Tai-Pan: The Second Novel of the Asian Saga

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Into these turbulent times comes a tail of rival opium smugglers, piracy, betrayal, love, hatred, incest, murder, friendship and natural disasters. Next up is Gai-Jin, kind of oddly his last book and one that a lot of people seem to think was kinda boring. As a result of this victory, the British take Hong Kong for themselves and Dirk seems poised to rise to even further heights of success.

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. Set in 1840s China (Canton), Macao and most importantly, the brand-new English colony of Hong Kong (which Dirk negotiated away from the Emperor through the oh-so-pliable governor), the story is set around Dirk Stuan, a larger than life English “China trader” pitted against Brock, his dark and brutish arch enemy, in a nonstop race to be the best, make the most and outsmart all the rest as tai-pans of The Noble House and the Second Noble House.The seemingly dozens of characters are well developed and fit together perfectly into an epic tale about one man’s indomitable positive attitude, even in the face of impossibly long odds. Este despre a-ti pastra cuvantul indiferent de situatie, viclenie pentru a negocia astfel incat sa fii mereu in avantaj, curaj si antrenarea obiceiului de a vedea imaginea mai mare, de ansamblu. 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. 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. And anyone who loves “larger-than-life, but still realistic and wonderfully developed” characters, should read it.

Clavell was born in Australia, but lived most of his life, after his war service and years as a POW in Java, in Britain, the USA and Canada. 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. Jin-qua – Chinese tea and opium trader, lends Dirk Struan "4 million" (approximately 1 million pounds sterling in silver bullion) to get out of debt to Tyler Brock. If you're familiar with Clavell's work, I must say, for example, that Xogum is undeniably a better book, but no other work from Clavell has a more amazing character than Dirk Struan. There are some major storyline differences, but the extremely lucky, strategic and forward thinking main male character, and the bad-but not so bad antagonist.

TAI-PAN is epic in scope, a novel whose background is the inception of Hong Kong by the British, circa 1841. Most of the Chinese dialog in this novel is dominated by May-May, semi-main characters, like her and Gordon Chen. Its jus an endless narrative with very little to no description of events or actions, let alone much (Zero) historical fiction context. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. Business concerns of the Noble House included smuggling opium from India into China, trading spices and sugar from the Philippines, importing Chinese tea and silk into England, handling cargo papers, cargo insurance, renting of dockyard facilities and warehouse space, trade financing, and other numerous lines of business and trade.

Immediately, the fact that Dirk Struan is relentlessly Scots attached itself to the image of a snake and somehow I ended up with an inability to imagine him as anything other than Sean Connery in Zardoz.It was as if I was there in Hong Kong at the day and age when Imperial England was at its height and grandeur, conquering the seas. Their children fall in love with each other and marry and a huge storm destroys many homes and livelihoods.

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. There was finance stuff in this one but it was pretty much limited to Struan and others going back and forth between financial ruin and stunning wealth, with like, bullion and actual gold and stuff.He is the originator of the "coin debt" to which Dirk Struan and future tai-pans of the Noble House must swear to uphold (revealed as well in Noble House). Però l'ambientazione e l'epoca sono interessantissime (come gli inglesi si credano superiori a tutti, al pari degli americani e dei russi, o degli stessi cinesi che seguono le loro tradizioni commiserando i barbari incivili che pensano di poter cambiare qualcosa o ottenere qualcosa di duraturo coi loro comportamenti). Un uomo quasi soprannaturale, che ovviamente deve avere una nemesi par suo e questa risponde al nome del rivale Brock, che con il Tai Pan ha una lunga storia iniziata ai tempi delle prime navigazioni di un giovane Dirk, ancora ben lontano dal divenire la figura semidivina che sarebbe stato in futuro.