#opium war

[panicinthestudio]

The Hong Kong Museum of History has reopened its permanent exhibition with a new theme on the city’s shared “roots” with mainland China, nearly six years after it was closed for a revamp.

[shihlun]

此物出在浙江處州府青田縣數十成羣人禦之化為血水兵官持砲擊之刀箭不能傷現有示諭軍民人守有能剿除者從重獎賞此怪近因官兵逐急旋即落水逢人便食真奇怪哉

"Chinese Caricature of an English Sailor (in war of 1839)"

The Illustrated London News, April 25, 1857.

[omg-hellgirl]

Westerners preach the "love of God" and "love of man", and they seem really to believe it. And yet they wage wars with gunboats and cannons to conquer people by force, as well as imposing opium, a poison worse than plague, on the Chinese — all for profit. It looks as though the love of God is less real than the love of profit.

Zhigang (志刚), Qing Dynasty official.

[ghostshipglamour]

!!!DUNDY MENTION!!!

First of all ouch. But good on him for the conscience!

From McLean, D. (2006). Surgeons of The Opium War: The Navy on the China Coast, 1840-42. The English Historical Review, 121(491), 487–504. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3806140

[theyonagoda]

More JFJ's racist poetry, irony, and some musings on cannibalism.

This is probably where the "Roast duck" part of the speech in The Terror came from. I wish they would've stuck with pork as a reference to their grisly fates, with human flesh being euphamistically referred to as "long pork." But that might've been too obvious.

JFJ's sense of humor has always seemed to be quite trollish, from the bad puns ("Hairy Bus" comes to mind) to, well, this verse, which is from "The Voyage of HMS Cornwallis," under the pen-name "Tom Bowline," alluding to his own illigitimacy (as it's a generic name given to boys conceived on a ship's deck.) It's about the first opium war. I'm not sure which scenes within the cantos are firstahand accounts and which seemed to be made up for the fun of it; Im sensing it's mostly the former, however.

The next part's going to get a little gross, btw, but it's bascially speculation on how the cannibalism was conducted and also HIS FUCKING TONGUE THEY ATE HIS TONGUE (possibly)

tldr for the whole post: JFJ himself made cannibalism/"long pork" jokes, so I'm don't feel too bad joking about him getting his face (and tongue!) eaten, to be honest. I know I sound deranged but my fascination comes from a place of academic interest as an anthropology student.

Oh also!!! While we're on the topic of how he was eaten, an old hunter on the RtFE forum said that the manner which his jawbone was cut reminded him of how hunters get the entire tongue out of certain animals. It's a nice hunk of muscle and much larger than you'd expect, given how most of it is inside the mouth. I won't be surprised, given that they were going for the face already, that there would be some pretty merticulous work picking him apart.

Do you think the men had him raw, or did they have the resources to cook him? Genuinely curious here. I don't know what's more bleak, the imagery of them roasting his flesh, or them chewing on him all bloody. I don't know what would be more ironic, considering his "roast/grilled" jokes. Consuming the sick men raw also certainly would've made things a lot worse, health-wise.

[jackoshadows]

Reminder that the British aristocracy's wealth came from looting and exploiting their former colonies while doing things like pushing the Opium trade in China for example. They are just thieves, proudly parading their stolen loot. These people have no shame. The fact that these thieving, racist, xenophobic, classist aristocrats still have fans is something that amazes me daily.

Rose Hanbury, Marchioness of Cholmondeley, Accused of Possessing Looted Chinese Artifacts

After images were recently widely circulated anew from older stories in the Financial Times, Vanity Fair, and other media about Hanbury and Houghton Hall—the 18th-century estate in the Norfolk countryside where she lives with her husband David Rocksavage, the Marquess of Cholmondeley, and their three children—some social media users have taken particular note of specific pieces of oriental decor, suggesting that they may have been pillaged from China during the late Qing Dynasty, toward the end of the 19th century. “The luxurious life of Prince William’s ‘mistress’ Rose actually came from China,” reads the title of a post last week on Xiaohongshu, an Instagram-like Chinese social media platform. According to the post—and similar ones spread across other Chinese social media platforms like Weibo and Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) and eventually also on the likes of TikTok, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter)—Hanbury’s husband had inherited the furniture in question from the Sassoons (of which he is a descendant through his paternal grandmother, Sybil Sassoon).  In fact, the Sassoons, nicknamed “the Rothschilds of the East,” were a Jewish Baghdadi family that owned and oversaw a 19th-century trading empire, which grew much of its immense fortune dealing in commodities like textiles, tea, and notably opium across India, China, and beyond. As future generations of Sassoons gravitated toward England, they officially entered the British aristocracy when the family patriarch’s son Abdallah was knighted in 1872 as Sir Albert. Since then, the Sassoons gained prominence as wealthy business owners, politicians, and friends of the royal family. While the Sassoons played a significant role in shaping China and were avid collectors of art from around the world, it’s unclear whether they acquired specific items through purchase or pilfering. The height of their business in the country, however, coincided with China’s “century of humiliation,” which started in 1839 and ended in 1945 and was marked by the looting of millions of artifacts—most notably from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, which was ransacked by British and French soldiers during the second Opium War.

[redsamuraiii]

5 Trivia about The Last Samurai

Although The Last Samurai is known to be historically inaccurate, I realized that some part of it does make sense but the producers just tried to simplify it for the audience as not everyone knows the complex history of Japan.

1. Katsumoto and Hasegawa

They fought together for the Emperor but now they fight on opposing sides. 

Katsumoto 's character is based on Saigo Takamori of Satsuma .

Hasegawa is probably inspired by Hasegawa Yoshimichi of Choshu . 

Historically, Satsuma once supported the Shogunate (Shogun) while Choshu supported the Imperial (Emperor). But over time Satsuma realized the urgency of change and embrace new technology in the face of emerging Western Powers and that the decaying and stubborn Shogunate will destroy the country .

Satsuma join forces with Choshu to overthrow the Shogunate. After they succeeded, Satsuma realized they got played as the new Imperial government is dominated by Choshu instead of having lords from various clans to govern the country and retaining the Samurai way of life but with modern technology .

This sparks the Satsuma Rebellion against the Imperial (Emperor) where former Samurai rallied to Saigo Takamori. While the Imperial is fully modernized and equipped with guns and canons, Satsuma has limited supplies by then and the Ronin that rallied to the cause are poor and uses Katana and arrows.

2. Guns and Samurai

So yes, guns are available since the time of Oda Nobunaga who changed the way of war in Japan and the number of guns used in battle increases as time goes by so one would think that by the time The Last Samurai takes place everyone should have guns right? 

While the movie showed Katsumoto as a man of principles to not use modern weapons but there is a practical reason : money. After the collapse of the Shogunate, the Imperial strip the Samurai of their lands, earnings and status, so they became poor and could not afford to buy more guns.

Guns are not cheap, especially when there is high demand for the European traders to make profit. A reason why in the early days, some Kyushu lords convert to Christianity. Not out of faith but to get exclusive deals of cheap new guns in exchange of allowing the priests into their domains to preach.

3. Poor Samurai

Where is Katsumoto's castle? Every Daimyo has his own castle. As mentioned, since the Samurai are stripped of their lands, the Castles are now under the control of the Imperial. So Katsumoto withdrew to the mountains of his ancestral place at his son’s village, where the monks and peasants are.

Here he reflected his past actions, probably regretting what he had done and seen at Aizu. While the Satsuma are reasonable but the Choshu are less forgiving due to their personal grudges with the Tokugawa Shogunate that strip away their lands and dignity after their defeat at Sekigahara . 

In the Japanese Drama, Yae No Sakura , when the Imperials entered Aizu, the Satsuma was shocked to find most of the defenders are women and children who committed seppuku to avoid capture, lying dead all over Aizu, which disturbed the commander who was expecting Samurai and foot soldiers.

I like to think this commander is Katsumoto which is why he understands what Algren was feeling knowing that they both do not deserve to live. 

4.The European Samurai

Nathan Algren is based on Jules Brunet of the French military who was sent to Japan by Napoleon III to train the Japanese in modern weaponry. He was caught in the crossfire when the Boshin War broke out and received orders to return home to France but he rejected it to stay and fight with the Samurai.

He trained the Aizu Samurai and develop comradeship with them, particularly with the Vice Commander of the Shinsengumi , Hijikata Toshizo . Although Jules Brunet did not wear Samurai armor but he did fought alongside them till the end until the death of Hiijikata at Hokkaido when they were outnumbered.

But Jules Brunet managed to return safely to France just as Nathan Algren survived the war. And just as Nathan Algren talked to the Emperor about how Katsumoto lived his life as a Samurai, Jules Brunet wrote in his memoir, holding Hiijikata Toshizo in high regard , referring to him as the last true Samurai.

5. English Speaking Samurai

Since the arrival of the Europeans and Black Ships, the Samurai have been studying in earnest about Western medicine and technology, hoping to elevate their standing on the world platform and be an equal to the European powers as they fear of what happened to China in Opium Wars happen to them next. Not all, but the high ranking Samurai, especially those on the West of Japan like the Satsuma and Choshu who have been trading with Europeans for many years and have begun learning their languages ​​​​​so it is of no surprise that Katsumoto knows English which he teaches his son as well.

Besides, unlike the early days of the Samurai, during the 300 years of peace and isolation under Tokugawa Shogunate, the Samurai learn to read and write in order to help the Shogun administer and govern the country including land surveying, tax collecting and accounting balance sheets .

Thoughts

Overall I think the producers did an amazing job simplifying the long and complex history of Boshin War and Meiji Restoration in a span of two hours plus movie without exaggerating. For a historical fiction I think it's pretty great. After all it'a not a documentary but a masterpiece meant to be enjoyed, filled with spirituality and life lessons. 

But that is a story for another time. Thank you for reading.

[geekysteven]

When Karl Marx said that "religion is the opiate of the masses," he just meant that Great Britain would force China to buy some religion.