Alan BAUMLER
This scene of an opium den in California is not dissimilar from scenes of opium dens in China in the early twentieth century, when opium addiction had spread like wildfire after British merchants began importing opium to China in vast quantities.
The First Opium War (1839–1842) between Britain and China was triggered by disputes regarding the trade of opium, but contentious Sino-British relations had already been in existence for nearly a
