Tai-Pan managed to intimately capture the essence of Hong Kong while also being a book about pirates, sex, and intrigue. 

The slow start of Tai-Pan absolutely pays off in the rest of the book. Clavell manages to write characters so memorable that you can recognise them by their idiosyncrasies hundreds of pages after you’ve met them. As each chapter progresses, you learn more about each characters individual story and motivations and begin to love, loathe, root for, and rally against each of them. 

Tai-Pan will hold a special place in my heart as a cultural Eurasian who deeply cares for the useless rock that is Hong Kong. 

For all Hong Kongers, read Tai-Pan. It’s good joss, I swear.