period, certainly for Prosper Giquel, was the August 1884 destruction by the French navy of the Foochow Dockyard, the principal accomplishment of his entire career in China.
References
* Steven A. Leibo, "Transferring Technology to China: Prosper Giquel and the Chinese Self-Strengthening Movement" (Berkeley 1985)
* Prosper Giquel, "Journal of the Chinese Civil War 1964" Edited by Steven A. Leibo (Hawaii 1985)
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