With Chinese Characteristics

The extract of the Opium Poppy is one of humanities oldest drugs, and has been widely used and traded for thousands of years. However when the mass production of refined Opium by the East India Company combined with a new and efficient method of smoking it, a worldwide sensation ensued.

At the height of its popularity, Opium was a worldwide habit. In major cities across the globe, sumptuously appointed opium dens could be found where the rich, famous, and adventurous could enjoy a pipe of the drug. Imaginatively styled after the private chambers of oriental princes, they were a fixture of nightlife  for almost a century.

In this episode we talk about the history of opium, the history of its abuse, and how it eventually fell out of favor and was replaced by stronger alternatives. 

In 1833 the East India Company would lose its monopoly on Chinese trade. This change, and the lack of an effective structure to replace it, would create a power vacuum in and around China's only western trading port (Canton).

British Opium Traders took this opportunity to flood in and make fortunes, and to use those fortunes to promote a more belligerent diplomatic stance towards China. 

As the Qing Empire attempted to stamp out the Opium trade, Canton, now awash with Opium, became the flashpoint for a conflict neither the British Empire, nor the Qing Empire actually wanted.

Read more on the Opium War:

Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age - Stephen Platt
The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of Modern China - Julie Lovell

The First Opium War is often seen as the beginning of China's 'Century of Shame' , a time when Foreigners ran rampant, and China lacked the ability to set its own destiny.

However even without the aggression of Great Britain,  China (Qing Dynasty) was undergoing a series of internal crisis, each with the potential to end the dynasty. 

Rebellion, Inflation, Ethnic Tension, Failures of Government, Piracy, and waning military power, all seemed to strike at once, and help explain why the Qing Dynasty would be so ineffective against the British during the 1840 Opium War.

Its 1949 and Pandas are more popular than ever. Within  Communist China, they achieve a rock star status, they appear on every product imaginable, and fuel attempts at scientific reform.

Outside of China, as Pandas die in captivity one after another, they become the poster child for conservation and the highest prize imaginable for zoos to obtain.

As China normalizes its relationship with most of the world Post 1972, Pandas would continue to be many things to many different people, National Symbol, Conservation Project, Money Maker, and Political Bargaining chip.

Books mentioned:
 
The Last Panda
by George B.Schaller

Panda Nation: The Construction and Conservation of China's Modern Icon
by E.Elena Songster

Despite their superstar status today, Pandas have spent most of history in relative obscurity. Living in remote, bamboo covered hills, they were rarely seen, and even more rarely recorded.

However with the explosion of westerners entering the country in the late Qing dynasty, came hunters, 'zoologists' and others interested in killing or capturing Pandas. These interlopers would for better or worse, catapult the Panda onto the international scene, and for a brief period they could be found in Zoos across the world. 

In this first of a 2 part series, we discuss the history of Pandas from time immemorial to the dawn of the People's Republic of China (1949).

By the late 1700s, the United Kingdom was by far China's largest European trade partner.  Millions of tons of Tea, Porcelain, silks, and other goods came from China every year on British ships, creating vast wealth both in trade, and in taxes, for the Crown.

Despite this, relations with the Qing court remained, as ever, frosty. To remedy this a grand embassy was sent from London to Peking, in order to cement a deeper relationship (and acquire a large number of financial and territorial goals).

Despite its lofty goals; arrogance, cultural misunderstandings, and simple overreach would plague the mission, perhaps even dooming it from the start.

Supplemental Reading:
A Narrative of the British Embassy to China in the Years 1792, 1793, and 1794: Containing the Various Circumstances of the Embassy, with Accounts of Customs and Manners of the Chinese and a Description of the Country, Towns, Cities &c. &c

From Ming Empire remnants, to anti-Japanese rebels, the Island of Taiwan has a long history of self determination. 

When the remnants of the Republic of China fled the mainland to Taiwan in 1949, it was a republic in little but name. With corrupt elections, single party politics, and a byzantine electoral process, the average citizen had little chance of influencing politics.

In this episode we discuss the long, painful, and often bloody road by which Taiwan (ROC) exited martial law, reformed its politics, and created what is now possibly the most progressive and vibrant democracy in Asia (if not the world!).

After Mao's death and the end of the cultural revolution, the Communist party engaged in the policy of 拨乱反正 (eliminating chaos and returning to normal). A feature of this time period, was a relative lack of censorship, and an acceptance of self reflection. One form of new literature that emerged was 伤痕文学 (scar literature / literature of the wounded), which were works that attempted to make sense of the human tragedy China had experienced over the preceding decade.

Today we look at two Chinese produced films inspired by that movement, 1993's The Blue Kite, and 1994's To Live. Both films explore the tragedy and loss of a family during the Maoist period of China, and were both banned locally after being completed. 

They're really good and you should watch them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Live_(1994_film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Kite

The character of Fu Manchu isn't just an insensitive stereotype, or a villain that happens to be asian.  It was the direct result of a failed author knowingly and purposefully cashing on on racist fears and tensions he sensed around his home city of 1910s London. 

Poorly written, and with essentially no factual information, its more racist propaganda than adventure series. It is an embarrassment that the novels are available for purchase on major storefronts, and that they are sold and marketed as fun crime stories, like Sherlock Holmes, or the Invisible man. 

Natalie and Cherrie discuss the work, its origin, and its historical context.

While there are many delicate issues that can affect foreign businesses in China, one of increasing scope and frequency are public boycotts. Often coming quickly and without warning, a company can go from beloved to hated almost overnight, for something as simple as the wrong label on a website menu, or a statement concerning the ethical sourcing of cotton. 

In this episode we discuss the origin of boycotts amongst the birth of Chinese nationalism, and their reemergence in the 21st century. While originally spontaneous grassroots affairs, these modern boycotts are supported by Chinese State Media, and are often used as an unofficial arm of state policy. 

However, despite their high profile, these boycotts seem to have a mixed result in actually changing the way foreign companies do business in china, or in changing the habits of Chinese consumers.