Hankou, also spelled Hankow, is one of the three Imperial towns (the other two are Wuchang and Hanyang) that merged to become modern-day Wuhan City, the capital of Hubei province.
Hankow is north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers, where the Han flows into the Yangtze.
Hanyang is between the Han and the Yangtze, whereas Wuchang is on the southern side of the Yangtze.
Wuchang was the place that triggered the beginning of the Chinese Revolution. The Wuchang Uprising began on 10 Oct 1911.
Of the three cities in Imperial times, Hankow was the pre-eminent Middle Yangtze city. The Qing merchant manual described Hankow as “the single greatest port for the collection and sale of commodities in all of the empire.” Its population reached a million by 1800. See pp. 162-163, Chinese Society in the 18th Century by Susan Naquin and Evelyn S. Rawski, 1987. This is an excellent survey, elegantly written and easy to read.
Hankow: Conflict and Community in a Chinese City, 1796-1895 by William T. Rowe, 1989, is the 2nd of two books on Hankow by Rowe. It is a comprehensive social history of 19th-century Hankow. This is a book worth reading for those of us who are more scholarly inclined.
The 3rd book here, Shanghai Splendor, 1843-1949 by Yeh Wen Hsin (2007), surveys the emerging middle class of Shanghainese from the Opium War to the eve of the Communist takeover in 1949.
It describes a tragic tale of a dynamic society until the 1930s recession intervened, followed by the Japanese invasion, which changed China forever.
Coupled with past grievances against colonial exploitation, these events generated strong demands for a radical reorganisation of the Chinese state that could fight for the dignity of the Chinese and resist and wipe out the invaders and Western powers occupying China.
Here lie the seeds of the rise of the Chinese Communist Party to power, which ultimately seized power in 1949. This is the point missed by Frank Dikotter in his recent book Red Dawn over China, 2026, which surveyed why Mao won and, with respect, wrongly said the Russians were the main reason why Mao defeated Chiang Kai-shek.
LWH, Chap Goh Mei, 3 March 2026, Tuesday