China in 1860.wmv
Channel: James Lande
Date: 2012-04-20

China in 1860. This presentation provides a brief overview of the history underlying the novel Yang Shen (www.yang-shen.info), giving the reader the historical context of China's Ch'ing (Qing) dynasty, the Opium Wars, Treaty Ports, and the Taiping Rebellion, A painless introduction to complex times that will enhance a reader's enjoyment of the novel.

Continuing the epic adventure tradition of Shōgun and Taipan,  Yang Shen is a novel about the exploits of a 19th century American soldier-of-fortune who returns to China to topple the Manchu and make himself a prince, even emperor of the Chinese empire. 

Yang Shen tells a story of the encounter, sometimes the clash, of Americans and Chinese.  When America's civil war began, China's civil war approached its horrific end. Late imperial
China suffered severely from domestic disorder and foreign without. Into the midst of China's maelstrom came an American adventurer leading a ragtag army in defense of empire -- a man from the West grateful Chinese made into a god, a "yang shen."

More than a historical adventure, Yang Shen recreates times people in America, China, and England who lived through cataclysmic events that echo still.