Historians are still debating
whether the widespread use of opium in late imperial and early Republican China
was a serious problem, according to Joyce Madancy, associate professor of
history.
“(By the late 20th century,
some historians held that it) was a plague on the Chinese people – sapping
their willpower and stamina, weakening the military, draining the Qing treasury
while padding the coffers of the colonial Indian government, and reinforcing
China's international image as an empire in decline,” Madancy writes in a
recent paper published in Modern China.
In the 1880's, at the peak
of China's opium use, the country
was consuming an estimated 1.1 million pounds of the drug per year, she said.
“Many British and Americans saw opium smoking
in China as
something immoral that was destroying society,” said Madancy. “But at the same
time, people in Britain
and the U.S. were
consuming lots of opium. Why was it immoral for some societies but not for
others?”
Madancy will address the topic in
the fall faculty colloquium on Tuesday, Nov. 5, at 11:30 a.m. in Reamer Campus Center Auditorium with a talk
on “Constructing and Combating China's Opium Problem.”
Madancy, at Union
since 1995, earned her Ph.D. from the University
of Michigan. She is the author of a
forthcoming book, “The Troublesome Legacy of Commissioner Lin: The Opium Trade
and Opium Suppression in Fujian Province,
1820's to 1920's.”