The Original Hutong Hipster
He roamed the backstreets and brothels of Beijing, trading in gossip and rumors, and living a life of self-imposed exile. Edmund Trelawney Backhouse (he’d want you to know the surname is pronounced BACK-us not back-HOUSE) was the original hutong hipster.
He was born in 1877 into a wealthy and well-respected English family. After a short and academically undistinguished stint at Oxford, Backhouse fled England in 1899, leaving behind a whirlwind of debts, detractors, and the downdraft of a sex scandal which may or not have also included Oscar Wilde.
Backhouse was neither the first nor – if a quick spin through Heaven Supermarket at 3am is to be any guide – the last young person to land in China after fleeing the detritus of a life broken back home. While he never finished his degree at Oxford, Backhouse did display an impressive command of language. Once in Beijing, he developed his skills further, becoming fluent in Chinese, Mongolian, and Manchu in addition to German, French, and Russian.
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Jeremiah Jenne is a writer, educator, and historian based in Beijing. He maintains the site Jottings from the Granite Studio (granitestudio.org) and is co-host of the Chinese history and culture podcast Barbarians at the Gate. You can follow him on Twitter @granitestudio.
On another note, The Beijinger's 2016 Pizza Cup and Festival is just around the corner. The celebration will kick off with Pies for the People later today. Get special deals from various pizza parlors around town. Click here for more details.