The Forgotten Crusaders: Western Missionaries in the Chinese Anti-Opium Movement

Abstract

As the most notorious drug in China, opium is repeatedly taught in school, and nearly all Chinese people could list its harmful effects. Yet instead of being taught in biology class as an addictive drug, it is introduced in history classes as a weapon employed by imperial powers to open the Chinese market, and a trigger of the two Opium Wars. These wars, according to the orthodox textbooks, “forcefully ended the long-term isolationism policy in China,” and since then “China gradually became a semi-feudal, semi-colonized country.” Therefore, instead of its toxicity, opium is famous for its significance to the history of China.