About the Author

Edmund Trelawny Backhouse was a translator who worked in China for the British Foreign Service as well as for London Times correspondent George Morrison. He is the coauthor of Annals and Memoirs of the Court of Peking and China Under the Empress Dowager. Derek Sandhaus is the chief editor of Earnshaw Books and the author of Tales of Old Hong Kong and Tales of Old Peking.

Reviews

Outrageous . . . Backhouse's memoirs remain historically highly controversial. --Daily Telegraph (April 1, 2011)

[A] remarkable account . . . --South China Morning Post (April 3, 2011)

Few in [Sir Edmund Backhouse's] time wrote so brazenly . . . about surging homosexual desire and its unbridled practice in such an exotic setting. This edition makes available to readers, for the first time, a little gem of English erotic literature from the pen of a very queer Englishman abroad. --Robert Aldrich, professor of European history, University of Sydney

One of the most outrageous, colourful and hilarious memoirs ever written. --Frank Dikotter, chair of humanities, University of Hong Kong, and author, Mao's Great Famine

"Though Backhouse's credibility must certainly be challenged, does this mean that we discard all of Décadence Mandchoue automatically? His reputation as a source of Peking information has not been seriously challenged and even if he was relaying gossip, this was gossip that was taken seriously." --Frances Wood, Chinese curator, British Library

"Derek Sandhaus has done a fantastic work in editing this text . . . . For readers interested in literature (notably travel literature) on the one hand and sexuality on the other, its value is obvious and indisputable." --Vincent Goosaert, adjunct professor of religious and cultural studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong

"In retrospect, the cultural transgressiveness of Sir Edmund seems to me much more worthy of appreciation than his sexual unconventionality." --T. H. Barrett, professor of East Asian history, University of London