NYU Shanghai.
Br J Hist Sci. 2021 Sep;54(3):327-339. doi: 10.1017/S0007087421000236.
This article examines the way in which the British press reported on typhoons that affected Hong Kong during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Typhoons were a significant element in the narration of the British Empire, featuring frequently in British accounts of their involvements in the Far East, where Hong Kong was its only colony. I suggest that these accounts need to be considered alongside the consolidation of the 'tropics' as a region in British perceptions, and in doing so, this article opens discussions of the study of tropicality to the consideration not just of climate, but also of the significance of singular weather events. This article argues that the cultural representations of typhoons in the British press were a tool of 'othering'. In particular, there were two significant shifts around the 1880s in these reports. First, the term 'typhoon' became tied to these types of storms that affected Hong Kong. Second, the stories that were told about typhoon events emphasized British heroism and colonial management. Both these shifts in reporting stripped away the weather wisdom that British sailors had earlier identified in the local population.
本文考察了 19 世纪至 20 世纪初英国媒体对影响香港的台风的报道方式。台风是大英帝国叙述中的一个重要元素，经常出现在英国对其在远东地区的参与的叙述中，而香港是其唯一的殖民地。我认为，这些报道需要与“热带地区”在英国认知中的巩固一并考虑，这样，本文就将对热带性的研究讨论不仅扩展到气候，还扩展到单一天气事件的重要性。本文认为，英国媒体对台风的文化表现是“他者化”的一种工具。特别是，在 19 世纪 80 年代左右，这些报道发生了两个重大转变。首先，“台风”一词开始与影响香港的这类风暴联系在一起。其次，关于台风事件的报道强调了英国的英雄主义和殖民管理。这两个报道转变都消除了英国水手早期在当地居民中发现的天气智慧。
