Ya pian zhan zheng = The Opium War : drugs, dreams and the making of China by Lovell, Julia, 1975- instant download

Ya pian zhan zheng = The Opium War : drugs, dreams and the making of China by Lovell, Julia, 1975- instant download

xxii, 458, [32] pages of plates : 24 cm, \"'On the outside, [the foreigners] seem intractable, but inside they are cowardly ... Although there have been a few ups-and-downs, the situation as a whole is under control.' In October 1839, a few months after the Chinese Imperial Commissioner, Lin Zexu, dispatched these confident words to his emperor, a Cabinet meeting in Windsor voted to fight Britain's first Opium War (1839-42) with China. The conflict turned out to be rich in tragicomedy: in 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 myth of modern Chinese nationalism: the start of China's heroic struggle against a Western conspiracy to destroy the country with opium and gunboat diplomacy. Beginning with the dramas of the war itself, Julia Lovell explores its background, causes and consequences ... The Opium War is both the story of modern China--starting from this first conflict with the West--and an analysis of the country's contemporary self-image. It 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 on both sides have bedevilled its relationship with the modern West.\"--Jacket, Title in Chinese characters, Includes bibliographical references (pages 425-443) and index, Opium and China -- Daoguang's decision -- Canton spring -- Opium and lime -- The first shots -- \"An explanatory declaration\" -- Sweet-talk and sea-slug -- Qishan's downfall -- The siege of Canton -- The unEnglished Englishman -- Xiamen and Zhoushan -- A winter in Suzhou -- The fight for Qing China -- The treaty of Nanjing -- Peace and war -- The yellow peril -- The national disease -- Communist conspiracies -- Conclusion