Propaganda and Societal Impacts:

Opium Trade with Britain and China

Alex Latham

History of Asia

Professor McGuffie

February 17, 2024

 The British opium trade with China during the late 1800s stands as a pivotal moment in

global history, characterized by the collision of economic interests, cultural clashes, and

geopolitical power dynamics. At the heart of this significant encounter were the responses of

Chinese society, which ranged from staunch resistance to reluctant accommodation. Central to

these responses was the pervasive influence of propaganda, which permeated all facets of

Chinese life, shaping perceptions, attitudes, and actions towards the British opium trade with the

Chinese through propaganda. Through an analysis of the opium trade and its societal impacts, the

Chinese implemented a series of propaganda as a means to deviate its peoples in order to

decrease its use and turn them away from the drug as it was negatively impacting their societies.

Imperial decrees and official proclamations condemned the opium trade as a moral

scourge and a threat to national sovereignty, mobilizing support for anti-opium campaigns led by

figures like Lin Zexu. Propaganda efforts aimed to rally public opinion against foreign

exploitation and to portray opium as a symbol of destruction, reinforcing the government's

efforts to resist British encroachment. A common type of propaganda that was used were

political cartoons. This kind of poster described the conversion of a man to opium addiction. As

a general rule during the Republic, most of the time the pictures would present the consequences

of this process not just on the smoker himself but especially on his family1. Typically in the style

of ‘before-and-after’ effects that showed a character before using opium and after using opium.

The use of showing a familiar character that could possibly be any ordinary citizen had a major

impact of fear on Chinese society by depicting destructive imagery. By portraying skinny

characters, it depicted that opium smokers were near death and the plump characters were

1
Paulès, “Anti-Opium Visual Propaganda and the Deglamorisation of Opium in China, 1895—1937,” 14.
portrayed to be healthy individuals.2 This localized and more intimate use of propaganda was

successful in getting smaller scaled areas to lessen their use and purchasing of opium.

Propaganda campaigns varied across different regions of China, reflecting regional

differences in economic dependence on the opium trade and local resistance efforts. Typically the

propaganda that was used to reach other parts of the nation usually depicted a national distress

such as war or masses being affected by opium usage. numerous. They aimed to magnify the

consequences of opium consumption on society.3 The common format of this type of propaganda

usually depicted a struggle or battle between young competent men fighting against some sort of

humanoid monstrous villain. The purpose of this kind of propaganda was to push the anti-opium

campaign as well as boost the Chinese as a whole to fight against the opium trade. It is very

important to note that the iconographical theme of the emaciated opium addict was not only

spread in propaganda.4 Propaganda also used a variety of hidden messages and symbols

regarding opium. The use of the skinny character, as mentioned before, never depicted the

‘emancipated abuser’ as a way to portray that there was no solution or escape from the drug.

This emphasized that the ‘true’ enemy was opium and it had no mercy on its victims which in

turn led to a more marginalization of the drug across the Chinese nation.

Literary works and philosophical treatises critiqued the corrosive effects of opium

addiction on individual morality and societal harmony, contributing to the emergence of a

nascent Chinese national identity and a sense of cultural superiority. They took notice of how

opium strictly harmed the Chinese moral and especially its cultural impact. The imported opium

led to a whole gamut of reactions in the Chinese societies: war, criminality, addiction, large

2
Paulès, “Anti-Opium Visual Propaganda and the Deglamorisation of Opium in China,” 31.
3
Paulès, “Anti-Opium Visual Propaganda and the Deglamorisation of Opium in China,” 20.
4
Paulès, “Anti-Opium Visual Propaganda and the Deglamorisation of Opium in China,” 25.
profits to new experiments in law and healing practices.5 Opium not only had an effect on the

general health of China but also many cultural effects. The widespread addiction to opium fueled

social disintegration in Chinese society, leading to increased crime rates, including theft, and

violence. Many individuals turned to crime to support their opium habit. Drug trafficking was

illegal under Chinese law but highly profitable for British merchants. An important element in all

these Chinese republican prison and crime data seems to be a clear shift from opium to heroin

and morphine use. Also, there was a clear shift from theft as the main reason for imprisonment.6

Crime boosted up being caused by many individuals within China because the selling of opium

is profitable to the seller and the British.

Propaganda played a pivotal role in shaping Chinese responses to the British opium trade,

influencing perceptions, attitudes, and actions across different societal groups. The issues and

controversies exaggerated by propaganda led up to the Opium Wars that would, in theory, halt

the trade. By examining the multitude of impacts of propaganda on the common people, this

paper sheds light on the complex dynamics of Chinese society during this transformative period

and underscores the enduring legacy of the opium trade on Chinese culture, identity, and national

consciousness.

5
Derks, “History of the Opium Problem: The Assault on the East,” 2.
6
Derks, “History of the Opium Problem: The Assault on the East,” 16.
 Bibliography

Derks, Hans. “OPIUM PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION IN CHINA.” In History of the

Opium Problem: The Assault on the East, ca. 1600-1950, 105:643–708. Brill, 2012.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctv4cbhdf.37. A study into how opium affected the

different societies of China, specifically the war, criminality and the studies and

experiments in medicine and law.

Paulès, Xavier. “Anti-Opium Visual Propaganda and the Deglamorisation of Opium in China,

1895—1937.” European Journal of East Asian Studies 7, no. 2 (2008): 229–62.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/23615404. Before the 1890s, opium was often viewed

ambiguously, with some considering it a symbol of wealth due to its analgesic properties.

In the late nineteenth century, anti-opium visual propaganda began depicting opium

smokers as emaciated individuals in rags, contributing to a widespread perception of

opium use as associated with the poor. The “deglamorization” of opium played a

significant role in reducing consumption levels in the 1920s and 1930s compared to

earlier periods.