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Tai-Pan (Asian Saga: Chronological Order #2)

by James Clavell

4.25 · Rating details · 36,539 Ratings · 746 Reviews

An Alternate Cover of this edition can be found here.

Set in the turbulent days of the founding of Hong Kong in the 1840s, Tai-Pan is the story of Dirk Struan, the ruler - the Tai-Pan - of the most powerful trading company in the Far East. He is also a pirate, an opium smuggler, and a master manipulator of men. This is the story of his fight to establish himself and his dyn ...more

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Mass Market Paperback, Reprint, 734 pages

Published September 1st 2009 by Dell (first published 1966)

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Aug 31, 2014 Jeffrey Keeten rated it it was amazing

Shelves: book-to-film

***MOVIE ADDENDUM ADDED SEPT 13th, 2014***

”’Joss’ was a Chinese word that meant Luck and Fate and God and the devil combined.”

Hong Kong was just a cluster of fishing villages when the English traders arrived in 1841. The port quickly proved a safe haven to ships even impervious to Typhoons.

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. He is called the Tai-Pan. He has made his own joss by being s ...more

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Mar 22, 2011 Szplug rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Having begun with King Rat, I proceeded to work my way through most of James Clavell's Asian Saga before running out of steam - and interest - with the overly-long and rather lacklustre Whirlwind; and of them all, Tai-Pan was my favorite. Shogun was fantastic, mysterious, complex, cruel, violent, erotic, dressed with elaborate manners and rituals, alien thought patterns, ironclad honor, smelly Europeans, the whole works - but it didn't have the Struans versus the Brocks, which crackling, bloody, Having begun with King Rat, I proceeded to work my way through most of James Clavell's Asian Saga before running out of steam - and interest - with the overly-long and rather lacklustre Whirlwind; and of them all, Tai-Pan was my favorite. Shogun was fantastic, mysterious, complex, cruel, violent, erotic, dressed with elaborate manners and rituals, alien thought patterns, ironclad honor, smelly Europeans, the whole works - but it didn't have the Struans versus the Brocks, which crackling, bloody, rollicking, cutthroat competitive maneuverings grabbed me by the collar and yanked me into this Southwest Pacific tale, hanging me on the yardarm so that I could marvel at the entirety of the colorful, frantic pageant unfolding before my young and excited eyes.

From the very opening, with a virgin Hong Kong awaiting its annexation by the British, recently victorious in the First Opium War, and the first taste of the rough-and-ready, brutal-on-a-dime sensibilities of the coarse and cunning Brock, the somewhat more subdued and disciplined Yanks of Cooper-Tillman, and then the magnificent entrance of the swashbuckling-but-practical hero himself, Dirk fucking Struan, the Tai-Pan of the commercial empires, and his half-brother Robb - who so dearly wished to be like Dirk, but just wasn't - all of these heads of Western trading houses and the differing-in-details, but similar-in-spirit dreams of the almost endless potential for Hong Kong - serving as a leverage point for the commercial crowbar they wished to wield to crack open the unimaginable riches of the mysterious and vast Orient - everything is laid out to give the reader a taste of the excitement, the possibility that lay heavy in the humid air.

And then fate and chance work their inevitable twists and unforeseen disasters into the mix, and we are plunged into a complex, interrelated web of schemes, ploys, conspiracies, violence, lusts, and desperation, as the House of Struan strives to recover from happenstance misfortune without selling the British portion of Hong Kong's soul, whilst the House of Brock, under the glint-eyed, heavy-handed leadership of Brock and the brutal energies of his hulking son, Gorth, do everything in their power to ensure that Struan and Company flounder and sink, thus enabling Brock to assume to title of Tai-Pan that he holds by right should be his. Into this mix the talented Clavell tosses wizened Chinese bigwig merchants and secret societies, four mysterious halved coins, stiff-lipped British naval officers, conniving Russian Grand Dukes, corrupt and incompetent English plenipotentiaries, Aye, matey pirates and lice-infested British rogue mercenaries, typhoons, storms, crazy oceanic currents and, topping it all, the heady and blossoming love between Dirk and his Chinese mistress May-May, an interesting microcosm of the tentative-but-burgeoning relationship between Western and Oriental civilizations, each with their own conceptions of pride, honor, barbarism, and justice; perhaps only in love do they operate on jointly familiar ground.

I have since come across plenty of criticisms of Clavell, about how much he got wrong, or mangled irredeemably in the process of crafting his complicated thrillers featuring clashing, pre-modern cultures. Whatever. The man could tell a tale, and one with enough recognizable features enmeshed within the exotic and the historic to propel his literary vessel across roiling, tempestuous seas. It is a magnificent and vastly entertaining book, one I've read several times, never failing to tense up when Struan is ghosting across the water, nursing his fortune-saving forty lacs of silver from a hungry Brock; or dearly wish Gorth would, at any point, receive a desperately deserved thrashing; or marvel at the long-range thinking of the wise Jing-Qua; or cringe when May-May, bedecked in all of the gaudy accoutrements of a European lady, earns an unexpected and humiliating look of horrified shock from her surprised lover; or feel a melancholy heaviness when the typhoon smashes the island towards the end of the book, dealing harshly with Dirk and May-May, but opening up new vistas of opportunity for Culum to emerge from his father's formidable shadow. It's been a long time since I last cracked it open, but do I harbor any doubts that it would still prove to be a first-rate page turner? Ha! ...more

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Aug 07, 2014 Jim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2fiction, historical, 1audio, 3series

I've read this before & really liked it, but it is even better as an audio book. Incredible, really. John Lee has great accents & intonations & really makes the book come alive.

Clavell is most famous for Shōgun, the first of his Asian series, which was made into a mini series starring Richard Chamberlain. It was excellent & takes place about 2.5 centuries earlier in Japan. Tai-Pan is about the founding of Hong Kong about 1840 & takes place over a period of 6 months. It was ma ...more

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May 27, 2007 Jamie rated it did not like it

Shelves: fiction

Wanted to get a nice concise history of Hong Kong, ended up with James Clavell's Tai Pan. I read Shogun when I was 14, and remember liking it enough to read through the 1000+ pages (and that sex scene with the anal beads? Blew my 14 year old mind. And my DAD had read the book. Yikes.)

Maybe my taste is different now but Tai Pan is pretty dissapointing. Lots of cool historical details, but they feel a bit shoe-horned in, and the main character is, well, basically perfect. At least in James Clavel ...more

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Oct 21, 2012 Checkman rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, beach-read, adventure, drama

Big, chewy, lip smacking, gut busting fiction. How appropriate that I should have finished it on Thanksgiving - a day given to gastronomical excess.Whew.

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.

Clavell was also an ardent supporter of Free Trade, a ...more

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Sep 02, 2013 Yona rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adventure, thriller, classics, 2014-classics-challenge

One absolutely brilliant book, but I didn't expect this ending, something similar yes, but the way it ended - NO!! It broke my heart a little bit and I cried, usually this would ruin the book for me, but this one was a masterpiece and I can't say even one bad thing about it.

description

There were so many great characters especially Dirk and his Mei Mei, they were so well suited,yin and yang.
Some books and characters fade with time, but I'm not sure I will ever forget those two.

description

This is a book I will be rer ...more

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Jul 24, 2008 Michael Havens rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Historical Fiction lovers

What can I say about ‘Tai-Pan’? Is it really a Historical novel? Is it a Alternative History? These are the two questions I keep asking myself while working my way through the late James Clavell’s Asian saga, which for your consideration are the following:
‘Shogun’ (1600)
‘Tai-Pan’ (1841)
‘Gai-Jin’ (1862)
‘King Rat’(1945)
‘Noble House’(1963)
‘Whirlwind’(1979)

Before joining Goodreads, I had already read ‘Shogun’, so you, my friendly reader, do not have the luxury of a review of that as comparison, bu What can I say about ‘Tai-Pan’? Is it really a Historical novel? Is it a Alternative History? These are the two questions I keep asking myself while working my way through the late James Clavell’s Asian saga, which for your consideration are the following:
‘Shogun’ (1600)
‘Tai-Pan’ (1841)
‘Gai-Jin’ (1862)
‘King Rat’(1945)
‘Noble House’(1963)
‘Whirlwind’(1979)

Before joining Goodreads, I had already read ‘Shogun’, so you, my friendly reader, do not have the luxury of a review of that as comparison, but I believe that what I say about ‘Tai-Pan’, set in Hong Kong, can easily be said of it’s predecessor.
First off, let’s talk about historical content. Clavell has said himself in interviews that the reason his characters are based on historical figures, the changes of names from historical to fictional ones are due to the fact that he wanted them to do something and say something outside their historical content (an interesting text ‘What we can learn from ‘Shogun: Japanese History and Western Fantasy’ :Editor Henry Smith/The Program for Asian Studies, University of California, Santa Barbra), is available online as a searchable text: (http://www.columbia.edu/~hds2/learning/) is an interesting group of essays both praising and criticizing certain aspects of Clavell’s novel, but he makes clear that as a novelist, he was not so interested in historical accuracy as he was in storytelling. This puts him somewhat apart from the likes of John Jakes, who attempts to portray the American epochs in his long Kent family chronicles and shorter Civil War epic as true as can possibly be. But Clavell goes farther, for while there is a George Washington and an Abraham Lincoln who resemble who they generally were in history in Jakes‘ series, Clavell actually invents names to stand in to the company of historical figures. So, with ‘Shogun‘, instead of William Adams, we have John Blackthorne and in place of Tokugawa we have Toranaga. In the case of ’Tai-Pan’ and the case of William Jardine, we have the Scotsman, Dirk Struan.
Why am I making such a big deal with names? Nothing, except that what Clavell is doing rather than telling a historical story, is to make commentary on the times, not by addressing what a given period does that can be seen and addressed like many pieces of literature can and does do (note that I’m not criticizing Clavell’s desire to make commentary here), but by allowing the historical characters to think and do things which may not be historically accurate, yet can ultimately serve Clavell’s point on the subject, especially of East/West cultural and political issues, and one with an Anglo-centric slant.
I have read many commentaries about Clavell being balanced in his view of the far East and the West, for example, unlike Blackthorne, who by the end of the novel practically swallows Japanese culture whole, Dirk Struan’s character in ‘Tai-Pan’ wants to strike a balance between Eastern and Western sensibilities. But while trying to see their point on two novels so far, I find something rather interesting. It seems that there is a circular argument, at least in ‘Tai-Pan’ that while Struan appreciates Chinese/Cantonese culture, it is because he is not only a merchant, and one waging a personal vendetta/war against the other merchant rival, Tyler Brock, former, somewhat sadistic shipmaster, but because he’s from Great Britain proper, that his perspective carries more weight, and not necessarily that China has truly (e.g. “spiritually“), opened his eyes, and certainly not to the degree of Blackthorne’s love affair with Japan. So, in the end, rather than being a balance between Eastern and Western cultures, as an Asian saga might imply, it is more Asia as seen through Anglo-Saxon eyes.
Another point in the novel that brings this home and actually puts ‘Shogun’ ahead of ’Tai-Pan’ is the fact that scenes in ’Tai-Pan’ are almost entirely set up in the British settlements around Hong Kong. We don’t see an equal representation with the Asian side of things as we do with ‘Shogun’ and the interplay with Toranaga (Historical name: Tokugawa) and other Japanese in dealing with the “foreign issue” What we get are snippets, then brought back to the British side of things, for example, we get Struan’s mistress, May-May and himself in conversations, or there are dealings with her bastard son through Struan, the secret Triad member, Gordon Chen, the only two “major” Chinese/Cantonese characters in the book. There are other more minor scenes and references, but the story is always planted more firmly in British soil. Around this time, there was an ever growing xenophobia in China that could have been more fully examined, but never reaches that point, only touched upon. This could have allowed more characters from the Asian side to participate in the drama. As it is, the main center of the story revolves around the one-upmanship between Struan and his company, Noble House which is based on the real Jardine Mattheson Holdings Limited company, and Tyler Brock, with British politics, both domestically and abroad, occurring intermittently.
Once again my question. Just what type of novel is this? Is it historical fiction, or historical commentary wrapped around an Anglo-centric bias? Why, if this is an Historical fiction, are there not major, or even minor fictional characters finding themselves in the time period, experiencing things for themselves, and addressing what they see are the main issues? Even the word “Tai-Pan” is used somewhat incorrectly, as it implies in the novel that the Tai-Pans (Definition: The head or owner of a business establishment), have great political power, maybe even more impressive power than the British Government itself, certainly something that Struan leaves an impression on from time to time, but not an emphasis which the word lends itself to.
The most irritating thing about the book is Clavell’s Chinese character’s sense of diction, accent, and manner of speech. Most of the Chinese dialog in this novel is dominated by May-May, semi-main characters, like her and Gordon Chen. In any given pages she comes out sounding cartoonish. Dialect, accent, and diction are very hard things to do. In fact, to take Clavell off the hook , there are only a few great authors who can pull these things off without a hitch, so I sympathize. But reading May-May’s lines I grimace, as they sound so clunky. For a few lines, May-May sounds proficient, adding to her vocabulary Struan’s Scottish nuances, like “You dina…” (‘Tai-Pan’ 194), or “Na so loud! The sea god may hear you.”, as she attempts to appease the Chinese god’s to help their listing boat to safety, by pretending to offer the god gold, but “cheating” in the end, and promising Struan that the god would never know that she tricked the god out of her end of the bargain by not dropping some gold into the sea (195). As she is Struan’s mistress, picking up on Struan’s Scottish dialectical and phonetic nuances are understandable. We are never really given an approximation as to how long she had been with Struan, but it seems to be a significant time. Long enough to pick up the habits of the user of the second language she is learning from. But like many other Chinese characters in the book, she reverts at times from perfect sounding English to becoming the stereotypical Asian woman, speaking cute, quaint, but gibbering English (and I won’t repeat the sexual innuendo associated with Asian women trying to speak English, but I assume you get the idea!).
What gives this book a plus, aside from the historical problems is that it is a decent drama and adventure. It has all the passion of ambition, love, and danger one can expect from a story with an “exotic“ setting and an adventure behind it. For this, I gave it three stars. But it doesn’t get more, because it doesn’t significantly deliver on its promise on the cover to be part of an ASIAN SAGA; one in which two cultures encounter one another, and the political and cultural consequences that follow. There is a Hong Kong hidden somewhere between two formable and foreign entities rivaling each other. 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.
I still have four more novels in this series to go. I wonder how much further along Clavell will get in addressing things from both sides of the world?

...more

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Sep 14, 2016 Nate rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, owned

You know that feeling where you just wanna dedicate a slow jam to a book? You ever get that? If I ever had to have something playing while I clutched a totally fucked up and battered paperback to my chest, I would want this to be that song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR8D2...

This shit is that good. It covers a very tempestuous 1841 as lived by a host of characters ranging from traders to pirates to admirals to slaves. We concern ourselves most primarily with Dirk Struan, Tai-Pan (Supreme Le You know that feeling where you just wanna dedicate a slow jam to a book? You ever get that? If I ever had to have something playing while I clutched a totally fucked up and battered paperback to my chest, I would want this to be that song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR8D2...

This shit is that good. It covers a very tempestuous 1841 as lived by a host of characters ranging from traders to pirates to admirals to slaves. We concern ourselves most primarily with Dirk Struan, Tai-Pan (Supreme Leader or Big Shot) of Struan and Company. Dirk has been involved in the complicated and profitable world of opium trading for several years and, as the book starts, sees his plan to win the first opium war with China succeed. 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. Unfortunately, not everyone is cool with this whole thing, chiefly his rival of decades Tyler Brock of Brock and Sons.

The first thing to know about this book is that it’s not an immersive look into 19th century China in the manner of something like Shogun. This story is primarily about the foreigners living and scheming in Canton and Hong Kong. This works for the most part because, according to Clavell, foreigners were pretty much strictly forbidden from going anywhere other than those two places. We get a little bit of history about the Manchu invasion and the Qing dynasty but other than it’s pretty much epic (melo)drama about the British, Scots, Welsh, Americans etc. trying to get what they want out of China (this is usually purely financial gain but, as we come to discover, not always.) Of course Clavell doesn’t hesitate to push the idea that Europeans of this time were fucking disgusting hygiene-wise compared to most Asian cultures, so you get to learn that for like the 200th time with him.

So while there is obviously massive historical context here, Clavell relies on his huge cast of fictional characters to churn up the plot and propel the story for themselves. Thankfully for the most part they’re at least interesting, if not captivating. Strain is the manly adventurer-businessman supreme, obviously. He’s tall, good-looking, brilliant, loyal to his woman, a master of grand strategy and manipulation, generous to his friends and ruthless to his enemies and all that good stuff. You really could write an essay about what an awesome character he is for this type of book but I’ll avoid doing that here. I also loved his clever, funny, ultra-sweetheart mistress May-May and loved hating cruelly violent psycho nemesis Brock. There were a ton of others worth mentioning but I also enjoyed Culum, Quance, Mary, Gordon and their stories.

This makes Clavell two for two with me for megabooks. I mean megabooks in the sense that this is a pretty long one at around 7-800 pages but it’s also unashamedly full of pure entertainment. Clavell obviously enjoyed writing these and wanted people to have fun reading them, so he takes the time to fill the book with The Good Shit; sex, violence, piracy, ruthless capitalism, war, constant intrigue and plotting, forbidden love, and cool 19th-century fashion like frock coats, cravats, and top hats. I usually will get kinda bored with most romances but there was a lot of that stuff in this one and I somehow got into it, which was surprising. Struan and May-may’s relationship was certainly full of shit that made me a little uncomfortable as a 21st-century dude (which is really probably a good thing with historical fiction) but there was also a warmth and sweetness to it that was nice.

So I guess I’m reading these in chronological order instead of publication date. Next up is Gai-Jin, kind of oddly his last book and one that a lot of people seem to think was kinda boring. I did already kinda peek at the beginning and was certainly not bored with his version of the Namamugi attack. I was gonna go with Noble House but that one seems like it has a lot of shit having to do with finance, which I pretty much don’t understand a lot about. 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. I basically can understand finance when it’s in the form of a giant fucking pile of gold. ...more

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Feb 09, 2009 Cassi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Oh yes, this is the Clavell I remember from Shogun. Even though it has been years, I remember that book vividly. Tai-Pan, although not a continuation of Shogun, is similar in style and character. 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. Then, a slew of wonderful side characters, the women being beautiful in different ways, but sly, clever and endearing, and the men, varying dram ...more

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Sep 19, 2008 Jim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2fiction, historical, favorites, 3series, 1paper

I thought Shogun was his best book when I read it, but found I liked Tai-Pan even more. There's more action & suspense with a twisty plot & far reaching consequences. If you plan on reading any other books by Clavell, you HAVE to read Tai-Pan. Without its history, you'll miss out on a lot.

Dirk Straun, the hero, is probably my favorite character in all fiction. He is a tough, smart man that isn't afraid to unlearn his old ways & adapt. He has a wonderful enemy in Brock & intellig ...more

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Nov 07, 2012 Marc Ocana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Wow. I felt a shiver down my spine after the last page. This book indeed is as grand and as entertaining as it gets.

I do not think I will be able to muster enough words to explain the sensations I felt while reading this awesome novel. 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. All the cunning and strategies involved in maintaining the largest trading company of the time, all the bitterness and rivalries ex ...more

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Jan 09, 2009 Danielle rated it did not like it

Shelves: fiction, relates-to-china

My first Clavell read was Shogun - that was good. Not great, but good - I remember being engaged, interested enough in the subject matter, the way the plot developed. Years passed and I tried Gai-jin - I only finished that because I constantly hoped that even turn of the page would somehow bring about the book's miraculous redemption. Far from redeeming itself, that book actually got worse as it progressed. Because I had heard that Tai-pan was better than Gai-jin, I gave it a try this week. Not My first Clavell read was Shogun - that was good. Not great, but good - I remember being engaged, interested enough in the subject matter, the way the plot developed. Years passed and I tried Gai-jin - I only finished that because I constantly hoped that even turn of the page would somehow bring about the book's miraculous redemption. Far from redeeming itself, that book actually got worse as it progressed. Because I had heard that Tai-pan was better than Gai-jin, I gave it a try this week. Not the best idea I've ever had.

Especially for one who has read Gai-jin (and probably for anyone who hasn't), Tai-pan is a terrible disappointment.

First of all, there is the problem with the actual quality of the writing. It's crap. Not the crappiest crap I've ever seen, but really - if an author has to repeat the same "foreign-flavor" word 4 times on one page, he clearly doesn't have the most innovative of spirits.

Throughout Tai-pan dialogue drones, characters overlap each other in their thoughts, choice of words, and actions - and nothing all that exciting really happens in the overarching plot. Even the sex is dull, despite it being set out to somehow shock "Western" minds. As at least one reviewer has already noted, the main character is indeed the paragon of male perfection - it's just dull to read about him, and that's terribly unfortunate, considering nearly all of the characters seem to be obsessed with him. They spend a good portion of their time thinking to themselves how annoying it is that he is perfect and that they are weak. Who's the Tai-pan? Oh, Dirk Struan is the Tai-pain. The Tai-pan as the reader is reminded seeming every two pages. Gagfest.

I hate it when women are characterized as high-strung purebred horses - Clavell does this explicitly in this book in at least one scene, and implies it in others. Hasn't the "hot tempered but sexy" lover motif been worn out by now? I think that's partially why Shogun succeeded in its characterization where Gai-jin and Tai-pan failed - the main female of Shogun was more of a human than an animal and behaved accordingly, even if she was a bit idealized. ...more

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May 10, 2010 Sean rated it it was amazing

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.

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 t ...more

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Jan 14, 2017 Andy rated it did not like it

Shelves: unfinished, hist-f-empire-age, trl-bump-up

Currently watching a re-run of Shogun which has spurred me to finally pick up this novel which has been on my list for sometime now.

Oh Dear! DNF at page 115 & in truth been struggling to get to grips with this for a while, actually from the get-go. For why? Its jus an endless narrative with very little to no description of events or actions, let alone much (Zero) historical fiction context. It’s really only the C19th dialogue that places it as a historical fiction & I found myself drifti ...more

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Nov 18, 2013 Erica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Tai-Pan - A "fantastical" good novel, brilliant characters, enthralling story, awful ending. It kept my attention and was an easy read. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone looking for adventure, and a bit of history.

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Aug 20, 2017 Vít rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

Velmi pěkně napsaný dobrodružný román z doby založení britské kolonie Hongkong. Doba i místo jsou velmi zajímavé, konečně, jsme v Číně v době opiových válek. Čili máme tu střet dvou naprosto odlišných kultur, které sebou navzájem opovrhují - na jedné straně britské obchodníky, žijící prakticky výlučně z pašování opia do Číny, na druhé straně císařskou Čínu, považující se za střed světa. Když k tomu přidáme i řadu zajímavých postav, dostaneme příběh minimálně za čtyři hvězdy.

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May 12, 2011 Graham rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, 19th-century, asia

An outstanding historical saga and my first exposure to James Clavell. On the strength of this, I'll be sure to read the rest of his work.

TAI-PAN is epic in scope, a novel whose background is the inception of Hong Kong by the British, circa 1841. Into these turbulent times comes a tail of rival opium smugglers, piracy, betrayal, love, hatred, incest, murder, friendship and natural disasters. Pretty much everything is here, giving this the flavour of a historical saga of old with a distinctly mas ...more

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Aug 30, 2015 Nikoleta Starkova rated it it was amazing

This book is an absolute masterpiece! Every sentence, every word was on its right place. The portraits of the characters were unique, intriguing, perfectly built and there wasn’t even a moment, when the plot was boring. I can’t even think of a flaw.

I loved the story of the hatred between the rivals Dirk and Brok and the way their children are included in it, the love between Dirk and Mei-Mei, the clash of different cultures and political views and of course the cruel fight for the title Tai-Pan. ...more

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Aug 27, 2017 Dux rated it it was ok

Shelves: historical-fiction

I'll update a review later when I'm not sleep deprived but to summarize my thoughts.

I expected more

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Jun 09, 2011 Jeruen rated it really liked it

I have an affinity for historical fiction. And one such series of books that I am slowly working my way into is James Clavell's Asian Saga. Last year, I read Shogun. This time, I finished the second book, which was set more than 200 years after the first one, Tai-Pan.

The current book is about the founding of Hong Kong, after the Opium Wars. It centers on the main character Dirk Struan and his family and company, The Noble House. He is a merchant who owns an armada of trading ships, plying the ro I have an affinity for historical fiction. And one such series of books that I am slowly working my way into is James Clavell's Asian Saga. Last year, I read Shogun. This time, I finished the second book, which was set more than 200 years after the first one, Tai-Pan.

The current book is about the founding of Hong Kong, after the Opium Wars. It centers on the main character Dirk Struan and his family and company, The Noble House. He is a merchant who owns an armada of trading ships, plying the route from Hong Kong to London. His biggest rival is Tyler Brock and his company. There are several back stories involving their respective families, their love affairs, their sexual relationships with European and Asian prostitutes and concubines, and so on. Several other plotlines emerge, including European diplomacy with America and Russia, Chinese gangs, and so forth.

Perhaps one weakness of my review here is that I cannot help but make a comparison to Shogun, since after all, it is part of the same series. Every detail I notice here brings back similar aspects in the previous novel. With that disclaimer, I still think that this is a marvelously written book and worth recommending.

Instead of describing the plot (which, if I did, would take immense space here as the plot is enormous), I would rather focus on the good (and bad) points of the novel. I suppose the main theme of the novel (and perhaps of the whole series) is the culture clash between the East and the West. Several instances of this appears in the novel. The European general dislike for bathing is described, together with the superstition that bathing actually causes diseases and death. The Eastern tradition of concubinage is tackled, and also how this was viewed by the Europeans. It is actually amusing and ironic to contemplate the fact that the Europeans are offended when the Chinese call them barbarians, and yet they also call the Chinese heathens.

I am not a history buff, so I do not know whether the actual events are indeed true, chronologically. However, a quick glance in an online encyclopedia says that there are real-life characters that served as inspirations for several of the characters in the book.

As with Shogun, the ending was rather surprising. In the previous book, I wrote last year that the ending was inconclusive. Here, it was rather abrupt. Several story lines were terminated with the passing of a strong typhoon, and power changed hands. As always, the ending provided for a segue so that the generation of the characters can have another story to follow them. I won't give any details as to how Dirk Struan fared in the end, but I should say that for a book that belongs to a series, it holds its end of the bargain very well.

Compared to Shogun, there's less sex in this book. The only mention of sex here in Tai-Pan has something to do with whorehouses and sexually transmitted diseases. Also, there is one snippet about perhaps the never-ending theme of Asians being so fascinated with respect to the size of the European main character's manhood: the Japanese geisha were gawking at Blackthorne's penis size in Shogun, and the Chinese servants were gawking at Struan's penis size in Tai-Pan. Depending on one's taste, that may be a good or bad thing. At least, Clavell is consistent in this respect.

Overall, as with Shogun, I recommend this book for those people who are big fans of historical fiction. It is a page turner, but it isn't an airport novel. It brings life to boring historical events, at least for some. I give this one 4 out of 5 stars. ...more

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Apr 15, 2017 Tim Mode rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: leadership-inspiring-action, xenophobia-race-scapegoats, women-fem-lib-misogyny, historical-fiction

3.7 Stars: Historic, action-packed, strategic, and cross-culturally-insightful, Tai Pan is an intriguing, strongly character-driven adventure (escapist) novel depicting an assortment of 'free-trader' opium smugglers their families and fellow-travelers, and their competitive and cross-cultural conflicts as the Tai Pan (the pirate-trader-hegemon...) consciously manipulates a wide variety of well-developed supporting characters in pursuit of his burning-desire: to establish a British-controlled fre 3.7 Stars: Historic, action-packed, strategic, and cross-culturally-insightful, Tai Pan is an intriguing, strongly character-driven adventure (escapist) novel depicting an assortment of 'free-trader' opium smugglers their families and fellow-travelers, and their competitive and cross-cultural conflicts as the Tai Pan (the pirate-trader-hegemon...) consciously manipulates a wide variety of well-developed supporting characters in pursuit of his burning-desire: to establish a British-controlled free-port-foot-hold on a small Chinese island just 1000 yards from the mainland: Hong Kong.

The Tai Pan wants to gain trader-access to the vast, rich, inscrutable, but still isolated empire by establishing a British colony on this small, uninhabited, desolate and unwanted rock. In his effort, he's at odds with the isolationist Chinese emperor, small-minded-self-interested British bureaucrats and militarists, and predatory brutes among his fellow pirate-opium-traders: the stuff of swash-buckling excitement, infuriating frustration and well-developed interpersonal drama.

In the novel (without spoiling...), "Green Eyes" a Scottish pirate, with golden-red hair and electric-green eyes, uniquely sees that Hong Kong offers an ideal, secure, and safe harbor for the traders, who're banned from setting foot in China except for a few months a year during trading-season.

I enjoyed reading this book: Clavel offers many compelling and highly entertaining scenes that reveal incisive cross-cultural savvy in Tai Pan. As a recovering catholic, I thoroughly enjoyed one hilarious conversation between the Tai Pan and his Chinese mistress as he attempts to convert her to christianity: her POV on the subject is priceless! So this book is a great read, purely taken as light reading.

Unfortunately--as usual--a more-thoughtful reader needs to remain discerning and consciously call out the none-too-subtle cultural mind-warp embedding stereotypical male-Euro-centric attitudes about the Other--particularly alienated (stereotypical-male-gaze) depictions of women (as well as men), as well as Chinese (both men and women), whose cultural difference the Tai Pan adopts in certain respects, bringing Western and Asian difference to the center of conflict in this narrative.

I have my doubts (though I really have little factual knowledge) about how historically or culturally accurate Clavel's book is (I'm certainly no expert on Chinese culture much less the history of Hong Kong's early years), but today, Hong Kong IS clearly and unquestionably an important center of world trade between East and West and through Tai Pan, Clavel purports to show us how it all began. Personally, I question the historical validity of this novel.

From my POV as an economic historian, the questionable part is that Clavel's Tai Pan (a Chinese term for "supreme leader) represents as an unbelievably authentic, intelligent, loving, romantic, well-meaning, and even-progressive persona, thought he was once a ruthlessly predatory pirate now cum free-trader-cultural-ambassador who overcomes well-established British cultural and religious taboos to deeply embrace Chinese health-practices, lovers including one who brings him a half-Chinese son, and strong relationships based on trust with many powerful Chinese mandarins. All of this strikes me as, most-likely (if not certainly), a complete romanticization misrepresenting historical reality--potentially fertile terrain for dialectical thinkers interested in the construction / deconstruction of western male "rugged-individual" stereotypes, now sadly embedded in the minds of readers of popular media, among others. But what do I know?

OK, even as I saw it coming, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief and read on: the saga IS compelling. In particular, I gained what feels like valuable cross-cultural insights into ancient (if not contemporary) Chinese culture particularly the concept of "face" as it relates to one's own self-knowledge about how others see one in life as well as in trade. Face turns out to be a day-to-day subtly symbolic interpersonal dance which gains or causes loss of face... likewise "joss" essentially your 'luck' in life--are both exceedingly non-western and mysterious to me, until reading Tai Pan.

Still, through my admittedly western-radically progressive way of seeing the world, both concepts seem to be self-fulfilling prophesies that justify and juxtapose the status of the wealthy (good face and good joss) with that of the poor (bad face and bad joss): very Buddhist, in it's worst unenlightened cultural-political formulation, yet still a highly relevant formulation that to this day seems to drive the alienated political, social and economic behaviors of so many nation-states in our increasingly sickly insane world, if not masses of people still living on the desperate edge of survival, where "bad joss" justifies doing nothing to help one another in the face of disaster, much of which is the direct result of insatiable greed and the degree to which wealth and power have become unbelievably centralized. Bad face indeed!

Likewise, Tai Pan serves up a (certainly very-male) point of view on the stark distinctions between British/western in contrast to Chinese women; the treatment of women by men in this historical era--as well as the treatment of women by each other (all from Clavel's male POV...), as well as how women (and men) view their own gender identity, interpersonal power and acceptable behaviors as they struggle--in some cases--to assert control of their own lives, either overtly or covertly--all of which is equally compelling terrain for feminist deconstruction.

Nonetheless, Clavel's epic Tai Pan certainly captured my imagination--as I laid awake with it until 3 AM on multiple nights until it was done--it was a compelling page-turner!

Yet, the ending was ultimately disappointing: I wanted Clavel to go on a bit longer developing the outcomes of his diverse and well-developed characters: Clavel's ending felt too easy: like a merchant ship fully laden with valuable cargo but jettisoned at sea to be done with her; a way to simply terminate this nearly 800 page epic saga that could well have gone on and on and on.

Still, overall, a very fun and somewhat enlightening, worthwhile read... which is why I rounded up to four stars. ...more

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Apr 21, 2015 Georgi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

За ненадминатия талант на Джеймс Клавел е говорено много и вероятно дълго още ще се говори. Осъзнавам като сериозен пропуск, че посягам към тази книга чак сега, в напреднала (младежка) възраст. И ме е яд, че някога, когато прочетох за първи път „Цар Плъх“, не изгълтах веднага цялата азиатска сага на великия Клавел. Но грешките са поправими, а що е време – пред нас е. Иде реч за „Тай – пан“, една от перлите в короната на родения в Австралия и прекарал по-голямата част от живота си в Америка брита За ненадминатия талант на Джеймс Клавел е говорено много и вероятно дълго още ще се говори. Осъзнавам като сериозен пропуск, че посягам към тази книга чак сега, в напреднала (младежка) възраст. И ме е яд, че някога, когато прочетох за първи път „Цар Плъх“, не изгълтах веднага цялата азиатска сага на великия Клавел. Но грешките са поправими, а що е време – пред нас е. Иде реч за „Тай – пан“, една от перлите в короната на родения в Австралия и прекарал по-голямата част от живота си в Америка британец. За разлика от „Цар Плъх“, тук Клавел ни отвежда в Китай, или по-скоро на самия вход на необятната китайска империя – Хонконг. По времето, в което се развива действието, Хонконг е нищо и никаква скала в морето – почти безлюдна, безплодна, камениста земя, току що преминала в британско владение, не без активната намеса на един от най-влиятелните хора в Изтока. – Дърк Струан, тай-панът на „Ноубъл хаус“.

„Тай пан“ бе китайската дума за „върховен господар“. Във всяка компания, флот или нация има само един такъв човек и той е, който владее и упражнява истинската власт“.

Цялото ревю тук: https://bibliotekata.wordpress.com/20... ...more

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Aug 17, 2011 Wiktorija Bartoszewicz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: lit-amerykanska

Первая глава первого тома затянута и насыщена именами на столько, что дважды откладывала книгу "на потом". С третьего раза далась. Пока не дочитала до конца третьего тома, оторваться не могла.

Давно книга не вызывала во мне слёзы. На столько проникновенно описана жизнь героев, что их смерть переживаешь, как смерть своих родных. И пираты предвстают не как сказочные персонажи из детства, а как настоящие люди.

С нетерпением хочу прочесть продолжение "Благородный дом" и " Гайдзин".

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Jul 23, 2017 Will rated it it was amazing

Shelves: thriller, adventure, mystery, erotic-romance, romance, military-action, mandatory-read, political-intrigue

Clavell's story of the British assumption of Hong Kong and those early struggles for dominance and fame. Truly incredible insight into the almost cavalier pirates who established the Asian outpost and colony.

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Feb 07, 2017 Patrick rated it it was amazing

What a great story! Clavell is a master at weaving together history and fiction, and the result surely makes for a compelling read. I don't know why it took me so long to read this, but I'm glad I did.

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Sep 08, 2017 Zeke Chase rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, china, epic

Astounding novel. Best I've read in a long time. I'm immediately going on to Noble House.

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Jul 02, 2017 Mikhail Kulakov rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017

Книга понравилась. Много интересного с точки зрения истории: опиумные гонки, чайно - серебряный бартер, колонизация Англии. Ну и конечно погружение в культуру Китая.

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Dec 06, 2016 Igmidio Galingan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Tai-pan is another East and West tale in the quality of Shogun, Clavell’s other popular book. Though in the later there is more versus between East and West, in Tai-pan there is more “diplomacy”.

For one reason the story of Tai-pan is more economic and business in nature. There is more subtlety in business than there is with the story of the samurai.

There is less antagonism between east and west because the main protagonists are western and the eastern are primarily in secondary role. Whatever c Tai-pan is another East and West tale in the quality of Shogun, Clavell’s other popular book. Though in the later there is more versus between East and West, in Tai-pan there is more “diplomacy”.

For one reason the story of Tai-pan is more economic and business in nature. There is more subtlety in business than there is with the story of the samurai.

There is less antagonism between east and west because the main protagonists are western and the eastern are primarily in secondary role. Whatever conflict that ensues from the intermixing of cultures comes from the west trying to make sense of the east in order to make a buck and from the tai-pan trying to make sense of his mistress. But mostly the west is there to make something of Hongkong which was just newly acquired from China.

The tai-pan you see is the most powerful of the China traders: businessmen with fleets of sailing ships dealing with all sorts of products including opium. He is the king comparable to the shogun of the novel with the same name if you have read that. There is politics; there is geopolitics; of course these traders cannot move too much without some sort of backing from England herself. The most powerful naval power on earth is what makes business possible.

What makes this novel harder to understand however is that Dirk Struan, the tai-pan, is a Scotsman. His dialogue is spelled as it sounds with his accent. A Filipino like me has an ear mostly for American English. It is a strain for me to watch a movie that would be straight British, what more if it was spelled as it sounds.

Then to make it more difficult there is that mutated Chinese English. It’s not broken English mind you, there are English words there but it seems to have its own rules. I forgot to note the name though. Yes mostly that is the only irritation I can say of the novel. Negligible since I have understood the spirit of what the characters are saying if not in their dialogue then in the narration within the paragraph.

Of the story I have nothing bad to say. If you enjoyed Shogun then you will certainly enjoy Tai-pan.
...more

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Jul 22, 2010 Nick Klagge rated it it was ok

This is the sequel to Shogun, which I read about a year ago (just before starting Goodreads!) and greatly enjoyed. A friend told me I would like it because it was about the founding of Hong Kong and "the good old days when finance was conducted with cannons." That indeed is a good description of the plot, but I would say that Tai-Pan fell well short of Shogun, and I'm not in a hurry to read any of the further sequels.

I often said about Shogun that I could barely stand how bad the writing was (th This is the sequel to Shogun, which I read about a year ago (just before starting Goodreads!) and greatly enjoyed. A friend told me I would like it because it was about the founding of Hong Kong and "the good old days when finance was conducted with cannons." That indeed is a good description of the plot, but I would say that Tai-Pan fell well short of Shogun, and I'm not in a hurry to read any of the further sequels.

I often said about Shogun that I could barely stand how bad the writing was (think cheesy Dan Brown style, but set in the 17th century), but I couldn't put it down because the plot was so great. The same was pretty much true of Tai-Pan, but I didn't get into the plot as much. I think that's largely because the plots of the two books are quite similar--"heroic Westerner gets himself involved in an Eastern culture and claws his way to the top." Also, one of the main things I liked about Shogun was the existence of Toranaga as a strong foil to Blackthorne, temperamentally and culturally quite different, but an equal if not a superior in terms of intellect and power. Tai-Pan lacked that, with everyone playing second fiddle to Struan.

I thought, while reading Tai-Pan: this is what a right-wing book looks like. I haven't read any Ayn Rand (yet), but in several passages I thought the writing was similar to what I would expect from her: glorifying Struan's solitary quest for power, and his inability to form any strong relationships because of that. Struan is an opium trader, but the book only provides the lightest intimations that there might be anything wrong with that. Although I believe Clavell is very meticulous in getting the historical detail of China (Japan in Shogun) right, he's also unpleasantly Orientalist at times. If I recall correctly, both Shogun and Tai-Pan have scenes where the Westerner, who has taken an Eastern mistress, is "forced" to abuse her because that is what is "culturally demanded", and then of course that pleasantly resolves everything and they have sex. ...more

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Oct 11, 2014 Joel Margolese rated it liked it

In re-reading Tai-Pan after, well, a long time :), it's still a grand opus. With Tai-Pan,Clavell's moves from Japan, a country with a large population and limited resources. Where rigid rules of society and manners maintain order and allow people to live in densely populated areas. China of course has a a hierarchical society and an Eastern view of manners and social life. But China is messy, opportunistic, more of a land of opportunity. Everyone is knows his or her place, but is also trying to ...more

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About James Clavell

James Clavell, born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell was a British novelist, screenwriter, director and World War II veteran and POW. Clavell is best known for his epic Asian Saga series of novels and their televised adaptations, along with such films as The Great Escape, The Fly and To Sir, with Love.

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James Clavell. (2007, November 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. ...more

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