Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 ‘The art of alchemists, sex and court ladies’
- 2 As the empire changed hands
- 3 ‘The age of calicoes and tea and opium’
- 4 ‘A hobby among the high and the low in officialdom’
- 5 Taste-making and trendsetting
- 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 Opiate of the people
- 11 The road to St Louis
- 12 ‘Shanghai vice’
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
11 - The road to St Louis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 ‘The art of alchemists, sex and court ladies’
- 2 As the empire changed hands
- 3 ‘The age of calicoes and tea and opium’
- 4 ‘A hobby among the high and the low in officialdom’
- 5 Taste-making and trendsetting
- 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 Opiate of the people
- 11 The road to St Louis
- 12 ‘Shanghai vice’
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter is devoted to the cult and culture of opium consumption in the late Qing and Republican eras. The reign of the Empress Dowager Cixi, from 1861 to 1908, was a time of great contrast. China slipped further into a semi-colonial era of foreign domination and internal disintegration, yet it also underwent restoration and modernisation. The story of opium at this time has parallels with the above. Whilst it continued to humiliate and sicken China, it also helped to crush rebellions and finance ‘self-strengthening’. Wars and legalisation brought out a sense of moral resignation and ushered in a golden age of opium smoking. Opium was so chic and à la mode that not only individuals but also households identified themselves with it. Indeed, opium identified China on the international stage, as the 1904 St Louis Exposition showed. This example will be discussed later in the chapter.
By the turn of the century opium had become a refined material and a popular culture, a well-established social institution. Humiliation by the West did not diminish the smoking power of Chinese consumers. Instead, they turned opium smoking into a most sophisticated culture of consumption, one which helped regenerate the Chinese economy, Chinese culture and Chinese society. Humiliation and regeneration, like disintegration, restoration and even revolution, lived side by side. This was the paradox of opium and of China itself at the time.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Social Life of Opium in China , pp. 164 - 185Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005