A reader responded with this comment:
If you are still in your China phase, James Clavell's series of books about the Noble House are great reads. I started with Tai-Pan and worked myself around to all the others that are tied into the Noble House Theme. Some great info on the opium "trade" that Great Britain was conducting at that time in history.Today, while slogging through The Opium Wars, W. Travis Hanes III, c. 2002, I came across this paragraph:
Anticipating the end of the East India Company monopoly, in 1832 Jardine and Matheson joined forces to form Jardine, Matheson & Co., and in 1834 had shipped the first private loads of tea and silk from China to Britain. The company quickly became the most powerful and influential firm in the China trade and in the future Hong Kong; along with its colorful founders, it was the model for James Clavell's novels Tai-Pan and Noble House.Wow. And that's why I love to blog. Had the reader not taken the time to send me that note, I would have simply quickly read the paragraph, moved on, and not giving it much thought. All of that will now stick with me for a lot longer than it otherwise might have.
I replied to the reader that I had not read any of Clavell's novels (yet) but the thought that comes immediately to mind: Ayn Rand's novels.
Again, my Eurocentric education shortchanged me when it came to Asia. Quite fascinating.
By the way, I assume there are a gazillion books on China that are better than the one I am reading, but it turns out the Hanes book is a whole lot better than I originally thought it was going to be. I see why out local library has it on the shelves.
In a sidebar and getting way off topic, reading about the opening salvo in the "opium wars" reminds me of an episode of Miami Vice in which an American high-ranking officer involved in the drug trade during the Vietnam War comes back to haunt Don Johnson's character. See "Back in the World."
Fascinating, fascinating, fascinating.
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