![]() The significance of this is that in modern times the event has been homed in on as the marker par excellence of the beginning of China’s decline, a victim to Western imperialism and forceful arm-twisting. ![]() Nevertheless, what the author - a professor of Chinese at London University who conducted research in both Cambridge and Beijing - sets out to do is to present the first Opium War (1839-1842) in all its complexity and detail. She concentrates on the first of the two Opium Wars fought by the British against elements of the Chinese Empire - “elements” because she comments that at one stage the emperor wasn’t really convinced that something as momentous as a war was actually taking place. ![]() ![]() This double-sidedness is at the heart of Julia Lovell’s The Opium War, though not as applied to opium itself. People are never likely to agree on the status of opium, except for the fact that it’s the most effective natural pain-killer known to mankind. Bejeweled jade pipes, silver lamps for heating, red sandalwood couches and claims of mind-opening pleasure compete with an image of addiction and lassitude, and the engine for foreign domination. ![]()
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