If you’ve ever wondered why Hong Kong has a different government system than mainland China, this is why. When the Chinese government tried to stop the opium trade, British forces invaded, resulting in the Chinese’s loss where they had to pay reparations, cede Hong Kong island to Britain for 100 years, and open trade ports to foreign powers. However, the British quickly realized that they could leverage the addictiveness of opium by selling the drug to the Chinese. During the Qing dynasty, the last imperial dynasty in China, the British had wanted to import tea from China, but to put it bluntly, China didn’t really care for what Britain had to trade. In the mid-19th century, China and the United Kingdom fought two wars over China’s attempt to suppress Britain’s opium trade.

I recently posted an interview with Chloe Gong, author of These Violent Delights, where she also gave a brief summary of The Opium Wars. While it’d be impossible for me to type out 100 years worth of history into a single blog post, I wanted to highlight several important events that the series discusses: The Opium Wars (1839–42), (1856–60)

The series further analyzes the impact of the West’s imperialism and colonialism through the Hesperians. The map in the book draws direct parallels from real life with the Nikara Empire being China, the Federation of Mugen being Japan, and Speer having the most similarities to Taiwan. Trigger/Content Warnings: war, drug use, substance addiction, self-harm, racism, misogyny, genocide, bullying, abandonment, abuse, animal death, animal cruelty, torture, murder of children and adults, rape, mutilation, human experimentation At its core, The Poppy War trilogy is an unfiltered look at the brutality of violence war and how its aftermath leaves a lasting effect on generations. I would actually discourage you from reading this book because you’re better off picking up something else.

If you’re looking for a book with romance and a happy ending, this isn’t it. Today’s blog post is dedicated to condensing the history the series analyzes and spotlighting the small Easter eggs of our culture the book includes. Kuang’s writing allows us to feel seen while respectfully exploring the darkest moments in our culture’s history. This is a series that has touched the hearts of many Asian readers, especially children of diaspora because it takes the stories we’ve listened to growing up and weaves them into an epic fantasy. The first is to read it as any other fantasy novel, and the second is through an analytical lens and understanding of the history it discusses. In my opinion, there are two ways to read TPW trilogy.

The poppy war book 3