Julia Lovell’s new book on the Opium War was launched at the Hong Kong Book Fair last month. Matt Fleming asks her why the conflict ‘bedevilled’ Sino-British relations

When it comes to the Opium War (well, actually, there were two conflicts between the British and the Chinese between 1839 and 1860 off the shores of Hong Kong) Britain and China tend to see events a little differently to each other. Brits see their victories as paving the way for open trade in the East. Chinese people see them as the start of the West’s ‘humiliation’ of China for more than a century. British author Julia Lovell, in her new book, argues that both countries have different views because they have differing historical accounts of the conflicts. Her book tries to tell this complex story from both perspectives, she tells Time Out.

The Opium War. What’s it about?
The first half to two-thirds is a narrative history of the war. After that, it’s all about the afterlife of the war and its resonance today. My first trip to mainland China was in 1997 and finding out about the Opium War left such a deep impression on me, I wanted to write a book which deals with it and how it has shaped what has happened since.

Is it a novel or a history book?
The best sort of narrative histories should read like novels, while of course being tied to factual research. That’s the way we get readers to understand that those characters were real. I tried to bring out the characters in the book as much as I could.

Why write such a book? Aren’t there plenty of books available out there on the Opium War?
There was a gap which I noticed. There were brilliantly written histories by British and Chinese authors but I wanted to weigh both perspectives up. British and Chinese accounts have been fraught with controversy. The British primary texts are full of racial prejudice and self-justification, and Chinese accounts have long been very emotional, viewing the war as the start of a terrible century of humiliation by the West.

Is there a message you’ve tried to send out?
The message is that this war has bedevilled Sino-British relations for a long time, and we need to understand what really happened. In Britain, we need to be far more aware of our shameful, illegal past in China. I have also tried to tackle the great patriotic stories which surround the war in order to paint a clearer picture. For example, the British wouldn’t have won the war if some Chinese people hadn’t helped them as suppliers and guides. The task of a history book is to work out where received wisdom is accurate, and where it can cloud accuracy.

How do the events which happened in the war tend to relate to the present day?
This is the essence of the book’s final third. Back in the 19th century, Westerners began to fear that China was plotting to take over the world, in revenge against what it suffered in the Opium War. But this is a xenophobic hallucination on the part of the West. If we understand the reality of the Opium War and start to question the fictions that later Western commentators created, we can limit the power of these myths.

The Opium War was launched at the Hong Kong Book Fair. Why?
It’s an obvious place to do so because colonial Hong Kong was created by the Opium War. It’s only available in Hong Kong at the moment but will be sold in the UK from September. There was a wonderful buzz about my book at the fair.

There sure was. What next for Julia Lovell, then?
I’m interested in how Maoism has travelled beyond China to become a powerful political force in many other parts of the world. It’ll take me a few years to get to grips with it, though.

The Opium War is published by Picador and is available at an average Hong Kong price of $218.