The social life of opium in China, 1483-1999

The history of opium is a major theme in modern Chinese history. Books and academic careers have been devoted to its study.1 Yet the question that scholars of the opium wars and of modern China have failed to ask is how the demand for opium was generated. My puzzle, during the initial stage of research, was who smoked opium and why. To fully understand the easy-entry and quick-spread of opium smoking, I will analyse the social and cultural background at the time of its entry; I will also follow opium's journey from its birth as a recreational item to its maturity as a social icon. To illustrate how the demand for opium was generated, I will examine each stratum of people, their lives with opium, and their particular historical space and time, that is the circumstances under which they succumbed to it. From luxury to necessity, opium went through different phases; different symbols and values were invented and attributed to it. It served many in different capacities. Due to limited space, I can only focus on one aspect of Mr Opium's social life from the late fifteenth to the late twentieth centuries. I divide his life into the five phases: his birth, that is his transformation from the late fifteenth to the late seventeenth centuries; his youth, that is his initial popularization in the eighteenth century; his coming-of-age, that is his urbanization from 1800 to 1861; his middle age, that is his complete socialization from 1861 to 1911; and his old age, that is his decline in the twentieth century. From aphrodisiac to popular culture, from social identity to political economy, Mr Opium lived a colourful social life and played a role larger than himself in the theatre of modern China.