Opium Wars

Steampunk Opium Wars VIDEO: Lin Zexu Just Says No!

Here’s the first extract from The Steampunk Opium Wars which debuted at the National Maritime Museum on Thursday. The story so far … The East India Company has been growing mass-produced opium in Bengal and swamping China with the narcotic, turning an aristocratic vice into a mass addiction. The Emperor calls in Commissioner Lin Zexu […]

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The Steampunk Opium Wars extravaganza at the Greenwich National Maritime Museum 16th Feb 2012

Britain’s craving for chinoiserie in the 18th and 19th centuries resulted in a trade imbalance that threatened to empty the treasury. To pay for the tea, silks, spices and porcelain we liked so much, the East India Company sold enormous quantities of cheap Bengal-grown opium to China, turning an aristocratic vice into a nationwide addiction.

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Alice In Wonderland review: Disney and the Opium Wars

Rather belatedly, I’m posting a review of Tim Burton’s 3D movie adaptation of Alice In Wonderland. Being a sucker for the technology (especially now that you get proper stylish Rayban-style spectacles and not the horrid — if nostalgic — cardboard face-wear of old), I had gone to see Alice the first week it opened at

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