Tai-Pan: The Second Novel of the Asian Saga

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The story of the third coin is a major plot line in Noble House. The coin is owned by Struan's trusted compradore Phillip Chen, handed down to him from his grandfather Gordon Chen. However, his son John Chen learns the secret of the coin, steals it, and bargains it and its secret away to American businessman Lincoln Bartlett. Before Bartlett takes possession of the coin, John Chen is kidnapped and murdered. When Phillip Chen enlists his underworld cousin Four Finger Wu to help locate John, Wu discovers the coin in the possession of one of the kidnappers, and takes it for his own, knowing its secret. When Wu dies, his son Profitable Choy takes over the coin and begs the favours from Ian Dunross.

One of the most beautiful women ever to grace the silver screen, Hedy Lamarr also designed a secret weapon against Nazi Germany.Mary Sinclair – secret English prostitute and devotee/spy of Dirk Struan, and sister of Horatio Sinclair The Asian Saga is a series of six novels written by James Clavell between 1962 and 1993. The novels all centre on Europeans in Asia, and together explore the impact on East and West of the meeting of these two distinct civilizations. The story is told through a wide array of POV characters, giving the reader a well rounded view of their motivations, passions, agendas, and blind spots that would otherwise be absent if told in a different manner. There aren't really good guys and bad guys (except, you know, Imperialism), just competing interests and agendas. We see things from both British perspectives as well as a Chinese ones, each with their own unique view on the matters at hand and a diverse range of opinion within each respective camp. Like in Shogan, Clavell allows all sides to have good reason to pursue the agendas they do and he avoids any cliched portrayal of characters, Western or Asian. 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.

I had not read James Clavell’s Shogun, so I was unaware of the other books in his Asian Saga. Until Printre Randuri suggested I read Tai Pan.

Tai Pan

Some of the characters make appearances in multiple books, and many characters from one book are referred to in later books. For example, two characters from King Rat (Robin Grey and Peter Marlowe) reappear in Noble House, and Robert Armstrong is a major character in both Noble House and Whirlwind. As a tie-in, Linc Bartlett's ( Noble House) namesake ancestor appears in Clavell's film, Walk Like a Dragon (1960). Every five or six years there appears on the horizon a book so vast in scope, so peopled with bold, colorful characters, it eclipses other efforts. . . . Such a book is Tai-Pan.” — Pittsburgh Press 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. May–May – Dirk Struan's Chinese mistress, granddaughter of Jin-Qua, instructed to teach Dirk "civilised" (Chinese) ways Finally, I guess it had the same sort of slight historical liberties as Shogun did, probably, but I know nothing whatsoever of the history of China so I never noticed, and thus that too didn't bother me.

Treaty of Chuenpi, year 1841 – Peace for twenty-six years and no major war imminent “ unheard of for hundreds of years. Devil Bonaparte safely dead, violent France safely bottled, and Britain world-dominant for the first time.” There are dozens of characters throughout the series, with very complex family relationships and a great deal of history that is hinted at but never described in detail. For instance, Peter Marlowe is almost certainly a descendant of Lt. John Marlowe, the captain who married Malcolm Struan and Angelique Richaud against the wishes of Tess Struan, as Clavell refers often to Peter Marlowe's family's long history of naval service. Clavell peppers the entire Asian Saga with these genealogical Easter eggs. [ citation needed] I regret now having brushed away the name of this author, solely on the basis of my annoyance towards the “I want to learn Japanese because of the Shogun” stereotype that half my 1st year colleagues were throwing around. It is the early 19th century, when European traders and adventurers first began to penetrate the forbidding Chinese mainland. And it is in this exciting time and exotic place that a giant of an Englishman, Dirk Straun, sets out to turn the desolate island of Hong Kong into an impregnable fortress of British power, and to make himself supreme ruler…Tai-Pan!In 1986, Whirlwind was published, and it became the fourth and last part of The Asian Saga and is chronologically the final book in the series. The book is set in Iran in 1979, at the time the rise of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. This book is phenomenal. Anyone who is interested in China, past and present, should read it. Anyone who likes a brilliant historical fiction, should read it. And anyone who loves “larger-than-life, but still realistic and wonderfully developed” characters, should read it. Clavell died in Vevey, Switzerland, after suffering a stroke. He died a month short of his 73rd birthday. Roger Blore – gambler, makes an unheard of record time journey to Hong Kong, later becomes Dirk Struan's horse racing club owner Suppose you know the rulers of China aren’t Chinese? Half the damned trouble, so we’re told. They’re Manchus. From Manchuria. Wild barbarians from north of the Great Wall. They’ve ruled China for two hundred years, so we’re told. They must think we’re fools.” The Chinese Culture / Mentality