Talk:Sir Edmund Backhouse, 2nd Baronet

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Untitled

edmund backhouse had no legitimate children. john backhouse was his nephew see peerage.com === Vernon White (talk) 21:48, 26 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Would-be Scholar?

That sounds rather biased and I am going to remove it. Surely, one is either a scholar or one is not. Doktor Waterhouse 02:09, 20 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Have the Chinese people in Beijing ever heard of him? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.134.236.70 (talk) 23:44, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Quite a few it seems and some aren't at all happy about him (http://news.k618.cn/kx/201211/t20121116_2620003_1.html):

英国人巴克斯真是慈禧的情人吗？

www.k618.cn编辑：张美英2012-11-16 08:44:00 光明日报

泔水缸里捞出瘪三

大概在多老大尾随牛牧师混吃混喝的时候，一个名叫巴克斯的英国人，也出现在了北京城里。

此人不是老舍先生笔下牛牧师那种虚构的文学人物，而是真实存在的一个拥有男爵头衔的英国贵族。在他的家乡英格兰的约克郡，人们先称之为Sir(爵爷)，然后才是他的名和姓，埃德蒙·巴克斯(或译白克浩司、拜克豪斯)。他生于公元1873年，死于公元1944年，在北京差不多生活了大半个世纪。

这是一个极具侵略色彩的“中国通”和流氓意识的“汉学家”。对中国人来说，尤其对于经历过八国联军和英法联军时代的北京人来说，那段屈辱的历史，那些曾经趁火打劫的“中国通”和为非作歹的“汉学家”，早就被扫进垃圾堆了。然而最近，巴克斯的一本名为《太后与我》的书，先在香港问世，后在台湾出版，接着，在我们这里，一些见利忘义的文化人，也将这个英国老瘪三从泔水缸里翻腾出来。可想而知，这本“睡”了慈禧太后的书，当红一时，译者和出版社赚了一个钵满盆满，连做梦也笑出声来。但是，如此指名道姓地糟蹋死去的人，为老外作伥，给祖宗刨坟掘墓，若按中国人的传统道德观点衡量，早早晚晚是要受到天谴的。然而这有什么办法呢！人一哈洋，必无心肝，所以慈禧躺着也会中枪。

不过，细想起来，西方世界对付中国的手段、伎俩、把戏、招数，一蟹不如一蟹，不免可笑。从18世纪的炮舰政策，到19世纪的殖民蚕食，到20世纪的封锁扼杀，到21世纪的分化支解，如今竟然堕落到用这等手淫式的文学作品抹黑中国，借以宣扬西方优越的沙文主义，标榜白人至上的种族主义。这大概也确是无计可施，才出此下策。如果鸦片战争中的英军统帅义律、巴夏里，或八国联军统帅瓦德西之流，从地底下活转过来，看到他们的后人，居然下三滥到如此不堪的程度，恐怕又会气死过去。

Dorset100 (talk) 00:36, 28 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

A would-be scholar is (presumably) someone who would like to become a scholar and makes an honest attempt. Backhouse never did anything honest in his life. Perhaps fraudulent "scholar" (quote marks).08:20, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Who is Derek Sandhaus?

Derek Sandhaus happened to be the editor of Edmund Backhouse's memoir, how is he an unbiased referee? Who is this Derek Sandhaus anyway? Bobbybuilder (talk) 10:24, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Austrian Embassy

"In 1939, the Austrian Embassy offered him refuge" - this must be a mistake. Austria had been absorbed into the German Reich in 1938, so there would hardly have been a separate Austrian Embassy in 1939. --rossb (talk) 18:24, 30 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The so far uncorrected sentence goes on to mention he "made the acquaintance of the Swiss Consul". With Switzerland bordering Austria, might Austrian be an error for Swiss?Cloptonson (talk) 15:01, 30 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Languages?

This article uncritically states that Backhouse could speak Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Manchu and Mongolian, but gives no indication of how and where he learned all these languages. Given that he is an unreliable source, can we be certain that he really was such an amazing polyglot? I assume that he must have been able to speak Mandarin at least, but the article implies that he arrived in China in 1899 and immediately started translating Chinese, apparently without having ever studied the language. It does not seem very plausible to me. He may have picked up some words and phrases in Manchu and Mongolian at the Qing court, but that hardly means that he actually spoke Manchu or Mongolian. And where did he pick up Russian and Japanese from? BabelStone (talk) 14:59, 15 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Russians and Japanese did have a presence in China when Backhouse arrived, through their legations in Beijing and troops stationed alongside the concessions in the Treaty Ports - both powers were involved in suppressing the Boxer Rising and then there was the Russo-Japanese War, so a source and incentive for up and coming British expats in China to learn these languages. Of course, being fluent in Japanese would have been helpful when he came to collaborate with the Japanese as WWII occupiers.Cloptonson (talk) 09:03, 31 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with BabelStone; having just come across and read this article, I would say that it seems somewhat unlikely that he'd mastered- or was at least fluent in- all these languages having had what would appear to be insufficient years in which to learn them, particularly when this claim is considered in conjunction with the fact that Backhouse was evidently being a fantasist of rather high order. Accordingly it does seem a little strange that the article uncritically states this, but I'm not sure what more in-depth biographical accounts might say on the subject- are there any that address his alleged linguistic proficiency? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.144.76.135 (talk) 19:09, 12 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]