The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China

In October 1839, Britain entered the first Opium War with China. Its brutality notwithstanding, the conflict was also threaded with tragicomedy: with Victorian hypocrisy, bureaucratic fumblings, military missteps, political opportunism and collaboration. Yet over the past hundred and seventy years, this strange tale of misunderstanding, incompetence and compromise has become the founding episode of modern Chinese nationalism.

Starting from this first conflict, The Opium War explores how China's national myths mould its interactions with the outside world, how public memory is spun to serve the present, and how delusion and prejudice have bedevilled its relationship with the modern West.

"Lively, erudite and meticulously researched" Literary Review

Product details

• Authors: Julia Lovell
• Publisher: Picador Uk
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: from age 18
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 31.05.2012
• EAN: 9780330457484
• ISBN: 978-0-330-45748-4
• No. of pages: 456
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 197 mm x 32 mm
• Series: Picador
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > 20th century (up to 1945); Non-fiction book; China