James Clavell was a British author who wrote several novels set in Asia (Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore). Clavell’s interest in Asia was sparked by his actual experiences. He joined the British Royal Artillery at age 16 and fought the Japanese in Malaya where he was wounded by machine gun fire, captured and became a prisoner of war at Changi Prison in Singapore. This could not have been a good experience since Changi was notorious for poor living conditions and the brutal treatment of prisoners by the Japanese. Its therefore somewhat surprising that Clavell’s novel’s generally portray the Japanese in a positive light, especially the samurai culture portrayed in Clavell’s most famous novel, Shogun.
Clavell also lived in Hong Kong in the 1960's where he wrote Tai-Pan, the plot of which involves European and American traders who develop the highly lucrative opium trade with the Chinese in 1841 after the first Opium War. Like all of his novels, Tai-Pan is loosely based on fact; in this instance, Clavell fictionalized the story of Jardine Matheson's beginnings as an opium trader in Hong Kong (Jardine Matheson is still one the the biggest companies in Hong Kong). The book’s main character is Dirk Struan, an extremely ambitious, opium trader who helps found the British colony of Hong Kong and becomes Hong Kong’s "tai-pan" (supreme leader).
Film version of Taipan
Although Struan is a ruthless pirate and opium smuggler, he also has more admirable qualities including loyalty, generosity, openness to cultural differences and willingness to learn from them. While many of the Western characters view the Chinese as inferior human beings, Struan develops much more respect for the Chinese and their culture - learning their way of doing business, having a Chinese mistress who he actually falls in love with and has a half-Chinese son with. Tai-pan paints an exotic and often realistic picture of early Hong Kong, many aspects of which are still present (relentless pursuit of wealth & power, free trade and business-friendly government, horse racing, mixing of Eastern and Western culture) into a highly entertaining adventure/love-story/pseudo-history.
Clavell also wrote a sequel to Tai-pan, Noble House which takes place in Hong Kong during the 1960's. The story of the Noble House business empire, founded by Dirk Struan, picks up with a new tai-pan, Ian Dunross, a descendant of Dirk Struan who has to rescue the family business from mismanagement by partnering with an American millionaire and simultaneously fighting off a competitor descended from Dirk Struan’s enemy in Tai-pan. Noble House became a best-seller and became the basis for a 1988 TV miniseries starring Pierce Brosnan.
Clavell is one of my favorite authors and I've read all of his Asian novels. I recommend them highly for anyone who wants to get a decent introduction to some aspects of Asian history and culture in a very entertaining way. Who knows, it might even lead you to want to know more as it did me (I've since read many books on Chinese history).
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