The Social Life of Opium in China

This book traces the transformation of opium from medicine to narcotic over a period of five hundred years.

Zheng Yangwen (Author)

9780521846080, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 September 2005

256 pages, 14 b/w illus. 2 maps 6 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.51 kg

'A forthcoming book by Yangwen Zheng, The Social Life of Opium (Cambridge University Press) makes a perfect complement to this one, as it concentrates much more on the 1500-1911 period …'. History Today

In a remarkable and broad-ranging narrative, Yangwen Zheng's book explores the history of opium consumption in China from 1483 to the late twentieth century. The story begins in the mid-Ming dynasty, when opium was sent as a gift by vassal states and used as an aphrodisiac in court. Over time, the Chinese people from different classes and regions began to use it for recreational purposes, so beginning a complex culture of opium consumption. The book traces this transformation over a period of five hundred years, asking who introduced opium to China, how it spread across all sections of society, embraced by rich and poor alike as a culture and an institution. The book, which is accompanied by a fascinating collection of illustrations, will appeal to students and scholars of history, anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, and all those with an interest in China.

1. 'The art of alchemists, sex and court ladies'
2. As the Empire changed hands
3. 'The age of calicos and tea and opium'
4. 'A hobby among the high and the low and the officialdom'
5. Taste-making and trend-setting
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. The opiate of the people
11. The road to St. Louis
12. 'Shanghai vice'.

Subject Areas: Sociology & anthropology [JH], General & world history [HBG], Regional studies [GTB]