Author Talk: Michael Pembroke with "Silk Silver Opium"

Silk Silver Opium tells the stories of silk and tea, porcelain, silver and opium, missionaries, mercenaries and trade, but also what became inevitable – war and humiliation.

Much about China’s modern relationship with the West is the product of its past inter-reactions, conflicts, victories and humiliations. The South China Sea was the place from where the ultimately destructive European sailing ships arrived. The Ryukyu Island chain was the place from where marauding Japanese pirates preyed mercilessly on China’s east coast ports. Taiwan was where anti-Qing rebels established a stronghold in the seventeenth century.

Silk Silver Opium is the story of imperial China’s trading relationship with the West and is a powerful tale, with clear implications for the future. Pembroke illuminates the reasons China distrusts the west and is unlikely to change that view, explaining how the West’s trading relationship with China started well but ended in tears and bloodshed.

Recommendations for Silk silver Opium:

'An epic tale of the consequences of 2000 years of trade between China and the West...an erudite, timely, entertaining rendition of a complex subject'

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD & THE AGE

About the speaker:

Michael Pembroke grew up in England, Australia and Singapore and was educated at the Universities of Sydney and Cambridge. His books include Arthur Phillip - Sailor, Mercenary, Governor, Spy (2013), an historical biography that was short-listed for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards; Korea - Where the American Century Began (2018), a military and political critique that was short-listed for the Queensland Literary Awards and the NSW Premier’s History Awards; Play By the Rules (2020), a polemic about American leadership that was published in the United States as America in Retreat (2021) and Trees of History & Romance (2009), a paean to trees and poetry.

Pembroke studied French and Indian history at university intending to become a diplomat but afterwards succumbed to the law. He has written for Time Magazine, Al Jazeera, the South China Morning Post and Australian news publications.