It's recommended from an entertainment perspective rather than for any historical gleanings that might be achieved.
But, despite it's failings this book is easy to read and is a lot of fun. In addition, the historical facts thrown up tend to be treated on a lowest possible common denominator for the reader to 'understand'. It is less successful at portraying the situation from a Chinese viewpoint and much of the stereotyping is crude to the point of banality. This book raises the issues of Imperial trade, the duplicitousness of Opium smuggling, the strained heirachical positioning of both Chinese and Imperial British society and touches on many of the taboos and prejudices of the British community. The story rapidly turns into a swashbuckling adventure combined with a liberal dose of romance. The book is about his struggle to maintain his pre-eminence amonst the China traders, establish his kith and kin to take over the dynasty after him and to turn Hong Kong from a small rocky island into the centre of Britain's Asian Policy. The hero of the book is Dirk Struan: The Taipan (Taipan having a first amongst equals type of meaning). It conjures up some excellent historical imagery and introduces many of the most important historical developments of the era. Set in the days of the founding of Hong Kong, this work presents the story of Dirk Struan, the ruler - the Tai-Pan - of the trading company in the Far East, who. However, for all these problems it is an immensely fun book to read. The book is also full of the grossest racial and sexual stereotyping in the best traditions of Hollywood. It is not exactly historically accurate, taking huge liberties with established facts. This is a real blockbuster of a story set around the establishment of Hong Kong in the turbulent days of the 1840's.
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