The Social Life of Opium in China
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Annotated, 9/8/2005
EAN 9780521846080, ISBN10: 0521846080
Hardcover, 256 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm
Language: English
In a remarkable and broad-ranging narrative, Yangwen Zheng's book explores the history of opium consumption in China from 1483 to the late twentieth century. The story begins in the mid-Ming dynasty, when opium was sent as a gift by vassal states and used as an aphrodisiac in court. Over time, the Chinese people from different classes and regions began to use it for recreational purposes, so beginning a complex culture of opium consumption. The book traces this transformation over a period of five hundred years, asking who introduced opium to China, how it spread across all sections of society, embraced by rich and poor alike as a culture and an institution. The book, which is accompanied by a fascinating collection of illustrations, will appeal to students and scholars of history, anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, and all those with an interest in China.
1. 'The art of alchemists, sex and court ladies'
2. As the Empire changed hands
3. 'The age of calicos and tea and opium'
4. 'A hobby among the high and the low and the officialdom'
5. Taste-making and trend-setting
6. The political redefinition of opium consumption
7. Outward and downward 'liquidation'
8. 'The volume of smoke and powder'
9. 'The unofficial history of the poppy'
10. The opiate of the people
11. The road to St. Louis
12. 'Shanghai vice'.