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Following the harrowing journey of Lady Lee Su-Mei and her family, The Opium Lord’s Daughter is a historical drama told from dual perspectives—Chinese and British—about the First Opium War, a tragic and history-altering conflict. Robert Wang’s debut novel artfully weaves true events and characters into the narrative, offering the reader a selective glimpse into a world populated with rogue drug traders, imperialist government officials, religious zealots, scrappy survivors.
Robert Wang, born in Japan and raised in Hong Kong, immigrated to the United States in 1972. A successful Chinese American businessman and entrepreneur in the real estate and aerospace industries, Wang was intrigued by the lessons and impact of the Opium War and its aftermath and the modern parallels—particularly the current opioid crisis, the result of lax oversight and corporate greed—which inspired him to write The Opium Lord’s Daughter.
In conversation with Min Zhou (Professor of Sociology & Asian American Studies, Walter & Shirley Wang Endowed Chair in US-China Relations and Communications, and Director of the UCLA Asia Pacific Center) and Michael Berry (Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures and Director of the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies), Wang will discuss his writing process and share the findings of his many years of research on the history, facts, and fictions of the Opium War, including interviews with numerous experts on the subject in the United States, Macau, Hong Kong and Mainland China, and field trips to relevant historic sites in China. Wang has been a supporter of UCLA for decades and served as a member of the Chancellor’s Associates and a member of the Board of Governor of the UCLA Foundation.