The Chinese Statue

Jeffrey Archer was born in 1940 in London, and his family soon moved to Somerset. His father, William Archer, was a conman who impersonated another man named William Archer, a war hero. When he was found out, he escaped to the US, where he started another family. Jeffrey’s mother was a journalist who often wrote about Jeffrey in her weekly column in their local paper. After Jeffrey left school, he tried his hand at various jobs. Eventually, he returned to his studies at Oxford, though it is suspected that he applied using false academic qualifications. Upon receiving his diploma, he began his political career, starting a job as a conservative councilor in 1967. He was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1969. Allegations about his penchant for falsifying records followed him through his political career. In 1974, Archer faced a personal financial crisis, going into almost 500,000 pounds of debt as part of a fraudulent investment scheme. He wrote his first book, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, that year. He returned to politics in the 1980s, being appointed deputy chairman of the Conservative Party by Margaret Thatcher in 1985. He resigned a year later due to accusations of paying a sex worker. Archer sued the reporting newspaper for libel in 1987 and won. However, in 2000, Archer was arrested after he was found guilty of persuading a friend to lie in his first trial. He was imprisoned for four years.

“The Chinese Statue” plays out against the backdrop of the British imperialist presence in China in the 19th century. It is important to note that, while Hong Kong became a British colony in 1842, the British never had a full imperialist hold over mainland China. Rather, the British Empire exercised significant trading power with the Qing dynasty as a result of their victories in the Opium Wars in the mid 1800s. So, although mainland China was not a colony of the British like other nations such as India or Nigeria, the economic control that they exercised over China still ensured that China’s resources were benefitting the British Empire. In fact, Britain still had imperialist presences in other countries at the time that Jeffrey Archer penned the story 1970s and, in fact, still maintains overseas territories today. However, the 1947 independence in India the 1997 return of Hong Kong to the Chinese government both unofficially mark the end of the British Empire.

Archer’s first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, is said to be inspired by his real-life experiences of bankruptcy. This also recalls the character of Alex Heathcote in “The Chinese Statue” and his struggle to keep his family fortune. There are many other famous works like “The Chinese Statue” that deal with British imperialism and exoticism, perhaps most famously A Passage to India by E. M. Forster. The story also brings to mind other well-known narratives about precious art, like Donna Tartt’s novel The Goldfinch. More broadly, the story’s engagement with art in general might recall—for some readers—O. Henry’s short story “The Last Leaf” or J. R. R. Tolkien’s short story “Leaf by Niggle,” both of which have art at the center of their narratives.