Indian princes, dancing girls and tigers: the Prince of Wales's tour of India and Ceylon, 1875-1876

摘要

This article examines the impact and significance of an event featuring perhaps one of the foremost celebrities in late nineteenth-century Britain, the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, who made an eight-month-tour of India and other colonies in 1875 and 1876. The Prince of Wales was also one of the most famous people in Britain at this time. How was the tour of the Prince portrayed in the British media, and what was the significance of the tour to the British public? To what extent can the Prince of Wales be said to be a celebrity in the modern sense? What were the significances for the colonies? In this period, apart from numerous daily newspapers, weekly illustrated journals, notably The Illustrated London News and The Graphic, were preoccupied with representing the Empire, and the Prince of Wales's tour received intensive coverage in these journals, with a multitude of large images. This article examines the relationship between the Prince, the media and the public in Britain and India, situated in the framework of cultural history and postcolonial theory. The tour was significant in the re-forging of the cultural imaginary of India and Ceylon as travel destinations, and the tour was a significant moment in the historical development of modern travel and celebrity culture.