Historical Basis
As with Clavell's other novels, the setting and many characters are based on actual events, which set the stage for the novel.
Struan's "Noble House" trading company of the novel is based on Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited, a major Scottish trading company that operates out of Hong Kong.
- Dirk Struan is loosely based on William Jardine.
- Robb Struan is loosely based on James Matheson.
- The artist character Aristotle Quance may be loosely based upon George Chinnery, as he painted a portrait of William Jardine.
- Jin-Qua is loosely based on Howqua.
The firm Cooper-Tillman is loosely based on Russell & Co.
The Brock family is loosely based on the Dent family and the firm Dent & Co.
Shevaun Tillman is loosely based on Harriette Low.
Gordon Chen is loosely based on Sir Robert Ho Tung.
Read more about this topic: Tai-Pan (novel)
Famous quotes containing the words historical and/or basis:
“This seems a long while ago, and yet it happened since Milton wrote his Paradise Lost. But its antiquity is not the less great for that, for we do not regulate our historical time by the English standard, nor did the English by the Roman, nor the Roman by the Greek.... From this September afternoon, and from between these now cultivated shores, those times seemed more remote than the dark ages.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Knighterrantry is a most chuckleheaded trade, and it is tedious hard work, too, but I begin to see that there is money in it, after all, if you have luck. Not that I would ever engage in it, as a business, for I wouldn’t. No sound and legitimate business can be established on a basis of speculation. A successful whirl in the knighterrantry line—now what is it when you blow away the nonsense and come down to the cold facts? It’s just a corner in pork, that’s all.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)