LAUSR

gration as an act of liberation against the despotic Qing Empire. The Chinese were seen as a panacea for labour shortages in the Empire after the ban on slavery. Chapter 3 discusses the ‘stimulated interest’ in Chinese labour through plans to use Chinese migrant workers in Assam, Ceylon, Mauritius and the West Indies in the 1830s and 1840s. Chinese labour was welcomed over Indian migrants. Chapter 4 explains the failure to increase the number of Chinese migrants in Australia due to Australian labour concerns over threats to their jobs. Chapter 5 shows how the opening up of Hong Kong and Singapore in particular facilitated Chinese mass migration out of the Qing Empire. This book is an important study of the British Empire’s plans to expand economically, not with British capital, but through Chinese labour. British officials and merchants used their experiences in Singapore and Qing China to paint a positive image of the Chinese in order to promote the view that the Chinese made excellent workers, so long as they kept away from vices. Therefore, Singapore became a model for the rest of the empire as Chinese labour was promoted in the colonies. Chinese labour was touted as a solution to what the British observers considered to be the ‘lazy’ native population of the colonies. Australia, as a settler colony of Whites from Britain, rejected Chinese labour out of working-class concerns that their jobs would be threatened by Chinese mass migration. The book clearly shows that to the British Empire, Chinese labour was acceptable so long as it enriched the coffers of empire and did not threaten jobs held by British (or White) workers. Race played a key role in maintaining the empire, and this book shows how racial stereotypes were used to justify the need for Chinese labourers when it benefited the British. This book is highly recommended for anyone keen on early Singapore colonial history and the study of British impressions of the ‘Chinese character’.