Lin Zexu
Encyclopedia
Lín Zéxú was a Chinese scholar and official during the Qing Dynasty
.
He is most recognized for his conduct and his constant position on the "high moral ground" in his fight, as a "shepherd" of his people, against the opium
trade in Guangzhou
. Although the non-medicinal consumption of opium was banned by Emperor Yongzheng in 1729, by the 1830s China's economy and society were being seriously affected by huge imports of opium from British and other traders based in the city. Lin's forceful opposition to the trade on moral and social grounds is considered to be the primary catalyst for the First Opium War
of 1839–42. Because of this firm stance, he has subsequently been considered as a role model for moral governance, particularly by Chinese people.
), in Fujian province. In 1811, he received the Jinshi
degree, the highest in the imperial examinations, and the same year, he was appointed to the prestigious Hanlin Academy
. He rose rapidly through various grades of provincial service and became Governor-General of Hunan
and Hubei
in 1837, where he launched an opium suppression campaign.
, combined with the acceptance by China of only silver
in payment, resulted in large continuous trade deficits. Attempts by the British (Macarthney in 1792), the Dutch (Van Braam
in 1794), Russia (Golovkin in 1805) and the British yet again (Amherst
in 1816) to negotiate access to the China market were resounding failures.. By 1817, the British hit upon counter-trading in a narcotic
, Indian opium, as a way to both reduce the trade deficit and finally gain profit from the formerly money-losing Indian colony
. The Qing Administration originally tolerated the importation of opium because it imposed an indirect tax on Chinese subjects, while allowing the British to double tea exports from China to England, which profited the monopoly for tea exports of the Qing imperial treasury & its agents. However, by 1820 the planting of tea in the Indian and African colonies, along with accelerated opium consumption, reversed the flow of silver, just when the Imperial Treasury needed to finance suppression of rebellions against the Qing. The Viceroy of Guangdong began efforts to constrain the trade, but due to large increases in the supply of opium and the large coast line of South China and corruption (the Qing coastal navy was one of the largest smugglers
of opium), these efforts failed.
A formidable bureaucrat known for his competence and high moral standards, Lin was sent to Guangdong
as imperial commissioner by the Daoguang Emperor
in late 1838 to halt the illegal importation of opium from the British
. He arrived in March 1839 and made a huge impact on the opium trade within a matter of months. He arrested more than 1,700 Chinese opium dealers and confiscated over 70,000 opium pipe
s. He initially attempted to get foreign companies to forfeit their opium stores in exchange for tea, but this ultimately failed and Lin resorted to using force in the western merchants' enclave. It took Lin a month and a half before the merchants gave up nearly 1.2 million kilograms (2.6 million pounds) of opium. Beginning 3 June 1839, 500 workers laboured for 23 days in order to destroy all of it, mixing the opium with lime and salt and throwing it into the ocean outside of Humen Town
. 26 June is now the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
in honour of Lin Zexu's work.
Lin also wrote an extraordinary "memorial" (折奏/摺奏), by way of an open letter published in Canton
, to Queen Victoria of Great Britain in 1839 urging her to end the opium trade. The letter is filled with Confucian
concepts of morality and spirituality. As a representative of the Imperial court, Lin adopts a position of superiority and his tone is condescending, despite the British clearly having the upper hand, military-wise, when the event is examined with hindsight. His primary line of argument is that China is providing Britain with valuable commodities such as tea, porcelain, spices and silk, while Britain sends only "poison" in return. He accuses the "barbarians" (i.e. private merchants) of coveting profit and lacking morality. His memorial expressed a desire that Victoria would act "in accordance with decent feeling" and support his efforts. He writes:
The memorial was never delivered to the queen, though it was later published in The Times
.
Open hostilities between China and Britain started in 1839. A naval skirmish in the autumn of 1839, following the politic afterspell of the opium hand-over, was in fact the very first act of war, in what later should be recalled as "The First Opium War
" . The immediate effect was that both sides, by the words of Superintendent Captain Charles Elliot
, and the Chinese High-commissioner Lin Zexu made a ban to all trade. Before this, Lin had pressured the Portuguese government of Macau
, so the British found themselves without refuge, except for the bare and rocky harbours of Hong Kong
.
and Zhejiang
. The governors of these two provinces failed to heed a warning from Lin, however, and were unprepared when the British easily landed and occupied Dinghai.
Because of this defeat, and also because of the intrinsic behaviour of Chinese imperial political structure of the Qing Dynasty, Lin was popularized as a scapegoat for these losses. His position was then given to Qishan in September 1840. As punishment for his failures, Lin was sent to the remote Ili
in Xinjiang
. The Chinese government considered Lin to be an official of rare virtue, and in 1845 he was appointed as governor-general of Shaanxi-Gansu. In 1847 he became governor-general of Yunnan-Guizhou. But these posts were less prestigious than his previous position in Canton, and his career did not fully recover from the failures there .
While in Xinjiang, Lin was the first Chinese scholar to take note of several aspects of Muslim culture there. In 1845 he noted in a poem that the Muslims in Ili did not worship idols, but bowed and prayed to tombs decorated with poles that had the tails of cows and horses attached to them. This was the widespread shamanic practice of erecting a tugh
, but this was its first recorded appearance in Chinese writings. He also recorded several Kazakh
oral tales, such as one concerning a green goat spirit of the lake whose appearance is a harbinger of hail or rain.
He died in 1850 while on the way to Guangxi
, where the government was sending him to help put down the Taiping Rebellion
. He was a patriot of ability who attained an international reputation as "Commissioner Lin." He was opposed to the opening of the country but felt the need of a better knowledge of foreigner
s, which drove him to collect much material for a geography of the world. He later gave this material to Wei Yuan
, who published an Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms (Hǎiguó túzhì 海國圖志) in 1844.
June 3, the day when Lin confiscated the chests of opium, is celebrated as Anti-Smoking Day in the Republic of China
in Taiwan
. Manhattan
's Chatham Square
, in Chinatown
, contains a statue of Lin, commemorating his early struggle against drug use. Although he has in essence led the war against the debilitating drug with some initial success, with the arrest of 1,700 opium dealers and destruction of 2.6 million pounds of opium, he had been made the scapegoat for the actions leading to British retaliation, and ultimately failing to stem the tide of opium import and use in China. Nevertheless, Lin Zexu is popularly viewed as a hero of superlative conduct and national service, and whose likeness have been immortalized at various locations around the world.
Despite the antagonism between the Chinese and the British at the time, the renowned English sinologist Herbert Giles
, who was active in the later part of the 19th century and was the co-creator of Wade-Giles
transliteration, praised and admired Lin. He wrote: "He was a fine scholar, a just and merciful official and a true patriot." A wax statue of Lin also appeared in Madame Tussauds
Wax Museum in London.
More recently, Lin Zexu has appeared as a character in River of Smoke
, the second novel in the Ibis trilogy by Amitav Ghosh
, which takes the Opium Wars as its setting to shed new light on a much-repressed history while offering a contemporary critique of globalization. The novel takes place in 1838-1839, during which time Commissioner Lin arrived in Canton and tensions escalated between the foreigners and the Chinese officials.
Although he was not seen as such until well into the twentieth century, Lin Zexu is now seen as a national hero
for Chinese people; three films have been made on his role in the Opium Wars such that he is now one of the symbols of modern China's resistance to European imperialism.
A statue of Lin stands in the United States in Chatham Square (Kimlau Square) in New York's Chinatown
.
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
.
He is most recognized for his conduct and his constant position on the "high moral ground" in his fight, as a "shepherd" of his people, against the opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
trade in Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
. Although the non-medicinal consumption of opium was banned by Emperor Yongzheng in 1729, by the 1830s China's economy and society were being seriously affected by huge imports of opium from British and other traders based in the city. Lin's forceful opposition to the trade on moral and social grounds is considered to be the primary catalyst for the First Opium War
First Opium War
The First Anglo-Chinese War , known popularly as the First Opium War or simply the Opium War, was fought between the United Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty of China over their conflicting viewpoints on diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice...
of 1839–42. Because of this firm stance, he has subsequently been considered as a role model for moral governance, particularly by Chinese people.
Early life and career
Lin was born in Houguan (侯官) (modern day FuzhouFuzhou
Fuzhou is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute the Mindong linguistic and cultural area....
), in Fujian province. In 1811, he received the Jinshi
Imperial examination
The Imperial examination was an examination system in Imperial China designed to select the best administrative officials for the state's bureaucracy. This system had a huge influence on both society and culture in Imperial China and was directly responsible for the creation of a class of...
degree, the highest in the imperial examinations, and the same year, he was appointed to the prestigious Hanlin Academy
Hanlin Academy
The Hanlin Academy was an academic and administrative institution founded in the eighth century Tang dynasty China by Emperor Xuanzong.Membership in the academy was confined to an elite group of scholars, who performed secretarial and literary tasks for the court. One of its main duties was to...
. He rose rapidly through various grades of provincial service and became Governor-General of Hunan
Hunan
' is a province of South-Central China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...
and Hubei
Hubei
' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...
in 1837, where he launched an opium suppression campaign.
Campaign to suppress opium
An ever-growing demand for teaTea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
, combined with the acceptance by China of only silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
in payment, resulted in large continuous trade deficits. Attempts by the British (Macarthney in 1792), the Dutch (Van Braam
Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest
Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest Dutch-American merchant who is mostly known for his participation in the last Dutch embassy to China under the tributary system.- Early career :...
in 1794), Russia (Golovkin in 1805) and the British yet again (Amherst
William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst
William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, GCH, PC was a British diplomat and colonial administrator. He was Governor-General of India between 1823 and 1828.-Background and education:...
in 1816) to negotiate access to the China market were resounding failures.. By 1817, the British hit upon counter-trading in a narcotic
Narcotic
The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with any sleep-inducing properties. In the United States of America it has since become associated with opioids, commonly morphine and heroin and their derivatives, such as hydrocodone. The term is, today, imprecisely...
, Indian opium, as a way to both reduce the trade deficit and finally gain profit from the formerly money-losing Indian colony
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
. The Qing Administration originally tolerated the importation of opium because it imposed an indirect tax on Chinese subjects, while allowing the British to double tea exports from China to England, which profited the monopoly for tea exports of the Qing imperial treasury & its agents. However, by 1820 the planting of tea in the Indian and African colonies, along with accelerated opium consumption, reversed the flow of silver, just when the Imperial Treasury needed to finance suppression of rebellions against the Qing. The Viceroy of Guangdong began efforts to constrain the trade, but due to large increases in the supply of opium and the large coast line of South China and corruption (the Qing coastal navy was one of the largest smugglers
Smuggling
Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...
of opium), these efforts failed.
A formidable bureaucrat known for his competence and high moral standards, Lin was sent to Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
as imperial commissioner by the Daoguang Emperor
Daoguang Emperor
The Daoguang Emperor was the eighth emperor of the Manchurian Qing dynasty and the sixth Qing emperor to rule over China, from 1820 to 1850.-Early years:...
in late 1838 to halt the illegal importation of opium from the British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. He arrived in March 1839 and made a huge impact on the opium trade within a matter of months. He arrested more than 1,700 Chinese opium dealers and confiscated over 70,000 opium pipe
Opium pipe
An opium pipe is a pipe designed for the vaporization and inhalation of opium. True opium pipes allow for the drug to be vaporized while being heated over a special oil lamp known as an opium lamp. It is thought that this manner of "smoking" opium began in the seventeenth century when a special...
s. He initially attempted to get foreign companies to forfeit their opium stores in exchange for tea, but this ultimately failed and Lin resorted to using force in the western merchants' enclave. It took Lin a month and a half before the merchants gave up nearly 1.2 million kilograms (2.6 million pounds) of opium. Beginning 3 June 1839, 500 workers laboured for 23 days in order to destroy all of it, mixing the opium with lime and salt and throwing it into the ocean outside of Humen Town
Humen Town
Humen Town , also known as Taiping, is a town within the borders of Dongguan city, on the eastern side of the Bocca Tigris on the east bank of the Pearl River Delta, in Guangdong province, southern China...
. 26 June is now the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
The International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking is a United Nations International Day against drug abuse and the illegal drug trade. It has been held annually since 1988 on 26 June, a date chosen to commemorate Lin Zexu's dismantling of the opium trade in Humen, Guangdong, just...
in honour of Lin Zexu's work.
Lin also wrote an extraordinary "memorial" (折奏/摺奏), by way of an open letter published in Canton
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, to Queen Victoria of Great Britain in 1839 urging her to end the opium trade. The letter is filled with Confucian
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
concepts of morality and spirituality. As a representative of the Imperial court, Lin adopts a position of superiority and his tone is condescending, despite the British clearly having the upper hand, military-wise, when the event is examined with hindsight. His primary line of argument is that China is providing Britain with valuable commodities such as tea, porcelain, spices and silk, while Britain sends only "poison" in return. He accuses the "barbarians" (i.e. private merchants) of coveting profit and lacking morality. His memorial expressed a desire that Victoria would act "in accordance with decent feeling" and support his efforts. He writes:
The memorial was never delivered to the queen, though it was later published in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
.
Open hostilities between China and Britain started in 1839. A naval skirmish in the autumn of 1839, following the politic afterspell of the opium hand-over, was in fact the very first act of war, in what later should be recalled as "The First Opium War
First Opium War
The First Anglo-Chinese War , known popularly as the First Opium War or simply the Opium War, was fought between the United Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty of China over their conflicting viewpoints on diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice...
" . The immediate effect was that both sides, by the words of Superintendent Captain Charles Elliot
Charles Elliot
Sir Charles Elliot, KCB , was a British naval officer, diplomat, and colonial administrator. He became the first administrator of Hong Kong in 1841 while serving as both Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China...
, and the Chinese High-commissioner Lin Zexu made a ban to all trade. Before this, Lin had pressured the Portuguese government of Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
, so the British found themselves without refuge, except for the bare and rocky harbours of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
.
Exile in Xinjiang
Lin made significant preparation for war against the possible British invasion. The British sailed north to attack JiangsuJiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...
and Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
. The governors of these two provinces failed to heed a warning from Lin, however, and were unprepared when the British easily landed and occupied Dinghai.
Because of this defeat, and also because of the intrinsic behaviour of Chinese imperial political structure of the Qing Dynasty, Lin was popularized as a scapegoat for these losses. His position was then given to Qishan in September 1840. As punishment for his failures, Lin was sent to the remote Ili
Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture
Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture , in northernmost Xinjiang, is the only Kazakh autonomous prefecture of the People's Republic of China.-Geography and coordinates:The following figures excludes both Tacheng Prefecture and Altay Prefecture....
in Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
. The Chinese government considered Lin to be an official of rare virtue, and in 1845 he was appointed as governor-general of Shaanxi-Gansu. In 1847 he became governor-general of Yunnan-Guizhou. But these posts were less prestigious than his previous position in Canton, and his career did not fully recover from the failures there .
While in Xinjiang, Lin was the first Chinese scholar to take note of several aspects of Muslim culture there. In 1845 he noted in a poem that the Muslims in Ili did not worship idols, but bowed and prayed to tombs decorated with poles that had the tails of cows and horses attached to them. This was the widespread shamanic practice of erecting a tugh
Tugh
The tugh or tuman tugh, also spelled tuk or tuq, was a pole adorned with yak or horse tails, used as a standard or banner by various Central Asian and Turkic peoples....
, but this was its first recorded appearance in Chinese writings. He also recorded several Kazakh
Kazakh language
Kazakh is a Turkic language which belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages, closely related to Nogai and Karakalpak....
oral tales, such as one concerning a green goat spirit of the lake whose appearance is a harbinger of hail or rain.
Death and legacy
Guangxi
Guangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
, where the government was sending him to help put down the Taiping Rebellion
Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion was a widespread civil war in southern China from 1850 to 1864, led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan, who, having received visions, maintained that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, against the ruling Manchu-led Qing Dynasty...
. He was a patriot of ability who attained an international reputation as "Commissioner Lin." He was opposed to the opening of the country but felt the need of a better knowledge of foreigner
Alien (law)
In law, an alien is a person in a country who is not a citizen of that country.-Categorization:Types of "alien" persons are:*An alien who is legally permitted to remain in a country which is foreign to him or her. On specified terms, this kind of alien may be called a legal alien of that country...
s, which drove him to collect much material for a geography of the world. He later gave this material to Wei Yuan
Wei Yuan
Wei Yuan , born Wei Yuanda , courtesy names Moshen and Hanshi , was a Chinese scholar from Shaoyang, Hunan. He moved to Yangzhou in 1831, where he remained for the rest of his life. Wei obtained the provincial degree in the Imperial examinations and subsequently worked in the secretariat of...
, who published an Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms (Hǎiguó túzhì 海國圖志) in 1844.
June 3, the day when Lin confiscated the chests of opium, is celebrated as Anti-Smoking Day in the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
. Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
's Chatham Square
Chatham Square, Manhattan
Chatham Square is a major intersection in Manhattan's Chinatown. The square lies at the confluence of seven streets: Bowery, East Broadway, St. James Place, Mott Street, Oliver Street, Worth Street and Park Row. The postal ZIP Code is 10038.-History:...
, in Chinatown
Chinatown, Manhattan
Manhattan's Chinatown , home to one of the highest concentrations of Chinese people in the Western hemisphere, is located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
, contains a statue of Lin, commemorating his early struggle against drug use. Although he has in essence led the war against the debilitating drug with some initial success, with the arrest of 1,700 opium dealers and destruction of 2.6 million pounds of opium, he had been made the scapegoat for the actions leading to British retaliation, and ultimately failing to stem the tide of opium import and use in China. Nevertheless, Lin Zexu is popularly viewed as a hero of superlative conduct and national service, and whose likeness have been immortalized at various locations around the world.
Despite the antagonism between the Chinese and the British at the time, the renowned English sinologist Herbert Giles
Herbert Giles
Herbert Allen Giles was a British diplomat and sinologist, educated at Charterhouse. He modified a Mandarin Chinese Romanization system earlier established by Thomas Wade, resulting in the widely known Wade-Giles Chinese transliteration system...
, who was active in the later part of the 19th century and was the co-creator of Wade-Giles
Wade-Giles
Wade–Giles , sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a romanization system for the Mandarin Chinese language. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade during the mid-19th century , and was given completed form with Herbert Giles' Chinese–English dictionary of 1892.Wade–Giles was the most...
transliteration, praised and admired Lin. He wrote: "He was a fine scholar, a just and merciful official and a true patriot." A wax statue of Lin also appeared in Madame Tussauds
Madame Tussauds
Madame Tussauds is a wax museum in London with branches in a number of major cities. It was founded by wax sculptor Marie Tussaud and was formerly known as "Madame Tussaud's", but the apostrophe is no longer used...
Wax Museum in London.
More recently, Lin Zexu has appeared as a character in River of Smoke
River of Smoke
River of Smoke is a novel by Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh. It is the second volume of what will be the Ibis trilogy.-Synopsis:The promotional text refers to the storyline which can be summarized as follows: After the incidents on Ibis, which was caught in a storm and eventually ended up in...
, the second novel in the Ibis trilogy by Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh , is a Bengali Indian author best known for his work in the English language.-Life:Ghosh was born in Calcutta on July 11, 1956, to Lieutenant Colonel Shailendra Chandra Ghosh, a retired officer of the pre-independence Indian Army, and was educated at The Doon School; St...
, which takes the Opium Wars as its setting to shed new light on a much-repressed history while offering a contemporary critique of globalization. The novel takes place in 1838-1839, during which time Commissioner Lin arrived in Canton and tensions escalated between the foreigners and the Chinese officials.
Influence
Folk hero
A folk hero is a type of hero, real, fictional, or mythological. The single salient characteristic which makes a character a folk hero is the imprinting of the name, personality and deeds of the character in the popular consciousness. This presence in the popular consciousness is evidenced by...
for Chinese people; three films have been made on his role in the Opium Wars such that he is now one of the symbols of modern China's resistance to European imperialism.
A statue of Lin stands in the United States in Chatham Square (Kimlau Square) in New York's Chinatown
Chinatown, Manhattan
Manhattan's Chinatown , home to one of the highest concentrations of Chinese people in the Western hemisphere, is located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
.