IF you explore the World Cultures store of Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum and flick through the earliest object registers, you will find a description of each item logged as it joined the collection.

One intriguing entry reads “a real tail of a China Man taken from him when degraded”. How did such an item find its way to Worcester?

 This plait is part of a collection of objects from China gifted to the museum by Sir Henry Smith Parkes Esquire.

Parkes was born on February 24 1828 in Bloxwich near Walsall. Orphaned at the age of five, he attended King Edward School in Birmingham and soon moved to China to live with his cousin. He studied the local language and at 15 years old began working for the British consular service in Canton. 

In 1846, Parkes accompanied the British vice-consul in Shanghai to Nanking to discuss the punishment of Chinese men who had assaulted three British missionaries in Shanghai. It is possible that Henry Parkes may have collected this lock of hair from one of the Chinese men who were punished at this time, as the pigtail is described as being from a Chinese Man who was “degraded” or dishonoured.

This particular hairstyle was called a queue and was worn by Chinese men from the 1600s to the early 1900s.

The front of the hair was shaved, leaving a braid worn at the back. Not shaving your hair was considered treason during the Qing dynasty (1644-1912) and the sentence for this was execution, so a Chinese man without his queue was considered treasonous – dishonoured and humiliated.

 

Sir Henry Smith Parkes Esquire

Sir Henry Smith Parkes Esquire

In 1854 Parkes was appointed consul in Amoy (now known as Xiamen). Parkes was witness to pivotal treaties and wars in China, he himself directly instrumental in the outcome of some negotiations.

There were numerous unequal treaties forced on China during the mid-1800s, which brought about the two Opium Wars. Signed in 1855, the Bowring Treaty freed up foreign trade in Siam which included allowing British ships to import Opium into the country – an agreement that Great Britain bullied the country of Siam to accept. The second Opium War broke out the year later and continued until 1860.

 According to reports by his contemporaries, Parkes caused controversy through his inflexible approach to discussions.

In 1860, he was arrested after fighting broke out during a meeting with imperial commissioners at Tientsin and Tunghow. He and his men narrowly escaped execution and were eventually released, upon which Parkes was appointed KCB (Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath) at the age of 34. 

Parkes went on to Japan where he became Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, assisting the Japanese emperor in his affairs during a period of political unrest.

In 1884 he was made Minister Plenipotentiary to Korea to ratify another treaty, which gained Britain extra territorial rights in Korea and prevented British subjects to be tried in Korean courts. Parkes died from malaria in Beijing in 1885.

This is part of Museums Worcestershire’s wider research into the collectors, funders and founders of the museum collections.

Discover more fascinating stories and items on our website, museumsworcestershire.org.uk. Our three museums remain closed but hope to reopen soon.