Intoxicating Manchuria
Alcohol, Opium, and Culture in China's Northeast
- Publisher
- UBC Press
- Initial publish date
- Oct 2012
- Category
- China, History, Disease & Health Issues
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780774824286
- Publish Date
- Oct 2012
- List Price
- $34.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9780774824309
- Publish Date
- Oct 2012
- List Price
- $32.95
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780774824293
- Publish Date
- Oct 2013
- List Price
- $32.95
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Where to buy it
Description
In China, both opium and alcohol were used for centuries in the pursuit of health and leisure while simultaneously linked to personal and social decline. The impact of these substances is undeniable, and the role they have played in Chinese social, cultural, and economic history is extremely complex.
In Intoxicating Manchuria, Norman Smith reveals how warlord rule, Japanese occupation, and political conflict affected local intoxicant industries. These industries flourished throughout the early twentieth century, even as a vigorous anti-intoxicant movement raged. Through the lens of popular Chinese media depictions of alcohol and opium, Smith analyzes how intoxicants and addiction were understood in this society, the role the Japanese occupation of Manchuria played in their portrayal, and the efforts made to reduce opium and alcohol consumption. This is the first English-language book-length study to focus on alcohol use in modern China and the first dealing with intoxicant restrictions in the region.
About the author
Awards
- Winner, Gourmand Best Drink History Book (Canada-English), Gourmand World Cookbook Awards
Contributor Notes
Norman Smith is an associate professor in the History Department of the University of Guelph. He is the author of Resisting Manchukuo: Chinese Women Writers and the Japanese Occupation and co-editor of Beyond Suffering: Recounting War in Modern China.