November 1, 2002: Volume 56, Number 8

Professor Joyce Madancy speaks on China's 'Opium Problem'

Historians are still debating whether the widespread use of opium in late imperial and early Republican China was a serious problem, according to Joyce Madancy, associate professor of history.

"(By the late 20th century, some historians held that it) was a plague on the Chinese people – sapping their willpower and stamina, weakening the military, draining the Qing treasury while padding the coffers of the colonial Indian government, and reinforcing China's international image as an empire in decline," Madancy writes in a recent paper published in Modern China.

In the 1880's, at the peak of China's opium use, the country was consuming an estimated 1.1 million pounds of the drug per year, she said.

 "Many British and Americans saw opium smoking in China as something immoral that was destroying society," said Madancy. "But at the same time, people in Britain and the U.S. were consuming lots of opium. Why was it immoral for some societies but not for others?"

Madancy will address the topic in the fall faculty colloquium on Tuesday, Nov. 5, at 11:30 a.m. in Reamer Campus Center Auditorium with a talk on "Constructing and Combating China's Opium Problem."

Madancy, at Union since 1995, earned her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. She is the author of a forthcoming book, "The Troublesome Legacy of Commissioner Lin: The Opium Trade and Opium Suppression in Fujian Province, 1820's to 1920's."

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