"old China hand"

[Billionbridges.com]

Would anyone happen to know where and when the
phrase "old <insert country> hand" came into being,
as in "old China hand"? (apologies if this is well-documented
already - I searched ADS-L archives and didn't find
mention of it.)

Is/was someone who is/was good at fixing cars ever
called an "old car hand"?

The phrase seems to have fallen out of favour these
days, perhaps because it retains a patina of the
colonial age and thus PC folks find it patronizing,
but I still see it cropping up now and then.

A cursory search shows that "old China hand" is much
more common in Googleland than, say, "old Japan hand"
or even "old Brazil hand".

Thanks,
Don
_______________________
Don Rogalski and Toni Kuo
"A Billion Bridges"
Chinese<>English Translation Services
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