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This is a powerful and stimulating new work from the
writer of 'The Remains of the Day'. Like that novel, 'When We Were Orphans'
is concerned with all things British between the wars. It's a narrative
very much concerned with the loss of and the creation of empires. The
tale is mostly set in Shanghai, familiar enough for most readers from Ballard's
autobiographical 'Empire of the Sun'.
Ishiguro's novel is also concern with
biography. Christopher Banks, his anti-hero, is one of the most deluded
characters that you'll ever find in fiction, with his tragedy reflecting that
of Oedipus. Not that the method which Banks uses for introspection
is psychoanalytic in any way, for you never get the impression that Banks
is fuelled by sexual desire, despite his on/off relationship with Sarah
Hemmings (another one of the orphans of the title). Part of Banks'
character seems forever trapped in an 'innocent', desexualized state of
childhood.
When he is still young in Shanghai, both
Christopher Banks' parents are kidnapped, his mother some time after his
father. His father's company, Butterfield and Swire, then ship Banks
'home', to England - but Christopher still regards the International Settlement
in Shanghai as his home. Despite this, Christopher makes the very best of
settling into England and English society. But he can never leave the
fate of his parents behind... He continues the detective games he'd
played with his Japanese friend Akira in Shanghai, imagining himself to be the
illustrious Inspector Kung, always on the point of discovering his mother and
father. These fictions continue into adult life, with Christopher becoming
a fully-fledged detective.
There is some unease to be had from such a
character, an air of disbelief and unreality. Surely such heroes as Lord
Peter Wimsey and Campion only ever existed in fiction? Perhaps this is
why Banks' illusions are sometimes shattered by his peers, because they can
always see that he is maintaining a facade. However, there are plenty of
people who humour Banks, making him believe in his own myth - that by solving
the mystery of his parents' disappearance, he can somehow avert the impending
catastrophe of World War II. Now, to a modern day audience, this
conviction appears to be quite absurd. But no more absurd, surely, than
resurrecting Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes to fight the Nazis?
Ishiguro in no way camps up the figure of the
English detective. Banks is not presented as some grey-haired Miss Marple
or little grey brain-celled Hercule Poirot - Banks takes himself far too
seriously to equate himself with such parodies. In some ways though, his
young machismo does resemble that of Richard Hannay. In the final third
of the novel, Ishiguro conspires with the reader to hope for Banks' success,
and you collude in this despite your better judgment. It is here when the
narrative is most gripping, most telling. In this way, 'When We Were
Orphans' resembles the narratives of Graham Greene, partly 'entertainment', and
partly exposition of the grotesques of British colonialism. Perhaps
there's also a dash of Waugh's black humour, although Ishiguro never lets us
entertain anything as much as a belly laugh.
For the British, this is an especially grim
tale. Banks' father does work in the despicable opium trade, after
all. In the early part of the twentieth century, the British
government had a rather different attitude to drugs control, one which still
affects us today (heroin is derived from opium). In English literature,
there are plenty of examples of the wretches seduced by laudanum (such as the
heroine of Joanne Harris' excellent 'Sleep, Pale Sister'), but such characters
are usually English. What Ishiguro does here is to allow us a
glimpse into how the Chinese suffered from the opium trade.
At school in England, Banks strives to be more
English than the English, which becomes a key part of his identity. He is
never a truly unpleasant British colonial, but he very much believes in the
dream of empire. His Japanese friend, Akira, has a more overt struggle
with his cultural heritage. Banks' desire to be fully British in the
multi-cultural city of Shanghai makes him turn to Uncle Phillip, a friend of
his parents. What Ishiguro seems to be saying here is that nurture is
very much stronger than nature. Those born in the Victorian era will
never fully shake off Victorian hypocrisies concerning the 'innocence' of
both women and children.
It may seem to some that Ishiguro's resolution is
far too fabulous to be believed, like something from the Arabian Nights.
However, if you look into the history and the narratives left by the
inhabitants of the International Settlement of Shanghai, you'll find much
fact which echoes Ishiguro's fiction. Chinese merchants in Shanghai set
up an Anti-Kidnapping Society in 1912, for reasons related to this
story. According to research by Robert Bickers, it is very hard to find
data about the Inspector Kungs of the Shanghai Municipal Police, as Banks
discovers when he returns there in 1937 (whilst the records of British and
Irish SMP officers are very easy to come across). It is also quite
instructive to compare Banks' voice with the imperial memoir left by the acting
commissioner of the Shanghai Police of the time: Maurice Springfield's 'Hunting
Opium and Other Scents'. Jardine, Matheson and Co. was a real company
which 'made its fortune in opium smuggling'. Huang Jinrong, the police chief
of the French concession, is widely acknowledged to have been in cahoots with
Du Yue-sheng, a notorious triad king.
But why should we care about events in Shanghai a
century ago? It could be that Ishiguro is determined to repeat
the success of 'Remains of the Day'. The setting is very cinematic, and
you can almost see Kristin Scott Thomas and Ralph Fiennes inside the
gramaphone shop. But the image which most resounds throughout this novel
is that of the blind (ha! ha!) being held together by its thin twine.
What happens when the 'twine' ('tradition' and 'heritage') snaps? It
could be that Ishiguro is examining a much more modern topic: English
nationalism. With recent devolution, some English politicians have raised
this issue (for better or worse, it's hard to tell). But what are the
implications for the future if we are all orphans now?
AuthorTrek Rating: 8/10.
Kevin Patrick Mahoney
The following webpages provide some cultural context that
readers of the novel may find helpful:
Shanghai
– the Wikipedia entry
Graham
Earnshaw's Shanghai – a history
Shanghai
- a historical mirror - images ffrom the city.
Shanghai
Municipal Police - Robert Bickers from the University of Bristol has
done some research on Inspector Kung's force.
Hunting
Opium and Other Scents by Maurice Springfield.
Springfield became acting Police Commissioner in Shanghai early last
century. Here are some of his exploits:
The
Anti-Kidnapping Society - it wasn't only Christopher Banks' parents
who fell victim to this crime.
Tales of Old
Shanghai -
homepage.
Shanghai:
High Lights, Low Lights, Tael Lights by Maurice Karns and Pat
Patterson. A guide to seedy Shanghai from the 30s.
The
Unexpurgated Diary of A Shanghai Baby by Elsie McCormick. A very
witty, Poooteresque account of life in Shanghai from the viewpoint of a baby.
Tales of Old
Shanghai - People featuring the most famous and notorious inhabitants of
Shanghai.
|
Visit
our Kazuo
Ishiguro page for Kazuo Ishiguro biography, Kazuo Ishiguro bibliography,
Kazuo Ishiguro interviews, and free Kazuo Ishiguro essays |
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