Worcester's "Floating Population in China" Now Online

A Hong Kong "beggar boat" -- a sampan that is home to a family (Worcester, 1970, p.5)

Indigenous Boats is pleased to make available for free download The Floating Population in China by G.R.G. Worcester, with sketches by Doris Worcester. The scan was made available to us by the generosity of Alexey Shapovalov, a talented Russian model builder who mainly works on sailing vessels from China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. 

The full title of the work is a very descriptive handful: The Floating Population in China: An illustrated record of the junkmen and their boats on sea and river, accompanied by Some Chungking Types on the Upper Yangtze River. Although full of technical detail, like his other books on Chinese watercraft (also available for free download), The Floating Population is more concerned with the boat people and their water-borne activities, and Doris Worcester's lovely sketches give it an altogether more "personal" feel. Although sof the sketches seem to perpetuate negative Western stereotypes of Chinese people, it is generally respectful and appreciative of the culture of the time.

A Liu-p'eng ch'uan (six-mat) or Paper Boat, so-called because one of its typical cargoes is paper (Worcester, 1970, p.17).