The Social life of opium in China /

Yangwen, Zheng

The Social life of opium in China / Zheng Yangwen - Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2005 - xiii, 241p, 23cm.

The 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, and how it spread throughout all sections of society, embraced by rich and poor alike as a culture and an institution.

0521846080


Opium abuse--China--History

306.1 / YAN

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