The fall of the god of money : opium smoking in nineteenth-century China / Keith McMahon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McMahon, Keith.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Opium abuse--China.

Opium abuse.

China--History--19th century.

China.

History.

Physical Description:

xi, 249 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Opium smoking in nineteenth-century China

Place of Publication:

Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, [2002]

Summary:

In this first truly cross-cultural study of opium, Keith McMahon considers the perspectives of both smokers and non-smokers from China and the Euro-West and from both sides of the issue of opium prohibition. The author stages a dramatic confrontation between the Chinese opium user and the Euro-Westerner who saw in opium the image of an uncanny Asiatic menace. The rise of the opium demon meant the fall of the god of money, that is, Chinese money, and the irreversible trend in which Confucianism gave way to Christianity. The book explores early Western observations of opium smoking, the formation of arguments for and against the legalization of opium, the portrayals of opium smoking in Chinese poetry and prose, and scenes of opium-smoking interactions among male and female smokers and smokers of all social levels in 19th-century China. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Contents:

1 Introduction to "Western Smoke" 1

2 A Short History of Opium Smoking in China 33

3 Westerners' Intercourse with China 45

4 Westerners on Opium and the Chinese 69

5 Zhang Changjia's Yanhua, "Opium Talk" (1878) 105

6 Eaten by Wild Dogs: Opium in Late Qing Fiction 139

7 "Why the Chinese Smoked Opium" 175

Appendix Yanhua, "Opium Talk," by Zhang Changjia of Jinshan County, Jiangsu Province 193.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-233) and index.

ISBN:

0742518027

0742518035

OCLC:

48951278