Opium Wars – The Hour of History

Teaching Tea

by StevenBlog Posts, Teaching, Teaching Resources December 8, 2021December 8, 2021No Comments

I have often brought tea into the classroom discussions, especially during our unit on British Imperialism and the Opium Wars. Many students at my school take Chinese (I took two years in college myself before teaching English in China) and are interested to study the links between British tea drinking and the Opium Wars. Along …

Teaching the First Opium War

by StevenTeaching Resources January 4, 2021January 4, 2021No Comments

Growing up, I was a huge fan of James Clavell’s novel Tai-Pan. Although the novel might be a little outdated today, it serves as an excellent fictional introduction to the British perspective of the Opium Wars. When I teach the Opium Wars now, I use the Opium Wars essay written for MIT’s Visualizing Cultures series. …