| Description | Lin Zexu (1785-1850) the Imperial Commissioner at Canton, tried to stamp out the illegal opium trade in China. In 1839 he seized and destroyed 28,000 tons of opium from foreign merchants, which prompted the British government to send a naval force to attack the Chinese. As a result of what became known as the First Opium War, China was forced to open up trade to the West and hand over the island of Hong Kong to the British as a permanent base. This detail from an advertisement for Madam Tussaud's depicts a wax model of Lin and his wife as a highlight of the exhibition. It was produced to co-incide with the Chinese Exhibition in Hyde Park. The wax figures were mechanical so that Lin's wife could be seen politely nodding to her husband as he "spoke". |