Treaty ports are back in fashion. Once seen as a minor appendage of imperialism, they are increasingly seen as worthy of study in their own right. In Britain, much of the credit for this renewed interest belongs to Professor Robert Bickers. Bickers has put Chinese studies at the University of Bristol at the forefront of this revival through his own record of thorough and readable books and papers. But, as this book shows, scholars from all over the world are now re-evaluating the China treaty ports in the light of new approaches and the increasing availability of new material, often from Chinese sources.

In the Introduction, the editors indicate the new fields being explored, moving away from the doings of the great powers towards examining what actually went on in the treaty ports and how they affected China. The most interesting part, however, is an imaginative account of a composite theoretical port, “Suidi”. Through its supposed history can be traced the rise and fall of a typical treaty port. Despised and reviled by all Chinese governments in the 20th century, now, as its architecture is seen in a more positive light and its archives emerge from the ban long placed on access to them, it is increasingly seen as part of China's history rather than just an intrusion.

The other 12 essays, each of which has substantial notes and references, cover some of the themes outlined in the Introduction. The first, by Par Cassel, looks at the issue of extraterritoriality, the legal system which underpinned the whole treaty port system in East Asia. This is a subject that has long fascinated me and about which I have written as it affected Japan. Cassel makes a number of interesting points but also some debatable ones. It was the first time that I had heard of the idea that the system was supposed only to apply in the ports and that, away from them, foreigners would come under Chinese jurisdiction. Some Chinese may have thought this but I doubt that many foreigners or foreign governments did.

Isabella Jackson contributes a fascinating analysis of who actually ran the Shanghai foreign settlement, the largest and most complex in all of Asia. Equally illuminating is Chiara Betta's essay, which looks at the complexity of Shanghai's land system through the rise and ultimate fall, after 1949, of the Hardoon family.