Sir Edmund Backhouse, 2nd Baronet

Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse, 2nd Baronet (20 October 1873 – 8 January 1944) was a British oriental scholar, Sinologist, and linguist whose books exerted a powerful influence on the Western view of the last decades of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912).

Derek Sandhaus, the editor of Backhouse's memoirs Décadence Mandchoue, argues that they are also an undoubted confabulation but contain plausible recollections of scenes and details.

While at Oxford he suffered a nervous breakdown in 1894, and although he returned to the university in 1895, he never completed his degree, instead fleeing the country due to the massive debts he had accumulated.

He spent most of the rest of his life in Peking, in the employment of various companies and individuals, who made use of his language skills and alleged connections to the Chinese imperial court for the negotiation of business deals.

Nevertheless, he donated over 17,000 items, some of which "were a real treasure", including half a dozen volumes of the rare Yongle Encyclopedia of the early 15th century.

"[6] He also worked as a secret agent for the British legation during the First World War, managing an arms deal between Chinese sources and the UK.

In 1939, the Austrian Embassy offered him refuge, and he made the acquaintance of the Swiss consul, Richard Hoeppli, whom he impressed with tales of his sexual adventures and homosexual life in old Beijing.

By then Backhouse's political views were fascist and he became a Japanese collaborator who wished fervently for an Axis victory that would destroy Great Britain.

][citation needed] The authenticity of the diary has been questioned by scholars, notably Morrison, but initially defended by J. J. L. Duyvendak in 1924, who studied the matter further and changed his mind in 1940.

[citation needed] Trevor-Roper described the diary as "pornographic", considered its claims, and eventually declared its contents to be figments of Backhouse's fertile imagination.