Opium War

Regular price €15.99
Regular price €18.50 Sale Sale price €15.99
A01=Julia Lovell
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Julia Lovell
automatic-update
britain
british
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBJF
Category=HBLL
Category=HBW
Category=NHF
Category=NHW
china
chinese
COP=United Kingdom
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
east india company
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_non-fiction
geopolitical
global
history
hong kong
Language_English
myths
nanking
nationalism
opium war
PA=Available
peking
political
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
qing dynasty
softlaunch
victorian
world

Product details

  • ISBN 9780330457484
  • Weight: 354g
  • Dimensions: 130 x 197mm
  • Publication Date: 10 May 2012
  • Publisher: Pan Macmillan
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
  • Language: English
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days

Our Delivery Time Frames Explained
2-4 Working Days: Available in-stock

10-20 Working Days
: On Backorder

Will Deliver When Available
: On Pre-Order or Reprinting

We ship your order once all items have arrived at our warehouse and are processed. Need those 2-4 day shipping items sooner? Just place a separate order for them!

‘A gripping read as well as an important one.’ Rana Mitter, Guardian

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

‘An important reminder of how the memory of the Opium War continues to cast a dark shadow.’ Sunday Times

Julia Lovell teaches modern Chinese history at Birkbeck College, University of London. She is the author of The Great Wall: China Against the World and The Politics of Cultural Capital: China’s Quest for a Nobel Prize in Literature and writes on China for the Guardian, Independent and The Times Literary Supplement. Her many translations of modern Chinese fiction include, most recently, Lu Xun’s The Real Story of Ah-Q, and Other Tales of China.