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Lin Tse Hsu was the Chinese hero of the opium war of 1840. Driven on by easy money, traders and some irresponsible missionaries flooded the Chinese towns with this drug.
The Manchu court was forced to send Lin Tse Hsu as governor of Canton, to put a stop to the trade, but with the threat of military reprisals the central government withdrew its support. Exiled, he still tried to beat off the traders' war ships and managed to destroy more than 20,000 chests confiscated from the British at Humen. Finally he is defeated but his name still lives on as an early hero in the Chinese battle for freedom from foreign intervention.
If we are to understand the present attitude of the Chinese Republic, this crucial struggle is important. The film gives an opportunity to examine the Chinese character, and realise the bitterness, frequently justified, which they have towards colonialists.