TORONTO, May 2, 1997 -- The first international conference ever to be held in Canada on the role of opium in East Asian history will be co-hosted by York University next weekend.

"Not much research has been done on opium and its role in modern East Asian history, and this will be the first time that scholars from around the world have gathered in Canada to discuss this topic," said York history professor Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, the co-organizer of the conference. "This event will produce important and startling new findings -- for example, postwar Japanese cabinet ministers were involved in wartime opium operations in China."

The conference is being held Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., at Croft Chapter House, 15 King's College Circle, (west end of the University College building), University of Toronto. This is the fourth annual conference to be organized by the Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies (JCAPS), a co-operative research enterprise between York University and the University of Toronto. York's Department of History has played a leading role in organizing the event.

"Opium in East Asian History, 1830-1945" will examine the history of opium as it affected China and Japan and their relations with Britain and other countries. More than 30 speakers from universities in Canada, the United States, East Asia and Europe will be at the conference.

"Too often, opium is discussed exclusively in moral terms," said Wakabayashi. "Although we can't ignore the moral aspects of addiction, this conference will also take a critical look at the monetary interests that opium represented for various regimes, and the role that opium played in international trading and as a way to generate revenue."

Just as Hong Kong is preparing to revert to China, scholars at this conference will examine, among other things, the circumstances that led to China's loss of Hong Kong to the British a century-and-a-half ago. The Opium War between Britain and China, which preceded the cession of Hong Kong by China's defeated Qing Empire, is just one historical event that scholars at the conference will study.

The seven panels are titled: Opium and the British Empire; The Chinese and Opium in 19th Century China; Opium Perceived; Opium and the Chinese State at the End of the Qing; Opium in Republican China; Modern Japan and the Opium Trade; and Opium and Japan's Wartime Occupation of China.

Organizers plan to publish a book containing the findings of the conference. The conference is free and open to the public. For a complete agenda or directions, call Carol Irving, Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies, (416) 736-5784.

For more information, call:

Prof. Bob Wakabayashi
York University
Department of History
(416) 736-2100 ext. 30422 or (416) 736-5784
email: wakabaya@yorku.ca

Prof. Tim Brook
University of Toronto
JCAPS Associate Director
(416) 978-6945 or (416) 978-8481
email: tbrook@chass.utoronto.ca

Mary Ann Horgan
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100 ext. 22086
YU/043/97