The Dark Gift: Opium, John Francis Davis, Thomas De Quincey and the Amherst Embassy to China 1816

Peter Kitson

The Dark Gift: Opium, John Francis Davis, Thomas De Quincey and the Amherst Embassy to China 1816

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Abstract

This essays discusses the Amherst Embassy to China of 1816. It argues that the issue of the Opium Trade was an absent presence in the Embassy's narratives. The embassy's concern with the ceremony of the kotou and the ritual exchange of presents mask the growing British involvement in the Opium Trade is a discourse of civic rationality. The gift exchange and important commentaries upon it by John Francis Davis and Thomas De Quincey are discussed in the context. De Quincey's China writing is thus situated in the new genre of Forst Opium War Literature.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Writing China Essays on the Amherst Embassy (1816) and Sino-British Cultural Relations
Editors	Peter J. Kitson, Robert Markley
Publisher	Boydell and Brewer
ISBN (Print)	978-1843844457
Publication status	Published - Sept 2016

Publication series

Name	Essays and Studies
Publisher	Boydell & Brewer

Keywords

Amherst Embassy
De Quincey
Opium
China
Romanticism

Access to Document

https://boydellandbrewer.com/writing-china-hb.html

Peter Kitson
- P.Kitsonuea.acuk
- School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing - Emeritus Professor
- Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Research Group - Member
Person: Honorary, Research Group Member

The ‘catastrophe of this new Chinese mission’: The Amherst Embassy to China of 1816
Kitson, P. J., 11 Jul 2017, Early Encounters between East Asia and Europe: Telling Failures. Hertel, R. & M. K. (eds.). Routledge
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

Open Access
File

Cite this

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The Dark Gift: Opium, John Francis Davis, Thomas De Quincey and the Amherst Embassy to China 1816

Abstract

Publication series

Keywords

Access to Document

Profiles

Peter Kitson

Research output

The ‘catastrophe of this new Chinese mission’: The Amherst Embassy to China of 1816

Cite this