廣東 13行과 개항의 기억

Abstract

Guangzhou was the only port where trades with the western world had been allowed for 80 years before the five ports were opened by the Sino-British Treaty in 1842. Guangzhou won its reputation as the window through which China understood the world and the world recognized China before the opening of the ports. At the center of it were 13 hongs of Canton’s. They were loyal enforcers to the Ching Dinasty for controlling foreign trade in the period of ‘Trade only through Guangzhou.’ As a licensed merchant group monopolizing the foreign trade with the western world, 13 hongs were also a governmental merchant group that was in charge not only of the collection of export-import customs but also of the management and control of foreigners and the public relations work with foreigners. The hong merchants, as a political product in the period of trade only trough Guangzhou, had difficulty evading the Ching Dinasty’s intervention, and was doomed to be closely related to the Ching Dinasty’s rise and fall from the day of its birth. The memories of port opening in Guangzhou are closely connected to the Opium War. While China was changed into the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, Chinese people were engaged in the struggle against imperialism and feudalism. Sanyuanli People Hangyeong Memorial Hall in Sanyuanli and the Museum of the Opium War in Humen were representative places of the memories and commemoration space of the Opening of Guangzhou port. The corrupted Ching Dinasty, which enforced the policy of national seclusion with trade only via one port, was one of the causers of the Opium War like the Imperial Britain, and 13 hongs of Canton’s, the faithful enforcer of the policy, also were the root of evil, which have been long forgotten out of the memories of the opening of Guangzhou. Since China underwent a paradigm shift in that it recognized 13 hongs of Canton’s not as the sinners but as the victims in the Opium War, the research on 13 Hong’s has been activated. Furthermore, experts aggressively have proposed that the historical and cultural resources of 13 Hongs’ be preserved and developed that were excluded from the memories and commemorated space related to the opening of the ports. The preservation and development of 13 Hong’s as such were also closely related to the efforts to raise the historical status of Guangzhou as a vanguard city of reform and opening-up. Also, the historical and cultural resources of 13 Hong’s seem to play a crucial role in strengthening Guangzhou’s local identity to the effect that their comprehensiveness for the civilizations outside China, openness, pioneerism, and progressiveness toward the oceans and the world show the essential of Guang Dong merchants. 13 Hong’s, which have been forgotten out of the memory of the opening of Guangzhou, are resurrected in Guangzhou, the vanguard region of reform and opening-up, the root of early modern and modern revolutions, the starting point of the Marine Silk Road, and the center of the Lingnan culture. Though the old port of Huangpu was already developed and the 13 Hong’s History Material Gallery was constructed, the construction of the Historical Museum of 13 Hong’s in future will be the symbol of their resurrection in that such constructions well restore the ‘placeness’ of 13 Hong’s.