In 1841, an Englishman and a Chinaman worked together to secure English rights to the Chinese island of Hong Kong. Only a few years later both were dismissed from their posts, the one (in theory) for getting something of too little worth, the other for getting too little for it…. The historical Englishman and the Chinaman are turned most freely into second-rank characters in ["Tai-Pan"], James Clavell's long-drawn-out novel of those turbulent days [of Hong Kong's early dev...