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rfmcdonaldPointed out to me by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
satyadasa, next to the Kimlau Memorial Arch in New York City I blogged about last week, also on Chatham Square on the Lower East Side in what is now one of the city's several Chinatowns, was a statue to Lin Zexu.
Who was Lin Zexu? A Fujian-born bureaucrat empire of the Qing in the first half of the 19th century, as Wikipedia points out he was the man whose campaign against Britain's opium trade with China started the Opium Wars.
Denigrated in his time, of late Lin Zexu has become a bit of a hero in China as one man who resisted Western imperialism, apparently the hero of no less than three movies.
Why a statue of Lin Zexu on Chatham Square? The place,satyadasa pointed out, is important, since this general area became a major centre for Fujianese immigrants from the 1980s on, gradually replacing the originally Cantonese-speaking migrants who first settled this Chinatown as these latter suburbanize. Having a statue of a Fujianese folk hero in an area with a large Fujianese population makes sense.
Too, the timing matters. Look at the inscription on the statue's plinth.
The English text reads as follows:
LIN ZE XU
1785-1850
PIONEER IN THE WAR
AGAINST DRUGS
Yes, the statue was put up during Rudolph Guiliani's tenure as mayor.
satyadasa, next to the Kimlau Memorial Arch in New York City I blogged about last week, also on Chatham Square on the Lower East Side in what is now one of the city's several Chinatowns, was a statue to Lin Zexu.Who was Lin Zexu? A Fujian-born bureaucrat empire of the Qing in the first half of the 19th century, as Wikipedia points out he was the man whose campaign against Britain's opium trade with China started the Opium Wars.
A formidable bureaucrat known for his competence and high moral standards, Lin was sent to Guangdong as imperial commissioner by the emperor in late 1838 to halt the illegal importation of opium by the British. He arrived in March 1839 and made a huge impact on the opium trade within a matter of months. He arrested more than 1,700 Chinese opium dealers and confiscated over 70,000 opium pipes. He initially attempted to get foreign companies to forfeit their opium stores in exchange for tea, but this ultimately failed and Lin resorted to using force in the western merchants' enclave. It took Lin a month and a half before the merchants gave up nearly 1.2 million kilograms (2.6 million pounds) of opium. Beginning 3 June 1839, 500 workers laboured for 23 days in order to destroy all of it, mixing the opium with lime and salt and throwing it into the ocean outside of Humen Town. 26 June is now the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in honour of Lin Zexu's work.
Lin also wrote an extraordinary "memorial" by way of an open letter published in Canton, to Queen Victoria of Great Britain in 1839 urging her to end the opium trade. The letter is filled with Confucian concepts of morality and spirituality. As a representative of the Imperial court, Lin adopts a position of superiority and his tone is condescending, despite the British clearly having the upper hand, military-wise, when the event is examined with hindsight. His primary line of argument is that China is providing Britain with valuable commodities such as tea, porcelain, spices and silk, while Britain sends only "poison" in return. He accuses the "barbarians" (i.e. private merchants) of coveting profit and lacking morality. His memorial expressed a desire that Victoria would act "in accordance with decent feeling" and support his efforts.
Denigrated in his time, of late Lin Zexu has become a bit of a hero in China as one man who resisted Western imperialism, apparently the hero of no less than three movies.
Why a statue of Lin Zexu on Chatham Square? The place,
satyadasa pointed out, is important, since this general area became a major centre for Fujianese immigrants from the 1980s on, gradually replacing the originally Cantonese-speaking migrants who first settled this Chinatown as these latter suburbanize. Having a statue of a Fujianese folk hero in an area with a large Fujianese population makes sense.Too, the timing matters. Look at the inscription on the statue's plinth.
The English text reads as follows:
1785-1850
PIONEER IN THE WAR
AGAINST DRUGS
Yes, the statue was put up during Rudolph Guiliani's tenure as mayor.
