The Opium Wars: The Tanka Boat Women Who Smuggled Opium

Failed to add items

Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.

Add to basket failed.

Please try again later

Add to wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Remove from wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Adding to library failed

Please try again

Follow podcast failed

Unfollow podcast failed

The Opium Wars: The Tanka Boat Women Who Smuggled Opium

Listen for free

View show details

This episode zooms in on the Tanka boat women of the Pearl River delta — a community of outcasts who became the backbone of the illicit opium trade in the decades before the Opium Wars. The Tanka lived on junks and sampans, barred from owning land or taking imperial exams. When the Daoguang Emperor banned opium in 1820 and Lin Zexu cracked down in 1839, the Tanka women — with their nimble crab boats and deep knowledge of local waterways — turned into the most effective smugglers on the coast. We tell the story of Ah Lan, a Tanka woman who made dozens of runs from Lintin Island to Canton, hiding opium chests under fish and vegetables, bribing corrupt Green Standard Army patrols, and outrunning imperial junks. Her life reveals the hidden economics of the opium trade: the role of women, the collaboration between Chinese outcasts and British merchants like Jardine & Matheson, and the brutal choices forced on communities who had no other path to survival. We also consider how the Chinese state criminalized an entire ethnic group, creating the very smugglers it tried to suppress. #Tanka #OpiumWars #AhLan #CrabBoats #PearlRiver #Lintin #LinZexu #DaoguangEmperor #JardineMatheson #GreenStandardArmy #Humen #Canton #Sycee #ChineseSmuggling #WomenSmugglers #QingDynasty #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

No reviews yet