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A review by paul_cornelius
Golden Chersonese by Isabella Bird, Isabella Bird
5.0
Nearing the age of 50, Isabella Bird undertook a journey from Canton to Saigon and on to Singapore and the Straits settlements of Malacca and Penang. Her description results in not only a groundbreaking travel book but a classic of Malayan history. She saw the Malayan Peninsula at a time when a great immigration of Chinese miners and merchants were coming into the country, when Britain was sneakily extending its control, and when long established Malayan traditions were under assault, some to be turned over in part, such as debt slavery, while others remained strong, such as the ingrained strength of Islam throughout the Malayan population. It is amazing to hear of her trips up malarial and dengue ridden rivers, encounters with snakes, centipedes, and leeches, rides on elephants, and journeys into only recently pacified villages where war had just finished. Bird, of course, was one of the household names of late Victorian society, noted for her worldwide travels and explorations. But it was this insight into Malaya and Southeast Asia that interested me. Just a couple of generations after her 1880 expedition, you can see how much things had and had not changed in some of W. Somerset Maugham's travel writing and fiction. They covered similar terrain.
Bird was a remarkable person. Just a month or so ago, I finished reading an historical account of Nellie Bly's and Elizabeth Bisland's race around the world in under 80 days just about a decade after the much more rigorous and dangerous exploits of Bird. She apparently had a cast iron constituion, wandering around Canton on foot for 18 miles one day and doing the same for three miles in Saigon on another. She forded crocodile laden rivers, emptied cobras out of her blankets, but constantly fell to one torment in particular, mosquitoes, which she never could conquer. As strong as she was physically, Bird was also a disciplined and rigorous observer. She documents just about every aspect of Malay life, geography, culture, religion, superstitions, and politics as is available. Anyone reading this will have a complete picture of life on the peninsula as it was during the last decades of the nineteenth century.
The book is of another value as well. Bird was an aggressive defender of the "goodness" she believed Britain and its empire brought the world. Hers is a view of just exactly how many citizens of Britain regarded empire at the time. She tries to be fair, tries to balance faults with justice and advancement. Yet nonetheless she sees Britain's presence nearly always as an eventual positive. Her one argument is in how Malays and Chinese flocked to British ruled states because there they were assured of justice and equality before the law. Perhaps she took British residents' and administrators' words too easily. Whatever her failings, however, I don't see how anyone can approach the modern development of Malaysia and not study Bird's work.
Bird was a remarkable person. Just a month or so ago, I finished reading an historical account of Nellie Bly's and Elizabeth Bisland's race around the world in under 80 days just about a decade after the much more rigorous and dangerous exploits of Bird. She apparently had a cast iron constituion, wandering around Canton on foot for 18 miles one day and doing the same for three miles in Saigon on another. She forded crocodile laden rivers, emptied cobras out of her blankets, but constantly fell to one torment in particular, mosquitoes, which she never could conquer. As strong as she was physically, Bird was also a disciplined and rigorous observer. She documents just about every aspect of Malay life, geography, culture, religion, superstitions, and politics as is available. Anyone reading this will have a complete picture of life on the peninsula as it was during the last decades of the nineteenth century.
The book is of another value as well. Bird was an aggressive defender of the "goodness" she believed Britain and its empire brought the world. Hers is a view of just exactly how many citizens of Britain regarded empire at the time. She tries to be fair, tries to balance faults with justice and advancement. Yet nonetheless she sees Britain's presence nearly always as an eventual positive. Her one argument is in how Malays and Chinese flocked to British ruled states because there they were assured of justice and equality before the law. Perhaps she took British residents' and administrators' words too easily. Whatever her failings, however, I don't see how anyone can approach the modern development of Malaysia and not study Bird's work.