# XLIX: The Taipan explained — On a Chinese Screen > Chapter companion for On a Chinese Screen by W. Somerset Maugham. ## What happens The Taipan reflects on his rise from a modest home in Barnes to his powerful position as head of a major English firm in China. After a lavish lunch, he strolls through a cemetery, sees two coolies digging a grave, and becomes unsettled when no one in the community is dead and the grave later disappears. The incident triggers a profound fear of dying in China, leading him to write a letter requesting an immediate transfer home. He is found dead the next morning. ## Themes in this chapter ### Colonial Ennui and Isolation The Taipan's comfortable but isolated life in China, his disconnection from England, and his sudden existential dread about dying abroad highlight the ennui and isolation of colonial existence. ### Futility of Western Superiority Despite his power and wealth, the Taipan is haunted by a mysterious grave and dies suddenly, underscoring the fragility of Western dominance and the ultimate futility of his material success. ## Character check-ins ### The Taipan Protagonist of the chapter; reflects on his career and social ascent, experiences a disturbing hallucination of a grave, and dies of shock or illness after writing a desperate letter to return to England. ### Higgins Mentioned as a colleague who will go home in five or six years, after which the Taipan would take charge of the head office in Shanghai. ### The Consul Mentioned as someone who takes care to keep on the right side of the Taipan; the Taipan recalls a past conflict with a consul that he won. ## Key lines > No one knew better than he that he was an important person. He was number one in not the least important branch of the most important English firm in China. The Taipan was fully aware of his own significance as the head of a key branch of the leading English company in China. _Establishes the Taipan's self-importance and his position in the colonial hierarchy._ > He had worked his way up through solid ability and he looked back with a faint smile at the callow clerk who had come out to China thirty years before. He had risen through merit and now regarded his younger, inexperienced self with amusement. _Highlights his career progression and personal satisfaction._ > He did not know why the sight of the grave had made him uncomfortable. But he tried to put it out of his mind. The grave disturbed him for reasons he couldn't explain, though he attempted to dismiss it. _Marks the beginning of his psychological unraveling._ > He wanted to go home. If he had to die he wanted to die in England. He could not bear to be buried among all these yellow men, with their slanting eyes and their grinning faces. He desperately wished to return to England, fearing being buried in China among the local people. _Reveals his racial prejudice and deep fear of dying in a foreign land._ > They found the letter in the morning clenched in the taipan’s hand. He had slipped down between the desk and the chair. He was stone dead. The next morning, the letter was found tightly gripped in his hand; he had collapsed and died. _The sudden, ironic end of the Taipan's life, just as he sought to escape._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/on_a_chinese_screen_se/chapters/xlix-the-taipan - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/on_a_chinese_screen_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/on_a_chinese_screen_se/chapters