Narcotic Culture a History of Drugs in China
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FRANK DIKOTTER LARS LAAMANN ZHOU XUN Narcotic Culture A History of Drugs in China THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CONTENTS Acknowledgements page v Conventions xi 1. Introduction 1 2. The Global Spread of Psychoacdve Substances (c. 1600-1900) 10 The psychoactive revolution 10 Opium in Europe and Asia 16 The opium trade in East Asia 21 3. Opium before the 'Opium War' (c. 1600-1840) 24 Tobacco and the culture of smoke 24 Minerals, alcohol and tea culture 29 The spread of madak, c. 1660-1780 32 From madak to opium, c. 1780-1820 36 Traders, pirates and opium, 1793-1820 39 War on drugs: The 'Opium War' 42 4. Opium for the People: Status, Space and Consumption (c. 1840-1940) 46 The expansion of opium culture 46 Varieties of opium 49 Estimates of opium consumption 51 Opium as social status 57 Opium consumption and consumer taste 62 The myth of the opium den 65 Opium for the people 68 Opium and suicide 70 viii CONTENTS 5. 'The Best Possible and Sure Shield': Opium, Disease and Epidemics (c. 1840-1940) 74 Opium as a medical panacea 75 Prophylactic smoke and infectious diseases 79 Opium, narcotine and malaria 83 Opium as a social aphrodisiac 88 6. War on Drugs: Prohibition and the Rise of Narcophobia (c. 1880-1940) 93 'The horrors': Missionary debates on prohibition 96 Resisting cultural imperialism: The Royal Commission on Opium 101 Nationalism and prohibition in late imperial China 104 Narcophobia and the 'opium plague' in republican China 111 7. Curing the Addict: Prohibition and Detoxification (c. 1880-1940) 118 From dross to morphine: Miracle cures in the nineteenth century 119 Missionary asylums and the 'opium vice' 122 The great confinement: The persecution of opiate users in republican China 125 Prohibition and detoxification 130 Killing to cure: Detoxification treatments against 'addiction' 135 Capital crimes: The judicial killing of 'addicts' 142 8. Pills and Powders: The Spread of Semi-Synthetic Opiates (c. 1900-1940) 146 The new panacea: Morphine 147 Medical culture, miracle cures and magic pills 151 Heroin: The gentle drug 155 'Red terror': The mysterious red pills 156 Golden elixirs and white powders 160 Heroin as a global commodity 165 CONTENTS ix The resilience of opium smoking 170 9. Needle Lore: The Syringe in China (c. 1890-1950) 173 Needle culture 174 Hypodermic morphine and the magic needle 176 Syringes, vaccines, patents and quacks 179 Narcotic culture and the syringe 184 10. China's Other Drugs (c. 1900-1950) 192 From dionine to methadone 192 The stimulants: Cocaine and ephedrine 195 China's non-problem: Cannabis 199 A marker of modernity: The cigarette 201 11. Conclusion 206 Bibliography 270 Archival sources 270 Printed primary sources 273 Secondary sources 292 Character List 307 Index 313.