The Painted Veil is set in colonial Hong Kong. The British acquired the territory in 1841 following their victory over the Chinese in the First Opium War. The Opium Wars occurred because Britain wanted to force China, which was then ruled by the Qing Dynasty, to open trade with them; as part of this economic project, the British had been trading large quantities of opium in China, disregarding both the rising rates of addiction and the Chinese government’s ban on the trade. Although China was too vast for the British to conquer, Hong Kong became a British crown colony and was ruled as part of the British Empire from 1843 until 1997.

While Maugham’s main narrative centers on the relationships between the white characters, elements of this political backdrop inform the narrative; for example, Waddington mentions that one of his duties is to curtail the opium trade (ironically, given the British involvement in establishing it). There is also a strong Chinese presence in the servants, convent orphans, and cholera victims. These unspeaking Chinese characters are for the most part unnamed and dehumanized, referred to in third-person plural rather than individually.