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- Dirk Lochlin Struan (1797–1841) is the fictional main character of James Clavell 's 1966 novel Tai-Pan. The title comes from a Cantonese term that Clavell loosely translates as "supreme leader", and Struan is the Tai-pan or head of his own trading company in China, Struan & Company.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Struan
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Tai-Pan is a 1966 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, and the first to feature the fictional Struan family.
- James Clavell
- 1966
Fiction with a factual base. Clavell’s genius was to interlace fact with fiction. Tai-Pan is set after the end of the First Opium War, won by the Britsh and its seizure of the island of Hong Kong. This allowed European and American traders access to the lucrative opium trade.
54,988 ratings1,468 reviews. 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, and a master manipulator of men.
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Dirk Lochlin Struan (1797–1841) is the fictional main character of James Clavell's 1966 novel Tai-Pan. The title comes from a Cantonese term that Clavell loosely translates as "supreme leader", and Struan is the Tai-pan or head of his own trading company in China, Struan & Company.
“There can only be one Tai-Pan.” Dirk Struan rose from humble beginnings to build Struan & Company, also known as the Noble House, into the world’s largest Far East trading company. He is now the Tai-Pan—Supreme Leader—of all Tai-Pans in China. Along the way, however, he made a powerful enemy.
The character is very loosely based on a real historical figure named William Jardine, who died around the same time. Clavell doesn't do sequels with the same characters, so Struan's story was over for him.
Mar 4, 2014 · The Tai-Pan is the “CEO” of a trading company. This is the story of Dirk Struan, a middle-aged Scott who worked his way up from cabin boy on a ship at age 12 to one of the richest men in the world.
