Tribulations of a Chinaman in China is an adventure novel by Jules Verne, first published in 1879. The story is about a rich Chinese man, Kin-Fo, who is bored with life, and after some business misfortune decides to die. The book is a traditional adventure, similar in style to Around the World in Eighty Days, which is one of the author's more well-known books. However, it does contain more humour as well as criticism of topics such as the British opium trade in China. Kin-Fo is a very wealthy man, who certainly does not lack material possessions. However, he is terribly bored and when news... reach him about his major investment abroad, a bank in the United States, going bankrupt, Kin-Fo decides to die. He signs up for a $200,000 life insurance covering all kinds of accidents, death in war, and even suicide. Rejecting seppuku and hanging as means of dying, right before taking opium laced with poison, he decides that he doesn't want to die without having ever felt a thrill in his life. Kin-Fo hires his old mentor, the philosopher Wang, to murder him before the life insurance expires.
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| Author: | Jules Verne |
| Genre: | Adventure novel, Fiction, Sociology |
| Year published: | 1879 |
| Number of editions: | 4 |