这种官方版本的历史观在看待这场战争时非常直接简单。你可以看到英国人全是大坏蛋，他们通常长着夸张的大鼻子和火红的头发，他们把毒品强卖给中国消费者，掠夺中国人的财富，消磨他们的意志。这场战争被认为是中国与列强之间的不平等条约的源头，这些不平等条约使中国在19世纪末沦为东亚病夫。对鸦片战争的这种解释是当今中国民族主义情绪的根源。中国人所称的“耻辱世纪”也正是开始于鸦片战争。从此以后，中国开始努力与西方抗争并形成一个现代国家翻译公司。

This official history sees the war as pretty straightforward business. You have the British baddies on one side, and they usually have very big noses and flaming red hair, and they're pushing drugs on Chinese consumers to rob them of their money and their moral fiber. It's seen as the beginning of unequal treaties that reduce China to the 'sick man of East Asia' by the end of the 19th century. This account of the Opium War is the founding myth of modern Chinese nationalism today. It's what started what is called in China 'the century of humiliation.' And it starts China's struggle to stand up to the West and as a modern nation.

在英国人的意识中，绝对是竭力要忘掉自己曾打过鸦片战争的。普遍的看法是，在19世纪，英国做了太多坏事，和我们在非洲或印度的所作所为相比，鸦片战争真的不算什么重大劣迹。但是，我一直对这段历史有着清醒的认识，知道它是中国公众记忆中的一个很大的伤口。我发现有很多地方令我感到尴尬不安。关于鸦片贸易的故事充满了贪婪、机会主义和伪善的味道北京日语口译。

In the British consciousness, we've definitely done our best to forget we ever fought the Opium War. The general view is that in the 19th century we were doing so many bad things that the Opium War was really something more of a sideshow as opposed to what was going on in Africa or India. But I was made to feel very conscious of it and that it was a major wound in Chinese public memory. I found a lot to be embarrassed about. The story about opium trading was full of greed, opportunism and hypocrisy.