What can I say about ‘Tai-Pan’? Is it really a Historical novel? Is it a Alternative History? These are the two questions I keep asking myself while working my way through the late James Clavell’s Asian saga, which for your consideration are the following:‘Shogun’ (1600)‘Tai-Pan’ (1841)‘Gai-Jin’ (1862)‘King Rat’(1945)‘Noble House’(1963)‘Whirlwind’(1979) Before joining Goodreads, I had already read ‘Shogun’, so you, my friendly reader, do not have the luxury of a review of that as comparison, but I believe that what I say about ‘Tai-Pan’, set in Hong Kong, can easily be said of it’s predecessor. First off, let’s talk about historical content. Clavell has said himself in interviews that the reason his characters are based on historical figures, the changes of names from historical to fictional ones are due to the fact that he wanted them to do something and say something outside their historical content (an interesting text ‘What we can learn from ‘Shogun: Japanese History and Western Fantasy’ :Editor Henry Smith/The Program for Asian Studies, University of California, Santa Barbra), is available online as a searchable text: (http://www.columbia.edu/~hds2/learning/) is an interesting group of essays both praising and criticizing certain aspects of Clavell’s novel, but he makes clear that as a novelist, he was not so interested in historical accuracy as he was in storytelling. This puts him somewhat apart from the likes of John Jakes, who attempts to portray the American epochs in his long Kent family chronicles and shorter Civil War epic as true as can possibly be. But Clavell goes farther, for while there is a George Washington and an Abraham Lincoln who resemble who they generally were in history in Jakes‘ series, Clavell actually invents names to stand in to the company of historical figures. So, with ‘Shogun‘, instead of William Adams, we have John Blackthorne and in place of Tokugawa we have Toranaga. In the case of ’Tai-Pan’ and the case of William Jardine, we have the Scotsman, Dirk Struan. Why am I making such a big deal with names? Nothing, except that what Clavell is doing rather than telling a historical story, is to make commentary on the times, not by addressing what a given period does that can be seen and addressed like many pieces of literature can and does do (note that I’m not criticizing Clavell’s desire to make commentary here), but by allowing the historical characters to think and do things which may not be historically accurate, yet can ultimately serve Clavell’s point on the subject, especially of East/West cultural and political issues, and one with an Anglo-centric slant. I have read many commentaries about Clavell being balanced in his view of the far East and the West, for example, unlike Blackthorne, who by the end of the novel practically swallows Japanese culture whole, Dirk Struan’s character in ‘Tai-Pan’ wants to strike a balance between Eastern and Western sensibilities. But while trying to see their point on two novels so far, I find something rather interesting. It seems that there is a circular argument, at least in ‘Tai-Pan’ that while Struan appreciates Chinese/Cantonese culture, it is because he is not only a merchant, and one waging a personal vendetta/war against the other merchant rival, Tyler Brock, former, somewhat sadistic shipmaster, but because he’s from Great Britain proper, that his perspective carries more weight, and not necessarily that China has truly (e.g. “spiritually“), opened his eyes, and certainly not to the degree of Blackthorne’s love affair with Japan. So, in the end, rather than being a balance between Eastern and Western cultures, as an Asian saga might imply, it is more Asia as seen through Anglo-Saxon eyes. Another point in the novel that brings this home and actually puts ‘Shogun’ ahead of ’Tai-Pan’ is the fact that scenes in ’Tai-Pan’ are almost entirely set up in the British settlements around Hong Kong. We don’t see an equal representation with the Asian side of things as we do with ‘Shogun’ and the interplay with Toranaga (Historical name: Tokugawa) and other Japanese in dealing with the “foreign issue” What we get are snippets, then brought back to the British side of things, for example, we get Struan’s mistress, May-May and himself in conversations, or there are dealings with her bastard son through Struan, the secret Triad member, Gordon Chen, the only two “major” Chinese/Cantonese characters in the book. There are other more minor scenes and references, but the story is always planted more firmly in British soil. Around this time, there was an ever growing xenophobia in China that could have been more fully examined, but never reaches that point, only touched upon. This could have allowed more characters from the Asian side to participate in the drama. As it is, the main center of the story revolves around the one-upmanship between Struan and his company, Noble House which is based on the real Jardine Mattheson Holdings Limited company, and Tyler Brock, with British politics, both domestically and abroad, occurring intermittently. Once again my question. Just what type of novel is this? Is it historical fiction, or historical commentary wrapped around an Anglo-centric bias? Why, if this is an Historical fiction, are there not major, or even minor fictional characters finding themselves in the time period, experiencing things for themselves, and addressing what they see are the main issues? Even the word “Tai-Pan” is used somewhat incorrectly, as it implies in the novel that the Tai-Pans (Definition: The head or owner of a business establishment), have great political power, maybe even more impressive power than the British Government itself, certainly something that Struan leaves an impression on from time to time, but not an emphasis which the word lends itself to. The most irritating thing about the book is Clavell’s Chinese character’s sense of diction, accent, and manner of speech. Most of the Chinese dialog in this novel is dominated by May-May, semi-main characters, like her and Gordon Chen. In any given pages she comes out sounding cartoonish. Dialect, accent, and diction are very hard things to do. In fact, to take Clavell off the hook , there are only a few great authors who can pull these things off without a hitch, so I sympathize. But reading May-May’s lines I grimace, as they sound so clunky. For a few lines, May-May sounds proficient, adding to her vocabulary Struan’s Scottish nuances, like “You dina…” (‘Tai-Pan’ 194), or “Na so loud! The sea god may hear you.”, as she attempts to appease the Chinese god’s to help their listing boat to safety, by pretending to offer the god gold, but “cheating” in the end, and promising Struan that the god would never know that she tricked the god out of her end of the bargain by not dropping some gold into the sea (195). As she is Struan’s mistress, picking up on Struan’s Scottish dialectical and phonetic nuances are understandable. We are never really given an approximation as to how long she had been with Struan, but it seems to be a significant time. Long enough to pick up the habits of the user of the second language she is learning from. But like many other Chinese characters in the book, she reverts at times from perfect sounding English to becoming the stereotypical Asian woman, speaking cute, quaint, but gibbering English (and I won’t repeat the sexual innuendo associated with Asian women trying to speak English, but I assume you get the idea!). What gives this book a plus, aside from the historical problems is that it is a decent drama and adventure. It has all the passion of ambition, love, and danger one can expect from a story with an “exotic“ setting and an adventure behind it. For this, I gave it three stars. But it doesn’t get more, because it doesn’t significantly deliver on its promise on the cover to be part of an ASIAN SAGA; one in which two cultures encounter one another, and the political and cultural consequences that follow. There is a Hong Kong hidden somewhere between two formable and foreign entities rivaling each other. But it is mostly a shadowed figure sandwiched between an Anglo-centric storyline, no matter how much Dirk Struan asserts his admiration and assimilation to some, and in the pages of the book, very little, Chinese culture. I still have four more novels in this series to go. I wonder how much further along Clavell will get in addressing things from both sides of the world?
Big, chewy, lip smacking, gut busting fiction. How appropriate that I should have finished it on Thanksgiving - a day given to gastronomical excess.Whew. This is not a historical tome. It is a fictionalized account of the first year of the British colony of Hong Kong (1841). The characters are all loosely based on actual people - as are their trading companies. That is what Clavell did in his novels and it's important that one understand that.Clavell was also an ardent supporter of Free Trade, an avowed opponent of Communism and Fascism and an admirer of certain aspects of both Asian and Western culture. Much has also been written about Clavell's fondness of blending those aspects that he believed were the best of both worlds to make a new culture. I would have to agree with those folks. All these aspects of Clavell come out strongly in his novels and will either drive you crazy or have you nodding in agreement. Whatever route you take it might be helpful to be prepared. Finally, and this is something that many seem to never take into account, James Clavell made his career for many years as a Hollywood screenwriter and movie director. He wrote popular entertainment (The Great Escape, The Fly and To Sir, with Love) and they were mainstream, big budget (mostly) affairs. Clavell brought this aspect to all of his novels as well. Being aware of the before mentioned details are important. They all play a major part in Clavell's writing. When you get right down to it Tai-Pan is a historical romance in the older sense (a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as having heroic qualities, who goes on a quest) only in this case Dirk Straun's quest is the never ending struggle to ensure that his company continue to thrive. As has been pointed out by others there is no grand battle to fight in this story, no Uber Villain to be brought down, no single event at all. The journey is the story. As a result there is a never ending series of "mini-adventures" within the story. Schemes are enacted, others are discovered, moves and counter-moves, friends are enemies and enemies are friends, and sailing ships race across the South China Sea. Grand adventure - not academia. It's entertaining. It's not historical scholarship. Are there problems? Of course there are. At times Dirk Straun does become tiresome. He's too perfect - a paragon of male virtue. Or at least what James Clavell considered to be male virtue. He's lucky (too lucky at times), smarter than most, better looking, wiser, etc. etc. I would be willing to bet that Dirk Straun is probably the idealized version of James Clavell. Not unheard of for authors to do that - especially in this type of fiction. However styles and tastes change over the years and this novel was written in the mid-1960's. For many younger readers Dirk Straun might grow tiresome and that's understandable. The role of women in the story will be jarring to younger readers as well. They are important and capable, but only to a point. Then the men have to take over. There are things that are just best when handled by the men. Ultimately women are about bearing children and taking care of the home. Their occasional forays into intrigue are ultimately motivated by their desire to protect their families and help their men. To a 1960's reader this wouldn't have been unacceptable, but in 2012 I have to agree that it might be difficult to swallow. Just keep reminding yourself when the book was written and that it was written by an adult male who had made his living writing for Hollywood. But despite these aspects (and a few others that I just don't want to get into right now - such as the pidgeon English conversations - ugh) Tai-Pan is entertaining. It grabs you and keeps you interested. Though it took me a month to get through it (it was a very busy month and novel reading had to take a back seat) when I did sit down with it I would often go through fifty and sixty pages with no effort. In other words it's a "page turner" and that's okay as well. As I noted at the beginning this isn't a work of historical research. It's a big thick piece of popular entertainment. So dig in and enjoy.......or not depending on your tastes.Ironically enough this is one book that I classify as a Beach Read that I actually finished at the beach (Lincoln City, Oregon). It's appropriate.
What do You think about Tai-Pan (2009)?
Tai-pan is a novel set in the mid-1800s in China; following the story of a group of European and American traders as they take over the island of Hong Kong after the Opium Wars. As with Clavell's other books, Tai-pan is based is based on actual events and people. The story centers on the Tai-pan (translated as "Supreme Leader") of a powerful British trading company and follows the Tai-pan as he navigates the political and economic waves associated with colonizing a new island in a foreign country, sustaining a trading company based on 3-6 month old market information (boats travel relatively slow), and influencing free trade policies in the far-away British Parliament. The story is driven by the choices and events in the lives of the Tai-pan, and his arch nemesis Tyler Brock (the head of a second largest trading company). The book was really hard to get into (~first 200 pages) especially as the dialogue is written in 19th century prose but perseverance is well worth the wait as the last 300 pages of the book fly by and I found myself racing to see how the story develops for the many characters developed in the book. I think the strength of Clavell's books is his decentralized focus on many characters at once - both an individual focus as well as how they interact and overlap with one another. He follows and develops many characters as opposed to the one, two or three that most books concentrate on and although that makes it hard to follow sometimes (who was that again!), the diversity of personalities, backgrounds, and goals/aspirations provides a unique and refreshing literary concoction.
—Christine
A rip-roaring good read, fast-paced and interesting. Clavell's style is a lot of fun, but also incredibly informative about the time periods in which he sets his novels. My only gripe is a minor one - sometimes things barrel ahead so fast that characters seem to get left behind (true, this is not unlike life, but it sometimes feels like the story is almost tripping over itself in places). Also, his use of the word "imperceptibly" - at least 3 times he used it to indicate "slightly," as in each instance the character reacted to the imperceptible thing. It bugs me because his characters are already so perceptive that they don't need this extreme-adjective treatment. Otherwise, no complaints. :-)
—Steven
***MOVIE ADDENDUM ADDED SEPT 13th, 2014***”’Joss’ was a Chinese word that meant Luck and Fate and God and the devil combined.” Hong Kong was just a cluster of fishing villages when the English traders arrived in 1841. The port quickly proved a safe haven to ships even impervious to Typhoons.Dirk Lochlin Struan is a Scotsman who has spent a good part of his adult life in the orient amassing a fleet of clipper ships and a great fortune. He is called the Tai-Pan. He has made his own joss by being smarter, more ruthless, accumulating more wealth, and being stronger than his opponents. He calls his company The Noble House. The company is built along clan lines with loyalty being first among the most weighted characteristics for joining his empire, and by association, those selected, will also benefiting from his protection. Before anyone has a chance to show loyalty they have to prove something more than just competence. They have to be really good at something that is useful, something that will strengthen “the clan”. Struan is tough on people, but that comes from the struggles he experienced reaching the top of the mountain. He knows how merciless life can be and his primary goal every day is to protect what is his and the people he cares about. He has a nemesis, Tyler Brock, who is as tough and unyielding as Struan. A man who has been equally successful, but always seems to come up second best. He simply isn’t as smart as the Tai-Pan, but he covets the honorary title. They hate and despise each other, but more than once as the plot unfolds they find themselves allied in a common cause. They are certainly nay gentlemen, but they do honor their own version of a gentlemanly code. Dirk’s son Cullum comes out from London and is appalled to discover the man his father has become. He is rather harsh on Struan, long before he understands the circumstances that have shaped his father. Whatever rules Cullum may believe exist in England dinna necessarily translate to the rough and ready wilds of empire building. ”You used to be God to me. But in the thirty days I’ve been here I’ve come to know you for what you are. Killer. Murderer. Pirate. Opium smuggler. Adulterer. You buy and sell people. You’ve sired bastards and you’re proud of them and your name stinks in the nostrils of decent people.”Well, Cullum, *sigh*, you have very set opinions for someone who hasn’t even walked a mile beside him yet, and certainly not a step in the very boots that built this empire . Struam is undeterred by Cullum’s assessment and plans to have him take over as the Tai-Pan when he decides to return to England to run for parliament. He will mold the lad whether the lad knows it or not. Run for parliament you say? With a Chinese mistress and a slew of bastards in tow? There are better options, half a dozen at least of the women/girls he knows who would help to open more doors for him, but there is just one damn problem...HE...LOVES...May-May. He will marry her and let them be damned if they dinna like it. He has never met a problem that a cascade of silver won’t fix, by God! Joan Chen plays May-May in the 1986 film version.May-May is breathtakingly lovely, descended from an honorable and rich family who made the decision to sell her to the Tai-Pan to have someone they trust close to the source of English power. This is 1841 and the first Opium War is in full flower. Concessions to the barbarians will have to be made (Hong Kong) and Struan, the devil man, has the ear of the English politician Longstaff or as the Chinese refer to him Odious Penis.There is the rather odd, but refreshing character of Aristotle Quance, a man almost completely depended on the traders, mostly Struan, for his support. He is a painter, preferably of beautiful young women. He is graced with a silver tongue capable of talking them out of more clothes than they are...at first...willing to part with. He has a wife who hounds him from one whorehouse to the next as he tries to stay one step ahead of her iron grip. He might be the happiest person in this new world that is about to be carved out of the coast of China. ”And he realized he was witnessing the end of an era, he was also part of a new one. Now he had new history to eyewitness and record. New faces to draw. New ships to paint. A new city to perpetuate. And new girls to flirt with and new bottoms to pinch.”Well if he can keep one step ahead of the wife, by God!James Clavell explores the politics of the time. He brings to light the manipulations that occur behind locked doors over a glass or two of good port or brandy with results that benefit the few over the many. Profits are king and certainly the opium and tea trade were important to the British economy. The insistence of the Chinese in receiving only silver bullion for tea actually destabilizes the British economy as silver becomes scarce and afternoon tea became jeopardized. There have been grain riots, tax riots, draft riots, religious riots, but no one wants to see a British TEA riot, by God! We see the rise of the Triads during this time as well, and in this story, Gordon Chen, a bastard of Struan with his head for intrigue, is the head of the movement. He is a man trapped between cultures, not fully accepted or rejected by either one. Chen is torn between his loyalty to his people and his loyalty to Struan. He plans for any contingencies and shows resilience in the face of a series of setbacks beyond his control. This is an epic tale, with Shakespearean romance, typhoons, love and malaria, incest, discord between fathers and sons, the building of a city of trade, lust, complicated characters with tangled relationships, and an exploration of the power of possession. These larger than life figures are battling on a small and large scale for what is theirs, but also for what will be their childrens and their children’s children. I was very impressed with the depth of the plot, the deftness with which Clavell pulled me into the story, and the breadth and scope he was willing to manfully shoulder to bring these characters to life. James Clavell based Dirk Struan on William Jardine who built the "Princely House" of Jardine, Matheson & Co of Hong Kong.Dirk Struan peers at the world through jaded eyes, but clearly and astutely. He sometimes knows the intentions of a person before they even know it themselves. He is harsh, but capable of great tenderness. He is unpredictable, but only seemingly so, because he gauges every situation by much more than just what is before him. His projections become truths adding a mystical quality to his persona. He devours information and knows how to use it. While others sleep he studies. He fixes what is broke before it snaps. As unearthly as it seems to those who know him it is no mystery to me why he is:the Tai-Pan. ”Man is born to die, Father. I just try to protect mysel’ and mine as best I know how and to choose the time of my dying, that’s all.”A very interesting link that explains the history of this time period. It was so kindly supplied by Margitte. http://www.china-mike.com/china-touri...ADDENDUM: I watched the movie. There is so much missing from the plot of the book that I'm not really sure how anyone can watch the movie and understand what is going on. At different points Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Steve McQueen were attached to the project, but negotiations fell through each time. Bryan Brown was cast to play Dirk Struan and actually plays the part well. Joan Chen is absolutely stunning as May-May, but despite the efforts of the two main actors the movie proves unsatisfactory. This story really should have been a mini-series like Shogun and Noble House. Anybody who may have had thoughts of watching the movie instead of reading the book (unlikely on GR) would be incredibly short changed from the epic experience that only the book can provide.
—Jeffrey Keeten
