Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Political impact of tea (article)

Valerie Sartor, "All the Tea in China: The Political Impact of Tea,"American Journal of Chinese Studies 14/2 (2007): 185-188. Also see blog, here.

2011 ADHS conference at Guangzhou, China

The Alcohol and Drugs History Society has accepted the proposal of Zheng Yangwen (University of Manchester, England) that the 2011 ADHS conference be held at Sun Yat Sen University in Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton), China.

Soju, baijiu, and shōchū, East Asian distilled alcoholic beverages

According to Wikipedia, "mass produced [Korean distilled beverage based on rice] soju is similar to Chinese baijiu, a grain liquor, and Shōchū, a Japanese beverage." The online encyclopedia also says that "soju is sometimes mistakenly referred to as cheongju ..., a Korean rice wine similar to [Japanese] sake."

Growing global demand for luxury alcoholic drinks

Growing demand for champagne, single malt whiskies, and other luxury alcoholic drinks, especially in China, has prompted Scotland to build its first new whiskey distillery in 30 years and France to enlarge the area designated for champagne grapes for the first time in 80 years. Although the demand for champagne has declined in the USA, it has grown in Russia and India as well as in China. For more, see USA Today, May 16, 2008, "Makers of Luxury Spirits Make Merry."

Qing and drug control (article)

Joshua Fogel, "Opium and China Revisited: How Sophisticated Was Qing Thinking in Matters of Drug Control?", China Review International 13/1 (Spring 2006): 43-51.

Tea-pickers don't like tea from Pu'er plantations

Tea from Pu'er plantations in Yunnan, China, is increasingly prized by outsiders, but tea-pickers prefer wild tea. For more, see here.

Chen reviewing Aha, The Opium Debate and Chinese Exclusion Laws (book review)

Yong Chen, book review of Diana L. Ahad, The Opium Debate and Chinese Exclusion Laws in the Nineteenth-Century American West (2007), in American Historical Review 113/1 (February 2008).

Drunken modernity: wine in China (article)

Björn Kjellgren, "Drunken Modernity: Wine in China," Anthropology of Food, 3 December 2004 [special issue on wine and modernization]. For the text of the article and abstracts in French and English, see here.

American writers on the opium issue in China, 1840-1860 (dissertation)

Zhen Zou. "'Smoke gets in your eyes': American writers on the opium issue in China, 1840-1860" (Ph.D. dissertation, Purdue University, 2006). For an abstract and a link to a PDF for the entire dissertation, see here. Focus is on four American writers: Henrietta Hall Shuck, William Maxwell Wood, S. Wells Williams, and Bayard Taylor.

Tea in Tang China (thesis)

Jason Allen Fuqua, "The essence of tea: The effects of Lu Yu's 'Ch'a Ching' on the extent of changes in tea drinking and the material culture of Yue ware in Tang China after 780 A.D" (M.A. thesis, Stephen F. Austin State University, 2007).

Lunchtime drinking attacked in China

In Xinygang, a city of seven million in the Chinese province of Henan, a campaign has been launched against government employees drinking at lunchtime. Midday banquets, often paid for with public money, include so much heavy drinking that employees become unfit for work. The anti-lunchtime drinking campaign is related to the larger campaign against corruption among government officials. For more, see here.

Meth-laced ecstasy common in American schools near Canadian border

Meth-laced ecstasy has become common in American schools in the states near the Canadian border. Although the drugs are smuggled from Canada into the USA, the ultimate source for the drugs appears to be China and India. For more, see here.

Chinese government rejects opium scenes in movie

The Chinese government has rejected scenes depicting Chinese using opium in an American film about Shanghai in World War II. It may be that the movie will be filmed outside China. For more, see here.

China's growing taste for black tea

China's growing taste for black tea may force prices in Britain to rise 10%. For the first time in recent history China now consumes more tea than India. (China is also the world's largest producer, with India second.) Another factor forcing prices higher is the unrest in Kenya. The Chinese favor a black tea called Pu-erh which is fermented for three weeks, has a musty taste, and is supposed to help drinkers lose weight. All this is from a (London) Times, 16 February 2008, article that also says that 70% of the British drink tea daily, typically three cups. By the way, supposedly there are 1500 varieties of tea. For more, see here.

India hopes to fight Argentina for the American iced tea market

For success in the American market, India's tea exporters must compete in the category of bottled, canned, and packeted (iced) teas, 20% of the USA consumption, and growing even more rapidly than bottled water. Surprisingly Argentina provides nearly half of American tea, while China and Indonesia also sell more tea to the USA than does India. [It is not clear when the statement about Argentina applies only to tea sold in containers or to all imported tea in America.] The problem for India is that its tea becomes cloudy when chilled and smokes when refrigerated. For more, see here. By the way, apparently the only tea plantation is the USA is in South Carolina.

Britain, China, and tea (book)

Sarah Rose, For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Sercret Formula of the World's Favourite Drink (Hutchinson, forthcoming 2009). Robert Fortune, Scottish adventurer, in China in 1840s.

Diversity of Chinese tea flavors and rituals

Chinese tea flavors and rituals are diverse. The article includes a visit to Shanghai's Da Ning tea city. For more, see here.

China cracks down on drugs

China has decided to crack down on drugs such as opium from Afghanistan. An estimated 1.2 million Chinese use banned drugs, mostly heroin. For more, see here.

Tea, espionage, and empire (book)

Sarah Rose, For all the tea in China:espionage, empire and the secret formula for the world's favourite drink (London: Hutchinson, 2008).

Last 50 years of legal opium in Hong Kong (thesis)

Tiziana Salvi, "The Last Fifty Years of Legal Opium in Hong Kong, 1893-1943" (M.A. thesis, University of Hong Kong, 2004).

Chinese-grown coffee described as similar to Colombian

Tea-drinking China has begun to grow coffee in the southwestern part of the country for export. It has been described as similar to Colombian. For more, see here. The emergence of China as a coffee exporter may ultimately challenge traditional coffee exporting countries.

Kenya: world's largest tea exporter

Based on the first seven months of 2007, Kenya has become the world's largest tea exporter, surpassing China and Sri Lanka.  For details, see here.

Khun Sa dies at 74, onetime Golden Triangle drug lord

Khun Sa, son of a Chinese father and a Shan mother, once was the leading drug lord in the so-called Golden Triangle where Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand meet. At that time the USA offered a multi-million dollar award for his capture. Khun Sa claimed to be leading a liberation army on behalf of the oppressed ethnic Shan minority. When he died recently at age 74, he was living peacefully at Yangon, the Myanmar capital, as part of some sort of a deal with the military junta that ruled there.

Betel nut chewing in Taiwan (dissertation)

Christian Alan Anderson, "Betel nut chewing culture: The social and symbolic life of an Indigenous commodity in Taiwan and Hainan" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California, 2007).

Buddhism, alcohol, and tea in medieval China (article)

James A. Benn, "Buddhism, Alcohol, and Tea in Medieval China," in Roel Sterckx, ed., Of Tripod and Palate: Food, Politics, and Religion in Traditional China (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005): 213-236.

Canton opium smokers in the 1930s (article)

Xavier Paules, "In Search of Smokers: A Study of Canton Opium Smokers in the 1930s," East Asian History no. 29 (2005): 107-128.

Opium: from the golden triangle to the golden crescent

Three decades ago 70% of the world's opium was grown in the so-called golden triangle, upland districts of Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand. Now, partly because of pressure from China where recently much of the heroin has been sold, the golden triangle is responsible for no more than 5%. Today opium is mostly (92% of the world's production) grown in the golden crescent, southern Afghanistan, with the total world production perhaps doubled. For more, see here.

Chinese consume $59.5 billion of alcoholic drink

In 2006 China consumed $59.5 billion of alcoholic beverages. The most popular liquor remains the traditional "Chinese vodka" called baijiu, made from sorghum, rice, and unhusked barley. For more, see here.

"Forbidden City" Starbucks closes after Chinese protests

Protests that a Starbucks in Beijing's "Forbidden City" offended Chinese cultural traditions have persuaded the Seattle-based company to close the coffee shop at the historic location. For more, see here.

Drugs and empire (book)

James H. Mills and Patricia Barton, eds., Drugs and Empires:
Essays in Modern Imperialism and Intoxication 1500-1930
(Palgrave, forthcoming 2007). Mosly about opium and to large extent about China.

Introduction; J.H.Mills & P. Barton
PART 1: CONSUMPTION
China, British imperialism and the myth of the 'Opium Plague'; F. Dikötter, L. Laamann & X. Zhou
Developing Habits: Opium and Tobacco in the Indonesian Archipelago, c. 1619-c. 1794; G.B.Souza
Early British encounters with the Indian opium eater; R.Newman
'Cannot we induce the people of England to eat opium?' The moral economy of opium in colonial India; J.F.Richards
PART 2: CONTROL
Opium and the Trading World of Western India in the Early Nineteenth Century; A.Farooqui
Dangerous Drinks and the Colonial State: 'Illicit' Gin Prohibition and Control in Colonial Nigeria; C.J.Korieh
Empire and Excise: Drugs and drink revenue and the fate of states in south Asia; M.J.Gilbert
Powders, Potions and Tablets: The 'quinine fraud' in British India, 1890 to 1939; P.Barton
PART 3: 'HIGH' POLITICS
Colonial Africa and the international politics of cannabis: Egypt, South Africa and the origins of global control; J.H.Mills
'A grave danger to the peace of the East': Opium and Imperial Rivalry in China, 1895-1920; W.O.Walker III
'Wolf by the Ears': The Dilemmas of Imperial Opium Policymaking in the 20th Century; W.B.McAllister
The Trade-Off: Chinese Opium Traders and Antebellum Reform in the United States, 1815-1860; K.Gray

Budweiser in India despite small initial market

Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser has entered India's marketplace despite the comparatively small and low profit margin beer sales there and strongly entrenched competitors. India consumes less than a liter of beer per capita annually compared with 18 liters in China and 85 liters in the USA (and a world average of 25 liters). Anheuser-Busch is attracted by long term prospects for growth. Already beer consumption in India has been increasing by 20% per year. For more, see here.

Opium and Chinese exclusion laws (book)

Diana L. Ahmad, The Opium Debate and Chinese Exclusion Laws in the Nineteenth-Century American West (University of Nevada Press, 2007).

Values of Chinese opium smokers (article)

Xavier Paules, "L'Eloge Interdit: Etude du System de Valeurs des Fumeurs d'Opium dans la Chine Republicaine," Geneses: Sciences Sociales et Histoire 62 (2006): 69-92. Values of opium smokers in China during the first half of the twentieth century. The main title can be translated as "Forbidden Praise."

Commodities of Empire (from H-Empire)

Readers of ADHS may be interested in this post which appeared on H-Empire:

CFP: "Commodities of Empire" international workshop, London, July 13-14,
2007

The Ferguson Centre for African and Asian Studies (Open University) and
the Caribbean Studies Centre (London Metropolitan University) have
launched a collaborative research project entitled 'Commodities of
Empire'. Details of this project can be found on our website:
http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/ferguson-centre/commodities-of-empire/index.h
tml

We are organising an international workshop in London, 13/14 July 2007,
and would like to hear from anybody interested in participating. We
would particularly like to hear from researchers wishing to attend from
Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America who are working on any
historical aspects of the global movement of commodities (i.e.
industrial crops, foodstuffs and stimulants).

For more details, please contact either Sandip Hazareesingh
(s.k.hazareesingh@open.ac.uk) or Jonathan Curry-Machado
(j.currymachado@londonmet.ac.uk).

Dr Jonathan Curry-Machado
Research Fellow
Caribbean Studies Centre
London Metropolitan University

Latin American drug dealers prefer euro instead of the dollar

Latin American drug dealers now prefer the euro over the dollar. For more, see here. The same International Herald Tribune article says that drugs now often enter Europe from West Africa (Latin American cocaine, Asian heroin, Chinese chemicals).

China and the global opium trade (dissertation)

Kristin Bayer, "Substance and symbol: China and the global opium trade of the nineteenth century" (Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 2005).

China and opium under the Republic (book)

Alan Baumier, The Chinese and Opium Under the Republic: Worse Than Floods and Wild Beasts (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007).

Grape-based Greek wine 6500 years old

Archaeologists have discovered evidence that Greeks made a grape-based wine 6500 years ago. China produced a rice-based wine 9000 years ago, but the new discovery places a grape-based wine much earlier than previously believed. For a full report see the current issue of Antiquities. For the summary in Discovery News, March 16, 2007, see here.

Beer industry in Qingdao, China, 1903-1993

Zhiguo Yang, "'This Beer Tastes Really Good': Nationalism, Consumer Culture and Development of the Beer Industry in Qingdao, 1903-1993," Chinese Historical Review 14/1 (Spring 2007).  Germans established the Tsingtao Brewery in 1903.  Its beer temporarily suffered a quality decline after the period covered by the article as a result of pollution contaminating the local barley crop.  Since then, the brewery has been dependent on imported barley which allows the brewing of high quality beer.

New malt whiskey distillery in Scotland

Diageo, the drinks company, is building its first new malt whiskey distillery in Scotland to satisfy growing demand in Brazil, Russia, China, and Mexico. For more, see here.

Dutch tea trade with China (book)

Yong Liu, The Dutch East India Company's tea trade with China, 1757-1781 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007).

China exports record quantity of tea

In 2006 China exported a record quantity of tea. Accounting for about a quarter of the world's exported tea, China is second only to India. Other major exporters are Sri Lanka and Kenya. China sells most of its tea to Morocco, the United States, Russia, and Japan. For the world as a whole, other major tea importers include the United Kingdom, Egypt, and Pakistan. For more, see here.

China's affluent learn to imbibe costly imported wine

The newly rich in the People's Republic of China like imported wine when it is very costly, a status symbol. Some Chinese still swallow an entire glass as if the wine was for a toast like the traditional Chinese grain alcohol baijiu, but wine appreciation classses have sprung up. The market for imported wine is the half million Chinese with a income of $64,000 or more. Much of the imported wine is cheap wine from Australia or Chile that comes to China in 6000 gallon bags and then is mixed with Chinese ingredients before being bottled. Even imported bottled wine often sells for less than $5. In contrast, there also are imports of very expensive vintage wine. It is possible for spend over $2000 for a bottle of wine at a prestige restaurant. For more, see here.

Brazilian coffee

In 2006, Brazil produced 44 million bags of coffee of which 27.2 million was exported. Obviously, Brazilians drink a lot of their own coffee! The revenue produced by coffee exports amounts to US$3.3 billion. Today coffee comprises 2.5% of Brazilian exports. Brazil is not as dependent on coffee exports as is Vietnam, a newcomer to coffee exports which now ranks second in the world.

Brazil has exported coffee since 1816, and beginning in 1840 has been the world's largest coffee exporter. In 1930, coffee produced 70% of Brazil's exports. The market then tumbled. Although Brazil exports mostly green grains, it also sells soluble (instant) coffee and, in the last four years, roasted-and-ground coffee. Instant coffee was the first kind of Brazilian coffee to reach China and Russia. International competition from the 1950s onwards drove the contribution of Brazil to world production down to an average of 25%, but it has risen to 30% today. Most Brazilian coffee goes to Germany, the USA, Italy, and France, but some now goes to East Asian and Middle Eastern buyers. Traditionally a tea-drinking country, Japan is now the fifth largest coffee consumer in the world. In most countries coffee is drunk principally at home, but not in Japan and China. Young Japanese and Chinese go to coffee house where they can talk, while they are expect to be more quiet at tea houses. Unlike Brazilians who like to drink coffee in the morning, the Chinese drink coffee at mid-afternoon breaks in their work day. The Chinese like coffee mild and mix it with water or milk. As a result, they enjoy cappucinco. Most of the coffee drinkers in China are 25 to 35 years old with decent jobs. Espresso coffee is expensive in China, US$4 (much more than what it is the United States). Brazil also exports coffee to a majority of the countries affiliated with the Arab League. In the Middle East, Lebanon is now the largest importer of Brazilian coffee, surpassing the old leader, Syria. For more, see here.

Starbucks in Forbidden City

A blog campaign is attacking the Starbucks in Beijing's historic Forbidden City as contrary to Chinese culture. For more, see here.

China and the 19th cent. global opium trade (book)

Kristin Bayer, Substance and Symbol: China and the Global Opium Trade of the Nineteenth Century (New York University Press, 2005).

Opium in British India and Qing China (aricle)

David A. Bello, "Poppies without Borders: Notes for a Eurasian History of Opium," History Compass 3 (2005). Electronic journal.

Cognac in Hong Kong (article)

Josephine Smart, "Globalization and Modernity--A Case Study of Cognac Consumption in Hong Kong," Anthropologica 46 (2004): 219-229.

China #1 for beer

In 2005 China drank more beer than any other country (19.5% of worldwide consumption). The Chinese drank over 5% more beer in 2005 than in 2004. In descending order the other major beer drinking countries in 2005 were:

United States
Germany
Brazil
Russia
Japan

These rankings depend in part on size of population and in part on per capita consumption. For more, see here.

Asia new source for meth in USA

As Mexico recently has cracked down on a crucial compoment for making meth, India and China likely will become major suppliers for the American market. According to the UN, a majority of meth users worldwide live in Asia. For more, see here.

Breweries in China number 536

According to SABMiller, the world's second largest brewer, profitability in the Chinese brewing industry requires consolidation. Today there are 536 breweries competing with one another in China, the world's largest beer market by volume. SABMiller is now the largest brewer in China, and its Snow brand the most popular there. SABMiller expects that Snow soon will be its leading brand worldwide, replacing Miller Lite, and that Snow will be one of the world's four leading beers behind only Budweiser (USA), Skol (Brazil), and Corona (Mexico). (SABMiller was created by the merger of South African Breweries with the American firm, Miller.) For more, see the Reuters story here.

"Wine is the sunrise industry in China"

"Wine is the sunrise industry in China. The annual increase rate of Chinese wine market is more than 10%." Domestic brands take up more than 95% of the market despite the higher quality of imported wines. For more, see a speech describing how to enter the Chinese wine market here.

Drinking beer in China

According to a business analyst on Fox News, 18 Nov. 06, 45% of all the beer consumed in the world is drunk in China.

Smokers feeling the heat in China

Hundreds of thousands of smokers in China are now more willing to quit the habit following the recent passage of an anti- smoking bill into law, according to a Hong Kong University survey.

The Standard, China's Business Newspaper, reports.

Kung fu and coffee

Pennsylvania's Hometown Coffee will provide the beans for kung fu movie star Jackie Chan's chain of coffeeshops, Jackie's Java, brewing in China, the Philippines and eventually elsewhere in Asia. For more, see here.

Tobacco consumption in China (research)

Carol A Benedict (Georgetown University), “Golden-Silk Smoke: A Social and Cultural History of Tobacco Consumption in China, 1550-2000,” research in progress.

Wine in China

China is becoming a wine producer (and claims to have invented wine), says USA Today, 6 October 2006. For more, see here.

Opium prices in Taiwan, 1914-42 (article)

J.L. Liu and others, "The Price Elasticity of Opium in Taiwan, 1914-1942," Journal of Health Economics 18/6 (December 1999):795-810. Policies of the Japanese government aiming at eliminating the opium problem.

Tea in China (book)

John C. Evans, Tea in China: the History of China's National Drink (Greenwood Press, 1992).

Panda bites drunk Chinese man, man bites panda back at Beijing zoo

A drunken Chinese tourist bit a panda at the Beijing Zoo after the animal attacked him when he jumped into the enclosure and tried to hug it, state media said Wednesday. The CBC reports.

Asian drinks, change and continuity

Economic and cultural globalization challenges Asia's traditional beverages. An article in the (London) Observer "All the Tea in China" is framed around the challenge posed by coffee (there are 47 Starbucks in Shanghai), but the article in fact focuses on tea, both Chinese and South African rooibos. For details, see here. The (London) Sunday Times looks at the taste of youthful middle-class Indians for wine, "Clink of a Wine Revolution in Kingfisher Land." (Kingfisher is India's major beer and spirits company.) For details, see here.

opium and Chinese coolies in 19th cent. Peru and Cuba (article)

Eveykn Hu-DeHart, "Opium and Social Control: Coolies in the Plantations of Peru and Cuba," Journal of Chinese Overseas 1/2 (November 2005): 169-183. In late 19th century about 250,000 Chinese coolies worked in Peru and Cuba.

Wine in China

Sylvia Hui reports for the AP on China as an emerging market for wine.

Dragons in Little Paradise (article)

Liua’ana, Ben Featuna’i. “Dragons in Little Paradise: Chinese (Mis-)Fortunes in Samoa, 1900-1950.” Journal of Pacific History 32:1 (1997), 29-48. [Narrates the drug use among Chinese indentured servants that emigrated to Samoa.]

Smoking in China

In a May 27 report for the Sydney Herald,  reports on the prevalence of smoking in China. The "tobacco industry is the Government's single biggest taxpayer" and the "website of the government monopoly that runs the tobacco industry promotes tobacco as helpful for everything from heart disease to Tourette's syndrome." Sixty percent of adult males smoke.

A Morgan Stanley report last year said the monopoly, the China National Tobacco Corporation, was crucial to the economy, generating more than $US26 billion ($34 billion) in taxes and profits in 2004, up 19 per cent from 2003. The report said smoking was an entrenched part of Chinese culture, illustrated by the fact that it is common etiquette to offer a cigarette as part of any greeting between males.

China grows a third of the world's tobacco, manufactures a third of its cigarettes, and is home to a third of its smokers, even though it accounts for only 22 per cent of the world's population. An estimated 350 million Chinese smoke and 3 million more take up the habit each year.

While the government promises to make efforts to discourage smoking, many doubt the sincerity of those promises. Full story here.

China and 19th cent. opium trade (dissertation)

Kristin Bayer, "Substance and Symbol: China and the Global Opium Trade of the Nineteenth Century" (Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 2005).

Coffee

BusinessLine reports on the state of the worldwide coffee industry here. Brazil looks poised to boost production, and India and China and identified as the next big markets.

Opium Smoking, Anti-Chinese Attitudes, and the American Medical Community, 1850-1890 (article)

Ahmad, Diana L. "Opium Smoking, Anti-Chinese Attitudes, and the American Medical Community, 1850-1890." American Nineteenth Century History 1, no. 2 (2000): 53.

Late Qing Perceptions of Native Opium (article)

Man-Houng Lin. "Late Qing Perceptions of Native Opium." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 64, no. 1 (2004): 117-144.

Opium Trade and Opium Suppression in Late Qing and Early Republican Fujian (article)

Madancy, Joyce. "Unearthing Popular Attitudes toward the Opium Trade and Opium Suppression in Late Qing and Early Republican Fujian." Modern China 27, no. 4 (2001): 436.

Chinese Tea Culture (article)

Li Xiusong. "Chinese Tea Culture." Journal of Popular Culture 27, no. 2 (1993): 75-89.

American missionaries and opium in 19th-cent. China (article)

Michael C. Lazich, "American Missionaries and the Opium  Trade in Nineteenth-Century China," Journal of World History 17/2 (June 2006): 197-223.  Lazich (who teaches at Buffalo State College in New York State) supplements and corrects Charles Clarkson Stelle, Americans and the China Opium Trade in the Nineteenth Century (1981), and Kathleen L. Lodwick, Crusaders against Opium: Protestant Missionaries in China, 1874-1917 (1996).

American Missionaries and the Opium Trade in Nineteenth-Century China (article)

Lazich, Michael C. "American Missionaries and the Opium Trade in Nineteenth-Century China." Journal of World History 17, no. 2 (2006): 197-223.

Britain's China Policy, 1833-1840 (article)

Brown, David. "Britain's China Policy and the Opium Crisis: Balancing Drugs, Violence and National Honour, 1833-1840." English Historical Review 120, no. 489 (2005): 1455-1457.

Heroin Society (article)

Laidler, Karen A. Joe. "The Rise of Club Drugs in a Heroin Society: The Case of Hong Kong." Substance Use & Misuse 40, no. 9/10 (2005): 1257-1278.

Southwestern Opium (article)

Bello, David. "The Venomous Course of Southwestern Opium: Qing Prohibition in Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou in the Early Nineteenth Century." Journal of Asian Studies 62, no. 4 (2003): 1109-1142.

Chinese opium trade in British Columbia (article)

Lai, David Chuenyan. "Chinese opium trade and manufacture in British Columbia, 1858-1908." Journal of the West 38, no. 3 (1999): 21.

brewery museum in China (thesis)

Man-ching Gordon Ho, "Brewery Museum in Qingdao, China: a Historical Place Revitalization" (M.Arch. thesis, University of Hong Kong, 1998).

'We are a world brewer and we need a big position in China," says Managing Director for SABMiller Africa and Asia

SABMiller expects its beer sales in China to grow by double-digit percentages in coming years, as it clamps the brakes on a recent acquisition spree to focus on its existing business. London-based SABMiller -- purveyors of Miller Lite, Peroni and Castle -- operates in China via a 49 percent owned venture called China Resources Snow Breweries Ltd., which runs 41 breweries across the country.

Reuters reports.

Pantyhose milk tea

Pantyhose tea is regarded as the smoothest, silkiest version of Hong Kong's favorite drink -- creamy milk tea, which is made with evaporated milk and a heavy dose of tea leaves. It's nothing like watered-down English tea.

The intriguingly named brew is so called because it's prepared by repeatedly straining the drink through long, brown filters that look like pantyhose. Making the tea, a traditional and elaborate process, is revered almost as a work of art in this former British colony.

CNN reports.

The ‘Opium War’ that wasn’t

One hundred and sixty-six years ago this week, Lord Palmerston, the great British Foreign Secretary, sent a letter to the Imperial Chinese government that paved the way for the 1840-42 Anglo-Chinese conflict, the “Opium War.” It’s a brilliantly snappy name that sneakily prejudges the issue: The world is now convinced that the war was a case of commercial and imperialist British greed trying to force opium on the Chinese. The world is wrong.

The Harvard Crimson will tell you why.

China to ban new cigarette factories

China will not allow any new cigarette factories, including joint ventures, as it works to cut back on tobacco use among its 350 million smokers, reports said Thursday.

Among other measures aimed at cutting tobacco consumption, Beijing plans to control cigarette sales through taxes, reorganize the government-owned industry and eliminate cigarette advertising within five years, the reports in the China Daily and other state-run newspapers said.

Read more.

Asia drives wine exports to fresh high

Australian wine exports hit new highs last year but prices for growers continued to fall. New figures show winemakers are also holding record quantities of wine in storage. New Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the red grape harvest dropped 5 per cent in 2004-05 but an increase in white grapes of 7 per cent nudged the total crush just above last year. Domestic sales climbed 3 per cent and the UK and the US remain Australia's biggest wine importers, but there was also 40 per cent growth in exports to Asia.

Read more here.

Chinese people get a taste for 'healthy' chocolate

Chocolate has become a high-ranking member on the list of must-buy gifts among the Chinese for the upcoming Lunar New Year. Even though the per person annual consumption of chocolate in China is still very low, about 60 grams or the equivalent of a bar of chocolate, according to www.cfiin.com, a website run by the China Food Industry Association.

Read more.

If it tastes like a forgery and smells like a forgery...

China's State Tobacco Monopoly Administration announced...on Wednesday that it seized 7.3 billion fake cigarettes in 2005 and handled 347,000 related cases.

Read more.

China forbids sale of alcohol to minors

On January 1 China implemented the alcohol circulation management regulation, which explicitly forbids the selling of alcoholic drinks to minors under the age of 18. The aim of the regulation, first of its kind, is to keep young people away from alcoholic beverages.

Read more here.

Opium in China (Article)

Yangwen Zheng, "The Social Life of Opium in China, 1483-1999," Modern Asian Studies 37/1 (2003): 1-39. Focuses on demand.

'It's all about shochu and chu-hai cocktails'

Not only has shochu surpassed sake as the beverage of choice in many izakaya restaurants in Japan, but it's now starting to catch on in Southern California. The LA Times reports.

Deforestation in Myanmar facilitates opium cultivation

Rampant deforestation in Myanmar's (Burma's) northern states, bordering China, has led to an increase in opium cultivation by a new crop of more sophisticated farmers, a senior United Nations official acknowledged on Tuesday. M&C News reports.

Chinese bootleggers

What happens to old liquor bottles? If it's China, they might end up back on the bar shelf, filled with bogus booze.

At least 10 people have been arrested and more than 7,000 bottles of phony whiskey, cognac and other spirits seized following a monthslong investigation into a nationwide bootlegging operation, the official China Daily newspaper reported Tuesday.

The Tribune-Democrat reports.

Shanghai aims drug fight at meth, ecstasy

Shanghai plans an anti-drug campaign focused on such newcomers as ecstasy, methamphetamines and ketamine. Authorities also will be leaning on discos and other entertainment venues that allegedly allow patrons to use drugs on their premise, the Shanghai Daily News reported.

'In addition to traditional drugs like heroine and marijuana, new drugs like ecstasy, methamphetamines and ketamin are becoming popular in the city,' said Zhou Weihang, director of the Shanghai Anti-Drug Office. M&C News (13 October 2005) reports.

Opium Culture (Book)

Peter Lee, Opium Culture: The Art and Ritual of the Chinese Tradition (paperback edition, Park Street Press, forthcoming January 2006).

From space, you can see the Great Wall of China....and Starbucks

Starbucks' long march into China has breached the Great Wall itself. Tourists will be able to drink cappuccino, frappuccino and other coffee concoctions at one of China's greatest cultural treasures after the Seattle-based company announced it had opened a shop at Badaling, 47 miles north of Beijing. Find the full story at News Blog here.

Airline food driving passengers to drink... a lot

Chosun English News reports (7 Oct 2005) that Korean Air and Asiana Airlines passengers poured 3 million cans of beers, 830,000 bottles of wine and 33,000 bottles of whiskey down the hatch on board last year, a report shows.

According to a report on Incheon International Airport submitted at a parliamentary audit on Friday by Uri Party lawmaker Jung Jang-sun, the volume of alcoholic beverages consumed by passengers on the country's two main carriers totaled 1.8 million liters last year, up 30.4 percent from 1.38 million liters in 2003.

Beer topped the list with 1.11 million liters or 61.4 percent, followed by wine with 622,340 liters (34.5 percent), whiskey with 25,073 liters (1.4 percent), brandy with 9,866 liters (0.5 percent) and cocktail and other drinks with 38,876 liters (2.2 percent). The figures were equal to 3.07 million 360 ml cans of beer, 829,787 bottles of 750 ml of wine, 33,430 bottles of whiskey and 13,155 bottles of brandy.

Rep. Jung said of 332 in-flight disturbances or outright physical violence over the past four years, those committed under the influence made up 39 percent or 129 cases. He urged the airlines to think up ways of preventing passengers from tippling.

Tea sales in China dropping like a lead balloon

In the latest in a string of food scares surrounding imports from China, some retailers have stopped selling Chinese tea over fears that it contains dangerously high levels of lead. The Korea Consumer Protection Board announced last Thursday that two out of 30 Chinese tea brands sold here contained lead and insecticide well above the permitted level. The Chosun Ilbo reports.

"Opium is the safest and most gentlemanlike speculation I am aware of"

The Scotsman reports (6 September 2005) on the role of two Scottish traders, William Jardine (1784- 1842) and James Matheson (1796-1878), in the British Empire's Opium Wars with China in the 1830s. Read the full story here.

Crystal meth is the new heroin

But, as it turns out, crack cocaine is not the new cannabis. The Australian reports (5 September 2005) that Chinese drug syndicates are targeting Australia as a growing market for crystal methamphetamine - a cheap, addictive and highly dangerous drug that police and doctors warn is the new heroin on Australian streets. Read more here.

China ratifies anti-tobacco treaty, to ban tobacco vending machines

Forbes reports (28 August 2005) that China, the world's biggest market for cigarettes, ratified an international treaty aimed curbing tobacco-related deaths, announcing immediately afterwards a ban on tobacco vending machines. Find the full story here.

Beer-drinking is in decline in developed countries

The Times Online reports (13 June 2005) that the shares of brewing companies with big and expanding businesses in emerging markets will perform better than those whose main markets remain in the developed world, according to new research from Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank. The bank predicts that the shares of three global brewing groups — InBev, SABMiller and Molson Coors — will outperform brewers whose main businesses are in developed countries. Beer-drinking is in decline in developed countries, where populations are ageing. Read more here.

Starbucks adjusts its formula in China

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports (16 June 2005) that the Chinese are remaking the "Starbucks Experience." While in the U.S., Starbucks revenue is driven by the speed and frequency of its transactions, as people grab their coffee, and maybe a sandwich, before scurrying out the door to their next appointment, in the five years that it has operated in Hong Kong, Starbucks has come to be viewed as a destination restaurant rather than a coffee take-out joint. Stores in Hong Kong, then, have added food and room to chat for a culture that doesn't take its coffee to go. Read more here.

India (bibliography)

Dutta, S.C. “History of Soma and other Spirituous Liquors of India.” Asian Agri-History 4:3 (2000), 203-220. [On the history of the divine liquor, soma, and other spirituous liquors that thrived in ancient India.]

These citations originally appeared in recent “Current Literature” sections of The Social History of Alcohol Review. Jon Miller and David Fahey compiled and edited them. They were also available on the Alcohol and Drugs History Society’s old website, http://athg.org.

Unterstein, K. “Him Heel Breweries Ltd.: A ‘German’ Brewery in India.” Brauwelt International No. 1 (1999), 56-58.

Jammi Naidu, S., and M.K. Misra. “Production and Consumption of Wild Date Palm Sap and Country Liquor in Two Tribal Village Ecosystems of Eastern Ghats of Orissa, India.” Bioresource Technology 63:3 (1998), 267-273.

Niimura, Yoko. “Igirisujin no ahen boekikan: Bengaru ahen ‘jiyu boeki’ ka ronso o chushin ni.” Rekishigaku Kenkyu 4 (1998), 18-34. [In Japanese; on Indian, British, and Chinese views of the opium trade in the 1860s and 1870s.]

Saldanha, Indra Munshi. “On Drinking and ‘Drunkenness’: History of Liquor in Colonial India.” Economic and Political Weekly 30:37 (1995), 2323-2332.

Library of Congress Office, New Delhi. Prohibition in India: Part 1. New Delhi: Library of Congress, Office, 1996. [Eleven microfiches, a collection of pamphlets published during 1962-1994.]

Unsigned. “Prohibition in India.” Economist 339:7971 (1996), 64.

In China, cigarettes are a kind of miracle drug

The Globe and Mail reports (11 June 2005) that China's state-owned tobacco industry is insisting that smoking is actually good, no, make that great for your health. Cigarettes, according to China's tobacco authorities, are an excellent way to prevent ulcers. They also reduce the risk of Parkinson's disease, relieve schizophrenia, boost your brain cells, speed up your thinking, improve your reactions and increase your working efficiency. And all those warnings about lung cancer? Nonsense. Find the full story here.

Beijing police destroy drugs

China Daily reports (4 June 2005) that Beijing police burnt 224 kilograms of drugs - with an estimated street value of more than 100 million yuan (US$12 million) - at a northwestern suburban area on Friday. The drugs, most of which were heroin, "ice," marijuana and pills, were collected during raids against drug dealers and addicts in 2002 and 2003, according to the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau. The drug burning move took place on the 166th anniversary of the famous Humen Opium Destruction. Read more here.

I'll tell you what you can do with that 'bottle' of coffee...

Bloomberg.com reports (31 May 2005) that Starbucks Corp., the largest U.S. coffee-shop chain, will sell bottled coffee at stores in Japan and Taiwan to gain part of a growing $10 billion-a-year market led by Coca-Cola Co. To find out more about Starbucks plan to slowly take over the world, click here.

Beijing reports 26,000 drug addicts

People's Daily Online reports (12 May 2005) that Beijing has registered approximately 26,000 drug addicts so far, a Beijing-based website has reported. The registered drug addicts account for 0.186 percent of Beijing's total population. Only 4,000 of the registered drug users are beyond age 35 and young people account for about 88 percent of the total. However, sources with the anti-control commission said the real number of drug addicts in Beijing is far higher. Click here to find out more.

China to become Starbucks' second-biggest market

China Daily reports (23 May 2005) that Starbucks Corporation expects tea powerhouse China to eventually become the coffee chain's second-biggest market after the United States, an executive has said. The company has 9,373 stores worldwide and hopes to expand to 30,000, said Martin Coles, president of the Seattle-based coffee chain's international operations. Coles didn't give a timeline for the expansion. But he did say that Starbucks expects China to become its No. 2 market after the U.S. in the "long-term." The chain has 120 stores in China now. Find the full story here.

Chinese man gets death for selling poison liquor

Reuters reports (19 May 2005) from Beijing that a Chinese court has sentenced a 26-year-old man to death for his role in a scandal in which moonshine "baijiu" killed 14 people. Cheng Caiming, a chemicals company owner, sold 15 barrels of industrial alcohol, disguised as drinkable alcohol, to a wholesaler last May. The alcohol was later sold to four illegal breweries which made a liquor mixed with formaldehyde that killed 14 people and injured 41. Find the full story here.

China (bibliography)

These citations originally appeared in recent “Current Literature” sections of The Social History of Alcohol Review. Jon Miller and David Fahey compiled and edited them. They were also available on the Alcohol and Drugs History Society’s old website, http://athg.org.

Baumler, Alan Thomas. “Playing with Fire: The Nationalist Government and Opium in China, 1927-1941.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1997.

Baumler, Alan. “Playing With Fire: The Nationalist Government and Popular Anti-Opium Agitation in 1927-1928.” Republican China 21:1 (1995), 43-91.

Bianco, Lucien. “Peasant Uprisings against Poppy Tax Collection in Su Xian And Lingbi (Anhui) in 1932.” Republican China 21:1 (1995), 93-128.

He, Dajin. “Zaoqi ying mei dui hua yapian maoyi bijiao yanjiu.” Shixue Yuekan 4 (1998), 50-54. [In Chinese; on China’s illicit opium trade with Great Britain and the United States before the Wangxia Treaty of 1844.]

Howard, Paul Wilson. “Opium Suppression in Qing China: Responses to a Social Problem, 1729-1906.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1998.

Li, Enhan. “Jiu yi ba shibian qian hou riben dui dongbei (wei manzhouguo) de duihua zhengce.” Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica 25 (1996), 269-310. [In Chinese; on the covert sale of narcotics by the Japanese government in Manchuria during the 1930s.]

Li, Enhan. “Riben zaihua zhong de fan du huodong (1937-1945).” Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica 29 (1998), 179-222. [In Chinese; on the covert sale of narcotics by the Japanese goverment in central China.]

Lodwick, Kathleen L. Crusaders against Opium: Protestant Missionaries in China, 1874-1917. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1996.

Madancy, Joyce Ann. “Ambitious Interlude: The Anti-Opium Campaign in China’s Fujian Province, 1906-1917.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, 1996.

Martin, Brian G. “The Green Gang and the Guomindang State: Du Yuesheng and the Politics of Shanghai, 1927-37.” Journal of Asian Studies 54:1 (1995), 64-91.

Mayer, Maisie. “Bagdadi Jewish Merchants in Shanghai and the Opium Trade.” Jewish Culture and History 2:1 (1999), 58-71. [On Jewish opium merchants from Iraq based in China during the years that trade was legal in China (1858-1917).]

Newman, R.K. “Opium Smoking in Late Imperial China: A Reconsideration.” Modern Asian Studies 29:4 (1995), 765-794. [Historiography of opium use in late nineteenth-century China.]

Slack, Edward Robert, Jr. “The Guomindang’s Opium Policies, 1924-1937: Understanding ‘Opium Suppression’ in the Context of the Warlord System and the Republican Narco-Economy.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Hawaii, 1997.

Trombert, Eric. “Biere et Bouddhisme: la Consommation de Boissons Alcoolisees dans les Monasteres de Dunhuang aux VIIIe-Xe siecles.” [“Beer and Buddhism: the Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages in the Monasteries of Dunhuang during the Eighth to Tenth Centuries.”]