- Set in the turbulent days of the founding of Hong Kong in the 1840s, Tai Pan is the story of Dirk Struan, the ruler - the Tai-Pan - of the most powerful trading company in the Far East. He is also a pirate, an opium smuggler, and a master manipulator of men. This is the tale of his fight to establish himself and his dynasty as the undisputed masters of the Far-East.