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| Genre/Form: | Biography |
|---|---|
| Named Person: | Robert Fortune |
| Material Type: | Biography |
| Document Type: | Book |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Sarah Rose |
| ISBN: | 9780670021529 0670021520 |
| OCLC Number: | 430052042 |
| Notes: | Originally published: London : Hutchinson, 2009, with title For all the tea in China : espionage, empire, and the secret formula for the world's favourite drink. |
| Description: | x, 261 p. ; 22 cm. |
| Contents: | Prologue -- Min River, China, 1845 -- East India House, City of London, January 12, 1848 -- Chelsea Physic Garden, May 7, 1848 -- Shanghai to Hangzhou, September 1848 -- Zhejiang Province near Hangzhou, October 1848 -- A green tea factory, Yangtze River, October 1848 -- House of Wang, Anhui Province, November 1848 -- Shanghai at the Lunar New Year, January 1849 -- Calcutta Botanic Garden, March 1849 -- Saharanpur, North-West Provinces, June 1849 -- Ningbo to Bohea, the Great Tea Road, May and June 1849 -- Bohea, July 1849 -- Pucheng, September 1849 -- Shanghai, Autumn 1849 -- Shanghai, February 1851 -- Himalayan Mountains, May 1851 -- Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield Lock, 1852 -- Tea for the Victorians -- Fortune's story. |
| Responsibility: | Sarah Rose. |
| More information: |
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Reviews
WorldCat User Reviews (2)
Good Read - plus gentle introduction to China
In 1839, the local Chinese government in Guangzhou (Canton) seized opium and destroyed it. The consequences - Opium Wars, foreign treaty ports, the eventual fall of a dynasty - are in some ways still being played out, for example...
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In 1839, the local Chinese government in Guangzhou (Canton) seized opium and destroyed it. The consequences - Opium Wars, foreign treaty ports, the eventual fall of a dynasty - are in some ways still being played out, for example how China handles international criticism.
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Though the life and times of one astonishingly resourceful Scottish botanist, Sarah Rose has written a delightful short, "popular history" which chronicles just one of those many consequences: the international trade in tea. By disguising himself as a Chinese official - or Mandarin - and traveling to areas well off limits to foreigners, Robert Fortune, a quite man with little formal education or opportunity in Britain, came to learn more about Chinese methods of tea cultivation and preparation - not to mention China's flora and geography - then had been known in the West before. </div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">In the process of relaying his story, Rose teaches a bit about travel in rural China, English gardens, the notions of face and guanxi, British trade as well as crucial Chinese history just after the First Opium War (1841) leading up to the Taiping Rebellion But what keeps us turning page is a an adventure story based on her subject's own writings and the extensive records kept by the East India Company, which we can recognize today as multi-national corporation. Rose keeps us in suspense through wise jumps in time, though once or twice this can also confuse, and she adds conversation to the bones of the story, though surely no one can be certain exactly what was said on the top of mist-filled mountain. Of course, that is not the point. Nonetheless, a rough map of Fortune's travels, trade routes and a diagram of tea plant would make things easier.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Why did the British develop a taste for black tea when Chinese drink green tea? The answer is as telling about then as it is about today. </div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">[The reviewer lived in Fuzhou in 2003 where WuYi Mountain is revered. He was also told if he wanted to learn about modern China, the place to start was Taiping Rebellion that began during Fortune's stay: "The Chinese seldom stand up, but when they do there is real trouble."]</div>
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Corporate Espionage and Theft ~ All for a Good Cuppa!
Well, not just for a good cup of tea; more to keep and expand Britain's world supremecy in the nineteenth century. Sarah Rose's exploration into the transplanting of tea from China to India is filled with a wide variety of topics, as well as unforseen outcomes. The book covers topics from...
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Well, not just for a good cup of tea; more to keep and expand Britain's world supremecy in the nineteenth century. Sarah Rose's exploration into the transplanting of tea from China to India is filled with a wide variety of topics, as well as unforseen outcomes. The book covers topics from botany and Wardian cases (early, very large terrariums that kept propagated tea plants alive during months at sea) to the geopolitics of the times (swapping opium for tea and the forced opening of China to more trade). She even argues that the East India Trading Company commits the one of the first thefts of protected trade secrets, and certainly one of the largest, by sending Robert Fortune to China in order to steal tea plants, manufacturing secrets and knowledge workers. Who would have thought that seeking out the perfect cup of tea for a nation wild about the drink could lead to so many outcomes, both positive and negative. A fascinating read on many levels.
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Related Subjects:(10)
- Tea trade -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.
- Tea trade -- China -- History -- 19th century.
- Tea -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.
- Tea -- China -- History -- 19th century.
- Fortune, Robert, -- 1813-1880 -- Travel -- China.
- Spies -- Great Britain -- Biography.
- Business intelligence -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.
- East India Company -- History -- 19th century.
- China -- Description and travel.
- Himalaya Mountains -- Description and travel.
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