ALL THE TEA IN CHINA
Written and Directed by Guy Malim
In Development
A plant thief who changed empires.
The spellbinding, almost mythic, true story of Robert Fortune. A lowly Scottish Botanist, who navigated pirate seas, ventured deep into the forbidden kingdom, and stole it’s ancient secrets; the plant and the ancient secrets of preparation.
The most valueable trade theft of all time, which crippled one empire and funded another. An intense passionate man, whose perspectives on everything from botany, to emperialism to the value of man is smashed - periods of intense isolation; endurance.
A tense story, under cover espionage;
but also a satirical absurdist comedy;
fish out of water - lost in translations, lies built on lies leading to absurdity; how can a few seeds change the world. most valueable corporate espionage in history.
And it so nearly didn’t happen.
.
Fortune sets off armed with a pistol and map that reads “Here be Dragons”. He outsmarts pirates, Disguises himself as a Chinese noble man, rides undetected for a thousand miles up the Yangztee where he is saved from a storm by blind dolphins, sneaks into the Empirors tea regions where he discovers a water lilies heavier than elephants, evades the Taipeing revolution seeks refuge with buddhist monks learns the a secrets of tea, and trecks the himalayas to India and founds darjeeling.
Deep in China, he becomes totally at the mercy of his two, swiftly chosen local guides. Wang and Groomp.
, into a foreign land; and learns a true beauty, flora never seen before, medicines and drugs to fuel the world;
picaresque story, a passionate brilliant man, who has beaten by imperalistic values into uneducated racism,
a nation racked under its own imperial tyranny, internal slave trade, addictions and revelotion.
Fortune learns about himself and his own empires; turning away from his imperialst overlords during the revolution of taiping.
The personal and yet highly complex epic. The story of one man, living in intense peril; whilst highlighting outdated imperialistic attitudes, mass exposing the opium trade,
Fortune entire value system is torn out, and he is exulted.
Summary
Fortune brilliant botanist but no medical degree will never be promoted at
Chelsea Physic Garden. He sells off most plants to buy greenhouses and propagates on the finest of his stock.
East India Trading, richer than nations, offers Fortune a job no man wants.
Fortune leaves. 1848, with intent to steal into Mainland China after a war, and steal China's most valueable trade asset. Alone.
Boat sickness. Hong kong. Pirates. Hero.
Min River. Language Fukienese.
Shanghai inland towards Yellow mountain. Hangzhou
Wang and Grunt. Pidgin language of English, Chinese, Hindu and portugeze. Always making a squeeze.
Shaved head in feisty to emperor,
Quing society. sedan chair and find robes, Sing Wa.
Hang-chow-foo, the beautiful walled city of Mulbury trees and silk,
where he will be killed.
River boat through the Yangzee valley, a den of robbers and thieves,
with Wang and Grunt where he will be killed.
Servents on the squeeze for money and face.
He cannot trust them but has no alternative.
Sung Lo Mountains with Wangs father and collects the finest green tea.
Dragon Well.
Discovery that all green tea is dyed with Prussian blue, cyanide.
Dyed tea sells better even if it is poisoned.
Fortune unmasks this and appetite for Indian tea grows.
The opium devastation caused by the drug trade. China on it’s knees.
A time of great civil unrest,
Taeping revolution against the imperials in a weakened Peking.
Back to Shanghai safely.
35,000 samples packed into wardian cases - 100 of floating gardens.
Cases opened in Calcutta - All 15,000 seeds die.
Hires a small junk, sails southwest from the Yangtze heading for Wuyi Mountains.
Travel an ancient network of canals connecting China.
Opium addicts bandits everywhere.
Wuyi Shan - Wuyi Mountains.
Centuries of poems carved in the hills. Perfect Feng shui; good wind and water.
Up into Wuyi Mountains most beautiful mountains of all.
Amazed at the female tea pickers. The quantity. Black tea. Picked by monkeys.
All 15,000 seeds die. They all reached Calcutta perfectly. All dead by Sharanpour.
Fortune designs new transport; now all you need is seeds.
Sing Hoo makes up elaborate backstories that Fortune is descended from Gengis Kahn and now they are all in peril far far from home.
Take refuge in a Buddishst monastery at the foot of Black Mountain.
Fortune learns secrets of tea, feel shame of disguise but still gifted by monks.
100 mile trek back.
At the mouth of the Huangpu Riveron the Island queen. with Chinese tea workers. Enough tea to build India. ovens, woks, jasmine and bergamot.
Chinese slave trade, locals agitated for revolt.
En route to the Himalayas, on Island Queen.
Fortune reaches Darjeeling with 12,838 germinating tea seeds in perfect condition.
80 of his other plants from previous dispatches now thriving.
Fortune now working for himself sets sail to Japan.
To Formosa in search of the kumquat, peonies, azaleas, roses and chrysanthemums.
