Nanyang

Nanyang is a South-East Asian saga of love, tragedy, avarice and brutality. It covers a period of some 200 years in which corrupt colonialists and venal indigenous leaders vied with Chinese immigrants to exploit the region's natural resources with little regard for the suffering of the rural poor. It was a time that saw the main European powers extend their rivalry from their immediate surroundings to India, South-East Asia and China, where there were strategic and economic prizes to be won.Nanyang is the story of a young Chinese woman, who is snatched from a Fujian village by a Dutch raiding party and transported to Java, her brother, who is determined to rescue her, and their descendants. Together with protagonists from England, Holland, France and other countries, they are caught up in historical events in which notable English, Dutch and Javanese figures play their real-life roles.