Tai-Pan (The Asian Saga #2) -

James Clavell

Hodder & Stoughton

2013

738 páginas

1d 0h 36m

ISBN-10: B00D434AQU

Tai-Pan ©1966 '-' Set in the turbulent days of the founding of Hong Kong in the 1840s, Tai-Pan is the story of Dirk Struan, the ruler - the Tai-Pan - of the most powerful trading company in the Far East. He is also a pirate, an opium smuggler, and a master manipulator of men. This is the story of his fight to establish himself and his dynasty as the undisputed masters of the Orient.

[Wikipedia] : Tai-Pan is a 1966 novel written by James Clavell about European and American traders who move into Hong Kong in 1842 following the end of the First Opium War. It is the second book in Clavell's "Asian Saga".

Inicialmente apenas uma rocha nua, Hong Kong transformou-se em um dos mais importantes entrepostos comerciais do século XIX. A China ainda fechava-se aos estrangeiros, e os ingleses usaram a ilha para comprar chá e seda, e vender ópio. É nesse cenário que, a partir de 26 de janeiro de 1841, uma colônia nasce e cresce na ilha, onde a luta pela supremacia econômica acontece entre os clãs Struan e Brock. Não há espaço para clemência, só para a guerra surda e intestina, onde as alianças com os poucos chineses que têm contato com os estrangeiros, revela-se primordial. Os amores clandestinos entre ingleses e chinesas, os costumes orientais que começam a se chocar com os novos tempos, o acúmulo de prata, as novas práticas comerciais e a chegada dos primeiros norte-americanos - o autor mostra uma fascinante pintura de um tempo de desbravadores heróicos.
====
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai-Pan_(novel)
https://pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultura_de_Hong_Kong
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_House_(novel)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlwind_(novel)
https://pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xógum_(livro)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Asian_Saga
"(...) The name Asian Saga was first applied to the series after Shōgun had been published. The purpose of the Asian Saga was, according to Clavell—descendant of a family long in service to the British Empire, and who was a prisoner of war of the Japanese during the Second World War—to tell "the story of the Anglo-Saxon in Asia.". Four of the six books—Tai-Pan, Gai-Jin, Noble House, and Whirlwind—follow the dealings of the great trading company Struan's, the Noble House of Asia (based on Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited), its founder Dirk Struan, and his various descendants. Gai-Jin provides the major link between the Shōgun and Struan's storylines. . .
====
(*) The Asian Saga ordered by internal chronology:
• Shōgun: set in feudal Japan, 1600.
• Tai-Pan: set in Hong Kong, 1841.
• Gai-Jin: set in Japan, 1862.
• King Rat: set in a Japanese POW camp, Singapore, 1945.
• Noble House (novel): set in Hong Kong, 1963.
• Whirlwind: set in Iran, 1979.
====
[About the Author] : James Clavell, the son of a Royal Navy family, was educated in Portsmouth before, as a young artillery officer, he was captured by the Japanese at the Fall of Singapore. It was on this experience that his bestselling novel KING RAT was based. He maintained this oriental interest in his other great works: TAI-PAN, SHOGUN, NOBLE HOUSE and GAI JIN. Clavell lived for many years in Vancouver and Los Angeles, before settling in Switzerland, where he died in 1994.