Set in the turbulent days of the founding of Hong Kong in the 1840s, Tai-Pan is the story of Dirk Struan, the ruler – the tai-pan -of the most powerful trading company in the Far East. He is also a pirate, an opium smuggler, a master manipulator of men, a ruthless intriguer and a mighty lover.
Tai-Pan is a novel written by James Clavell about European and American traders who move into Hong Kong in 1842 following the end of the First Opium War. It is the second book in Clavell’s Asian Saga.