On top of that, four bronze coins were broken in half, with Dirk Struan given all halves of each coin. Part of the deal, on top of a loan of silver bullion, was that the Chen family would forever be compradore of Noble House, with the first being Gordon Chen. Because later, when Struan again faced turbulent days and financial ruin, he turned to Jin-Qua for help. May-May (T’Chung Jin May-may) became Struan’s mistress.īut to add extra complication to the story, Jin-Qua’s first daughter Kai-Sung, was also one of Struan mistresses, and between them, they had a son, Gordon Chen.

She was assigned the task by her grandfather, Jin-Qua, whose full name was Chen-tse Jin Arn, to teach Struan civilised, or presumably, Chinese ways. My memory of Tai-Pan will always be of the teaching or taming of Struan, “the green-eyed devil”, by May-May. The Company cancelled their licenses and the two faced financial ruin.īrock was left with his ship, Struan with nothing.Īs The New York Times wrote, “ Clavell has a gift. It is with this context that the story sets out after the British East India Company were determined to close down both Brock and Struan. The Brock family is a fictionalised version of the Dent family and the firm Dent & Co. Tyler Brock seems to represent Lancelot Dent. Noble House, Struan’s trading company, is based by Clavell on Jardine Matheson & Co., which was a major British trading company of the time with Dirk Struan’s character resembling William Jardine. It is the business battle between Struan and Brock that forms the plot, but their companies have a historical context. But it was only years later that he learned that Brock had also survived. When the Vagrant Star ran aground on a reef and sank in the Malacca Strait in 1812, most of the crew was lost to the sea, yet Struan managed to swim ashore and survive. He vowed to one day take his revenge and made an oath to destroy Brock. However, during his time at sea, Struan was continuously whipped. He started service on the East India Company ship Vagrant Star, which was under the command of third mate, Tyler Brock. The two main characters, Dirk Struan and Tyler Brock were former shipmates but became arch business enemies.Īs a backdrop to the relationship between Struan and Brock, Struan went to sea at the age of seven. This allowed European and American traders access to the lucrative opium trade. Tai-Pan is set after the end of the First Opium War, won by the Britsh and its seizure of the island of Hong Kong.

While most famed as a novelist of the epic Asian saga series, Clavell also authored screenplays for films, including The Fly (1958), The Great Escape (1963), and wrote, produced and directed To Sir, with Love (1967).įor me though, my introduction to James Clavell was Tai-Pan and the unforgettable character, Dirk Struan.Ĭlavell’s genius was to interlace fact with fiction.

Tai pan book