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The Penguin History of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power 1850 to the Present
In 1850, China was the 'sick man of Asia'. Now it is set to become the most powerful nation on earth. The Penguin History of Modern China shows how turbulent that journey has been. For 150 years China has endured as victim of oppression, war and famine. This makes its current position as arguably the most important global superpower all the more extraordinary. Jonathan Fenby's comprehensive account is the definitive guide to this remarkable transformation.
'His book is a miracle of thoroughness, truthfulness and readability - the perfect primer for a time when China is about to enter all our lives' Sunday Telegraph
'Jonathan Fenby's ... illuminating book [is] the first major history that looks at the country with the eyes of the 21st century rather than the 20th' Rana Mitter, Financial Times
'Reads like a novel and is never less than thoughtful and compassionate for the fate of a much-abused people ... [Fenby has] a journalist's eye for telling detail' Herald
'Taut, anecdote-studded ... a great introduction for a general audience, with vivid scene setting and character sketches' Michel Sheridan, Sunday Times
'For an accessible, authoritative, fair and comprehensive and well written account, this would be hard to better' BBC History
'A wonderful history of modern China and a cracking good read' Chris Patten
Jonathan Fenby, CBE, has been the editor of the Observer and the South China Morning Post. His books include Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the China He Lost and Dealing with the Dragon: A Year in the New Hong Kong. He is currently Editor-in-Chief and China Editor of the analytical service, Trusted Sources.
'His book is a miracle of thoroughness, truthfulness and readability - the perfect primer for a time when China is about to enter all our lives' Sunday Telegraph
'Jonathan Fenby's ... illuminating book [is] the first major history that looks at the country with the eyes of the 21st century rather than the 20th' Rana Mitter, Financial Times
'Reads like a novel and is never less than thoughtful and compassionate for the fate of a much-abused people ... [Fenby has] a journalist's eye for telling detail' Herald
'Taut, anecdote-studded ... a great introduction for a general audience, with vivid scene setting and character sketches' Michel Sheridan, Sunday Times
'For an accessible, authoritative, fair and comprehensive and well written account, this would be hard to better' BBC History
'A wonderful history of modern China and a cracking good read' Chris Patten
Jonathan Fenby, CBE, has been the editor of the Observer and the South China Morning Post. His books include Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the China He Lost and Dealing with the Dragon: A Year in the New Hong Kong. He is currently Editor-in-Chief and China Editor of the analytical service, Trusted Sources.
816 pages, Paperback
First published May 29, 2008
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About the author
Jonathan Fenby
42 books54 followersJonathan Fenby, CBE, has been the editor of The Observer and the South China Morning Post. He is currently China Director at the research service Trusted Sources.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
December 22, 2015
I spent at least three months reading this fat volume and about the same time answering questions from my friends as to why I was doing this. Why in hell am I reading the History of Modern China? Of course, the simple answer is that I compulsively read anything l lay my hands on but then I’m also on the mission to become the most knowledgeable person in the world, so that my arrogance is backed up with some erudition. Sadly, I’m no Mike Ross and I have retained at best 10% of the facts in this book.
How does one review a book like ‘The Penguin History of Modern China’? It’s not like I have read other histories of China to compare it to, or knew anything about the subject beforehand. I had to trust Jonathan Fenby when he bombarded me with facts, dates and names. I appreciate he was trying to spice things up with funny or curious anecdotes, which sometimes produced almost a comical effect, like when he writes things like:
“Mao went back to his house in the country , received a few faithful followers, taught his bodyguard to read, and fell badly ill with malaria, his temperature shooting up to 105 degrees.”
The second half of the book is filled almost entirely with accounts of purges and paranoia, so typical for any dictatorship. This is the history that has already repeated itself thousands of times and you would think that people would finally wise up to those methods. But no, they fall for it each and every time.
I must say that Fenby wrote a lot about the early Mao, the bullied loser. And it made him into an almost sympathetic character – this is not the effect I wanted the book to achieve. Sometimes I am just not interested in a three-dimensional portrait of the history biggest assholes.
So what’s to happen with China now? Is it a colossus with feet of clay? Yes, probably. It is possibly true that China is not ready for a multi-party democracy. It wouldn’t fare any better than the so called ‘biggest democracy in the world’, India. But then how will it ever make itself ready if not true trial and error? (Luckily, at least China doesn’t have to worry about the US ‘bringing democracy’ to them).
How does one review a book like ‘The Penguin History of Modern China’? It’s not like I have read other histories of China to compare it to, or knew anything about the subject beforehand. I had to trust Jonathan Fenby when he bombarded me with facts, dates and names. I appreciate he was trying to spice things up with funny or curious anecdotes, which sometimes produced almost a comical effect, like when he writes things like:
“Mao went back to his house in the country , received a few faithful followers, taught his bodyguard to read, and fell badly ill with malaria, his temperature shooting up to 105 degrees.”
The second half of the book is filled almost entirely with accounts of purges and paranoia, so typical for any dictatorship. This is the history that has already repeated itself thousands of times and you would think that people would finally wise up to those methods. But no, they fall for it each and every time.
I must say that Fenby wrote a lot about the early Mao, the bullied loser. And it made him into an almost sympathetic character – this is not the effect I wanted the book to achieve. Sometimes I am just not interested in a three-dimensional portrait of the history biggest assholes.
So what’s to happen with China now? Is it a colossus with feet of clay? Yes, probably. It is possibly true that China is not ready for a multi-party democracy. It wouldn’t fare any better than the so called ‘biggest democracy in the world’, India. But then how will it ever make itself ready if not true trial and error? (Luckily, at least China doesn’t have to worry about the US ‘bringing democracy’ to them).
December 1, 2024
„Istoria Chinei moderne” de Jonathan Fenby era de mult timp pe wishlist-ul meu și am avut impulsul de a o cumpăra după ce am văzut-o într-o bibliografie. Este o carte de istorie care m-a captivat încă din primele pagini și pe care o recomand tuturor celor care sunt interesați de subiect și nu numai.
E o carte violentă, reală, nemiloasă, plină de politică și, desigur, de evenimente istorice povestite în detaliu, dinspre jumătatea secolului al nouăsprezecelea și până în China de azi, în care se vorbește atât despre marile personalități care au influențat evoluția Chinei, cât și despre societate. Această carte arată istoria Chinei prin suferința ei, prin cruzimea ei, prin felul ei de a fi, tradițional și modern laolaltă.
„Viitorul Chinei va fi construit pe un trecut foarte problematic. Dincolo de statisticile înfloritoare și de provocările imense, aceasta este principala chestiune cu care trebuie să se confrunte China, o țară ce și-a atribuit un rol global major, însă a cărei ieșire din meandrele propriului trecut rămâne sub semnul întrebării.”
E o carte violentă, reală, nemiloasă, plină de politică și, desigur, de evenimente istorice povestite în detaliu, dinspre jumătatea secolului al nouăsprezecelea și până în China de azi, în care se vorbește atât despre marile personalități care au influențat evoluția Chinei, cât și despre societate. Această carte arată istoria Chinei prin suferința ei, prin cruzimea ei, prin felul ei de a fi, tradițional și modern laolaltă.
„Viitorul Chinei va fi construit pe un trecut foarte problematic. Dincolo de statisticile înfloritoare și de provocările imense, aceasta este principala chestiune cu care trebuie să se confrunte China, o țară ce și-a atribuit un rol global major, însă a cărei ieșire din meandrele propriului trecut rămâne sub semnul întrebării.”
September 11, 2021
As other reviewers have noticed, Too many Chinese names to keep track of sometimes, with only a handful of inserted biographies at critical junctions.
From the Western point of view, the broad strokes are less unfamiliar than you fear: the Opium Wars, the Boxer Rebellion, WWII, Mao & Deng Xiaoping...
But the broadness has a tendency to go into overdrive. Looking back, it deftly skips a few potholes...
The Nationalists could've gained the upper hand on two occasions, or so the chapter introduction, claims, but this point is never explained properly. The inevitability proclaimed by the PCR surfaces too strongly, even if the proper demythologizing of the Long March is done without relying solely on Mao: The Unknown Story.
Other reviewers claim the horror statistics dominate every page here, but post-war China is more a Cold War story than Frank Dikötter. The post-Tiananmen text left the same aftertaste. The point is repeatedly driven home that China is an economy unleashed but a population leashed to a regime that cannot afford any democratic freedom as the West defines it (what happened at the square & around it remains taboo).
Yet the Special Economic Zones mushroom suddenly, after another complicated & overpopulated "Ling-Lang" Politburo struggle that would've been more carefully reconstructed if the subject were the Soviet Union.
Why do the winners win ? Looking back from 2021 to 2008...the Xi link is missing in the original edition.
From the Western point of view, the broad strokes are less unfamiliar than you fear: the Opium Wars, the Boxer Rebellion, WWII, Mao & Deng Xiaoping...
But the broadness has a tendency to go into overdrive. Looking back, it deftly skips a few potholes...
The Nationalists could've gained the upper hand on two occasions, or so the chapter introduction, claims, but this point is never explained properly. The inevitability proclaimed by the PCR surfaces too strongly, even if the proper demythologizing of the Long March is done without relying solely on Mao: The Unknown Story.
Other reviewers claim the horror statistics dominate every page here, but post-war China is more a Cold War story than Frank Dikötter. The post-Tiananmen text left the same aftertaste. The point is repeatedly driven home that China is an economy unleashed but a population leashed to a regime that cannot afford any democratic freedom as the West defines it (what happened at the square & around it remains taboo).
Yet the Special Economic Zones mushroom suddenly, after another complicated & overpopulated "Ling-Lang" Politburo struggle that would've been more carefully reconstructed if the subject were the Soviet Union.
Why do the winners win ? Looking back from 2021 to 2008...the Xi link is missing in the original edition.
October 29, 2021
A while back I read Fenby's book on France, just because it looked okay and I wanted a book on modern France. I had no idea he was really a China guy. Holy moly is this a monument.
As everyone else has noted, this is a long, long, dense mofo. Fenby manages to turn it into an enjoyable (?), okay, maybe bearable trek through some of the most depressing history you're ever likely to encounter, as the people of China basically get crushed for decades on end. The sheer numbers of corpses are astonishing, and there are no heroes. That more or less fits in with how I understand the world, so at least I got the happiness of being right about stuff in general. If you're an actually functioning human being, who enjoys life and stuff, you might want to read this in installments, rather than, as I did, late into the night, unable to put it down.
Really, though, I have no idea how he manages to keep all this in order. One of the better books of political history I've read, and certainly the one from which I've learned the most. Again: not for everyone.
As everyone else has noted, this is a long, long, dense mofo. Fenby manages to turn it into an enjoyable (?), okay, maybe bearable trek through some of the most depressing history you're ever likely to encounter, as the people of China basically get crushed for decades on end. The sheer numbers of corpses are astonishing, and there are no heroes. That more or less fits in with how I understand the world, so at least I got the happiness of being right about stuff in general. If you're an actually functioning human being, who enjoys life and stuff, you might want to read this in installments, rather than, as I did, late into the night, unable to put it down.
Really, though, I have no idea how he manages to keep all this in order. One of the better books of political history I've read, and certainly the one from which I've learned the most. Again: not for everyone.
May 4, 2024
Jonathon Fenby’s book is a solid attempt to succinctly arrive at an understandable account of how we got to here from where we were then. Published in 2008, it was updated in 2013.
It is not an easy task to understand and delineate a set of events charting the rise of market-based communism without leaving gaps and understatements through the web of history. Perhaps this book's early main failure is a lack of analysis of the early 1930s, between the demise of Imperial China in 1911 and the Japanese invasion in 1931. This period is filled with tales of the rise of the CCP but there is little about what was happening to the people of China. The events leading up to the Second World War are not dealt with nationally but as sectarian conflicts between Nationalists and Communists exacerbated by the invasion of Manchuria by Japan. This in turn leads to confusion on the relative roles throughout the country of Nationalist and Communist forces through a period which is critical in understanding the post-2WW Chinese Civil War.
Fenby is not a lover of Mao in the least, and because of this he avoids falling into the cult of personality verging on hero-worship by which Mao is usually portrayed. But gaps in understanding in a way are a general result of what was a particularly confusing period with unacknowledged-by-the-West total war on Chinese soil involving multiple forces. Nor is he up to clarifying actions when a personal cheesy vignette can better grab the attention and scuff over the lack of historical insight. He is of course, given his views on Mao, generally disparaging of the People's Republic of China.
If your position is that Mao Zedong was the greatest killer statesman ever then nothing good can come of any of the reforms and leadership which Mao undertook. The former is Fenby’s position. The tone of his writing on the early People's Republic is totally one sided and black. Land reform and education is brainwashing; class restructuring is murder; dealing with inequality is theft. All just blind following by the misled of the thoughts of Chairman Mao. Fenby loves to chuckle at disaster in an ‘I-told-you-so’ manner and fails to give any praise to baseline change in what started as close to a feudal state. As might be expected he carefully delineates the failures of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.
With these caveats in mind it is useful to have another source at hand when reading the Modern History of China, even if that source is simply Wikipedia. In fact, the closer I read towards the present day, the more I verged towards Wikipedia's interpretation rather than Fenby's. Although this book covers a vast chunk of ground and gives some insight, I think I’d look for a better single source to realise how we arrived at Xi Jinping.
It is not an easy task to understand and delineate a set of events charting the rise of market-based communism without leaving gaps and understatements through the web of history. Perhaps this book's early main failure is a lack of analysis of the early 1930s, between the demise of Imperial China in 1911 and the Japanese invasion in 1931. This period is filled with tales of the rise of the CCP but there is little about what was happening to the people of China. The events leading up to the Second World War are not dealt with nationally but as sectarian conflicts between Nationalists and Communists exacerbated by the invasion of Manchuria by Japan. This in turn leads to confusion on the relative roles throughout the country of Nationalist and Communist forces through a period which is critical in understanding the post-2WW Chinese Civil War.
Fenby is not a lover of Mao in the least, and because of this he avoids falling into the cult of personality verging on hero-worship by which Mao is usually portrayed. But gaps in understanding in a way are a general result of what was a particularly confusing period with unacknowledged-by-the-West total war on Chinese soil involving multiple forces. Nor is he up to clarifying actions when a personal cheesy vignette can better grab the attention and scuff over the lack of historical insight. He is of course, given his views on Mao, generally disparaging of the People's Republic of China.
If your position is that Mao Zedong was the greatest killer statesman ever then nothing good can come of any of the reforms and leadership which Mao undertook. The former is Fenby’s position. The tone of his writing on the early People's Republic is totally one sided and black. Land reform and education is brainwashing; class restructuring is murder; dealing with inequality is theft. All just blind following by the misled of the thoughts of Chairman Mao. Fenby loves to chuckle at disaster in an ‘I-told-you-so’ manner and fails to give any praise to baseline change in what started as close to a feudal state. As might be expected he carefully delineates the failures of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.
With these caveats in mind it is useful to have another source at hand when reading the Modern History of China, even if that source is simply Wikipedia. In fact, the closer I read towards the present day, the more I verged towards Wikipedia's interpretation rather than Fenby's. Although this book covers a vast chunk of ground and gives some insight, I think I’d look for a better single source to realise how we arrived at Xi Jinping.
June 13, 2018
I mainly read about the past fifty years here, and certainly learned a lot, but I don't think this is a book you read as an introduction to Chinese history.
You can't help but suspect that any history book on China will be inadequate to some extent due to the sheer scope of the subject matter. At least while involving the range of time of which I read, it appears that Fenby tries to focus on the activities of the ruling class, the Communist Party, and while you're reading about the intrigues and problems at the top you do remain in awe at the fact that the projects the schemes they're carrying out affected the lives of hundreds of millions of people, whom are certainly not neglected in this book.
You do deviate from the focus on the top to cover the peasant's hardships during the Great Leap Forward or stories of entrepreneurs during the Deng era for example.
There's introductions at each chapter which I thought were very well written and keep you focused on the next theme, though the chapters do strictly go chronologically. The introduction and epilogue for the whole book were also really well written summaries of Chinese history as a whole.
You can't help but suspect that any history book on China will be inadequate to some extent due to the sheer scope of the subject matter. At least while involving the range of time of which I read, it appears that Fenby tries to focus on the activities of the ruling class, the Communist Party, and while you're reading about the intrigues and problems at the top you do remain in awe at the fact that the projects the schemes they're carrying out affected the lives of hundreds of millions of people, whom are certainly not neglected in this book.
You do deviate from the focus on the top to cover the peasant's hardships during the Great Leap Forward or stories of entrepreneurs during the Deng era for example.
There's introductions at each chapter which I thought were very well written and keep you focused on the next theme, though the chapters do strictly go chronologically. The introduction and epilogue for the whole book were also really well written summaries of Chinese history as a whole.
July 27, 2011
Interesting, well written and, given the scale of the task, pacey. It's time we all learned more about China. I for one welcome our new overlords.
Seriously though, China's modern history is a horrifying catalogue of disasters. Mao was a psychopathic maniac and it's unbelievable that he had the support of so many western intellectuals. It's really quite impressive that the CCP have managed to stear China in the direction it's heading in without collapsing as the Soviet Union did.
Seriously though, China's modern history is a horrifying catalogue of disasters. Mao was a psychopathic maniac and it's unbelievable that he had the support of so many western intellectuals. It's really quite impressive that the CCP have managed to stear China in the direction it's heading in without collapsing as the Soviet Union did.
July 12, 2024
my love my beloved my sweetheart first academic history book I properly read and it will always be so dear to me
January 1, 2024
Economic
China to an extent is still a divided state. Economically the East coast is very wealthy, while inland, rural communities are poor.
Foreign policy
China is the last great colonial empire with Tibet and the vast Muslim lands of Xinjiang under its rule. After Lord Palmerston seized a rocky outcrop, known as Hong Kong during the 1840 opium wars, China agreed to continue opening its ports to British trade (opium). British citizens were also immune to Chinese law.
Roosevelt attempted to provide the Chinese with more fire support during the Second World War, but Europe always came first, which angered the Chinese. Nixon (and his chief of staff Henry Kissinger) attempted to work more closely with China in the 60s. The US viewed China as a buffer between the Soviet Union during the cold war and not as a future economic rival or partner. Nixon’s famous visit to Mao was symbolic yet achieved little.
Domestic
Though the 1860 emperor supposedly had a monopoly over the armed forced, the gentry built up local militias as the government became incapable of keeping security. (An indicator that China’s wealthy in the future may not be prepared to lie low?)
China’s dislike of the Muslims of Xinjiang can be traced back at least to the 1840s when they rebelled against China’s authoritarian regime. When leader Cixi attempted to impose further control on the people the gentry, merchants and overseas Chinese, rebelled. It is another small example of the wealthy, more internationalised costal population who are more democratically leaning disliking further controls. Could this be the future split in China? Wealthy, internationalised, western educated elites rebelling against the CCP?
Emperor Qing suffered humiliation when attempting to attack Japan during the Boxer episode, and Belgium, Russia and Britain (including many others) imposed huge taxes and asset stripping on the Chinese, that today explains China’s dislike of Western Christian values.
Eventually the Qing family’s 264-year authoritarian rule became unable to govern the complex and diverse Chinese’s state. This contributed to the “raping of China” in the 1919 Versailles treaty, where Japan were given concessions over China (who has sent 100,000 men to fight on the western front, compared to very little from Japan) which further increased their dislikes of foreigners.
Civil war continued through the 1920 and 30’s which ironically benefited the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the fiercely anti-communist foreigners fought against the nationalists.
China was incredibly brave during the 2nd World War and prevented Japan from attacking en mass British forces in Burma. The CCP however spent time not fighting the Japanese but building up small power bases while the Nationalists and Japanese’s cannibalised themselves. After the war, Nationalists (including Taiwan) and Communists nearly reached a peace agreement only for it to fall apart. Mao, leading the CCP grabbed power in China as the Nationalists regime collapsed. The cohesiveness of the CCP was in sharp contrast to the muddled management of its rivals. It remains a fundamental weakness of the CCP today that power was enforced on the people, not earned. China under CCP rule retracted from the global stage over the 1950s and 60s.
The “Great Leap Forward” was attempted by Mao to boost the economy and implement strict government reform was a disaster. Mao clung to Power and failed to create a peaceful succession, and for the next 10 years civil unrest took hold in parts of China culminating in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
Xi Jinping rose to power in 2012 and apparently had to care for pigs in a cave while his father was investigated by the authorities. “A sword grows sharper when rubbed against hard stone”.
China believes that the most important criterion for an effective political system is how it resolves problems, not telling the people who to blame.
The future
Since the CCP’s rule from 1949 there are 3 powerful flaws that China will struggle to address.
1. Parts of the economy are accelerating at extraordinary speed, but others are still in poverty, causing potentially grave further inequality.
2. The CCP’s success and China’s success rests in the stability of the nation, the centralised form of power, and constant rule of Xi Jinping. However, as China could potentially become more politically diverse in the future, this may cause trouble, especially if China enters a major crisis that it cannot control. The future uprising may be just like the gentry in the 1860s who were wealthy because of foreign trade and wanted to protect their interests.
3. China’s foreign policy (BRI) rest solely in its ability to bully, buy & lobby nations to carry out its will. The USA’s 5 decades of global leadership was formed through constructive engagement and alliances with other countries. The latter may prove to be more sustainable.
China to an extent is still a divided state. Economically the East coast is very wealthy, while inland, rural communities are poor.
Foreign policy
China is the last great colonial empire with Tibet and the vast Muslim lands of Xinjiang under its rule. After Lord Palmerston seized a rocky outcrop, known as Hong Kong during the 1840 opium wars, China agreed to continue opening its ports to British trade (opium). British citizens were also immune to Chinese law.
Roosevelt attempted to provide the Chinese with more fire support during the Second World War, but Europe always came first, which angered the Chinese. Nixon (and his chief of staff Henry Kissinger) attempted to work more closely with China in the 60s. The US viewed China as a buffer between the Soviet Union during the cold war and not as a future economic rival or partner. Nixon’s famous visit to Mao was symbolic yet achieved little.
Domestic
Though the 1860 emperor supposedly had a monopoly over the armed forced, the gentry built up local militias as the government became incapable of keeping security. (An indicator that China’s wealthy in the future may not be prepared to lie low?)
China’s dislike of the Muslims of Xinjiang can be traced back at least to the 1840s when they rebelled against China’s authoritarian regime. When leader Cixi attempted to impose further control on the people the gentry, merchants and overseas Chinese, rebelled. It is another small example of the wealthy, more internationalised costal population who are more democratically leaning disliking further controls. Could this be the future split in China? Wealthy, internationalised, western educated elites rebelling against the CCP?
Emperor Qing suffered humiliation when attempting to attack Japan during the Boxer episode, and Belgium, Russia and Britain (including many others) imposed huge taxes and asset stripping on the Chinese, that today explains China’s dislike of Western Christian values.
Eventually the Qing family’s 264-year authoritarian rule became unable to govern the complex and diverse Chinese’s state. This contributed to the “raping of China” in the 1919 Versailles treaty, where Japan were given concessions over China (who has sent 100,000 men to fight on the western front, compared to very little from Japan) which further increased their dislikes of foreigners.
Civil war continued through the 1920 and 30’s which ironically benefited the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the fiercely anti-communist foreigners fought against the nationalists.
China was incredibly brave during the 2nd World War and prevented Japan from attacking en mass British forces in Burma. The CCP however spent time not fighting the Japanese but building up small power bases while the Nationalists and Japanese’s cannibalised themselves. After the war, Nationalists (including Taiwan) and Communists nearly reached a peace agreement only for it to fall apart. Mao, leading the CCP grabbed power in China as the Nationalists regime collapsed. The cohesiveness of the CCP was in sharp contrast to the muddled management of its rivals. It remains a fundamental weakness of the CCP today that power was enforced on the people, not earned. China under CCP rule retracted from the global stage over the 1950s and 60s.
The “Great Leap Forward” was attempted by Mao to boost the economy and implement strict government reform was a disaster. Mao clung to Power and failed to create a peaceful succession, and for the next 10 years civil unrest took hold in parts of China culminating in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
Xi Jinping rose to power in 2012 and apparently had to care for pigs in a cave while his father was investigated by the authorities. “A sword grows sharper when rubbed against hard stone”.
China believes that the most important criterion for an effective political system is how it resolves problems, not telling the people who to blame.
The future
Since the CCP’s rule from 1949 there are 3 powerful flaws that China will struggle to address.
1. Parts of the economy are accelerating at extraordinary speed, but others are still in poverty, causing potentially grave further inequality.
2. The CCP’s success and China’s success rests in the stability of the nation, the centralised form of power, and constant rule of Xi Jinping. However, as China could potentially become more politically diverse in the future, this may cause trouble, especially if China enters a major crisis that it cannot control. The future uprising may be just like the gentry in the 1860s who were wealthy because of foreign trade and wanted to protect their interests.
3. China’s foreign policy (BRI) rest solely in its ability to bully, buy & lobby nations to carry out its will. The USA’s 5 decades of global leadership was formed through constructive engagement and alliances with other countries. The latter may prove to be more sustainable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 18, 2019
A very good introduction to China's recent history, and a must-read for anybody interested in this new Supernation. If you're interested in China in some way, than this is basic knowledge, and though you will probably not remember most names (and there are a lot of names) it makes you understand some of the ambitions, frustrations and fears of this immense country, where both achievements and disasters are on a scale we hardly understand. It is a very important book to understand at least the basics of what happens in the Far East and in China. Is it biaised ? Probably, all historical writing is subjective, but it is a start, and it is a good start for understanding. And, and this is important too, it is wel written, reads fluently and captures the spirit of each phase in the recent history of this enormous country.
March 14, 2017
I wished this book would be more analytical in terms of dissecting the events that happened and their wider implication, instead of providing a very detailed account of what happened but with no sufficient explanation. A good basic book if you want to understand China, and a good time period to choose from too, if you can get through the book without falling asleep on most days.
December 22, 2023
A vast and comprehensive work! There are a lot of pages, but I suppose it's not even enough to cover all the topics thoroughly. The story guides the reader through the main events of Chinese history from approximately 1850, considering reasons, historical aspects, and their consequences. It explains the case of Taiwan, also leads through the struggle between nationalist and communist regimes and armies, the war with the Japanese, and the current political and geopolitical views of the new communist "gentry."
One interesting thing to mention in this book is the disclosure of the rivalry between Western capitalism in the face of the USA and new Asian socialism/communism in the face of China (which leads the world after the collapse of the USSR).
One interesting thing to mention in this book is the disclosure of the rivalry between Western capitalism in the face of the USA and new Asian socialism/communism in the face of China (which leads the world after the collapse of the USSR).
August 15, 2022
Fenby is a talented historian and his book is very large. Unfortunately there are a lot of Chinese names to remember and occasionally Fenby moved very quickly through highly important political events but his anecdotes, that were sometimes funny, alleviated the load that you have to prepare to take when first embarking on this quest for knowledge.
July 16, 2019
Fantastic read of modern Chinese history from the Taiping rebellion to the massacre at Tianemann square! Chock full of fascinating insights and anecdotes and a myriad of good and bad Chinese leaders! Full thumbs up!
January 4, 2022
Gera besimokantiems Kinijos istoriją. Chronologiškai ir teisingai. Bet ne daugiau.
April 24, 2025
a bewildering litany of names and events. very detailed.
October 19, 2025
Pretty good overall history of 1850-present for China for anyone who wants a quick overview and isnt already acquainted with such. The author presents a relatively balanced view of things. My only gripe is that it would be more accurately titled 'A political history' as its mainly following the leadership and the military-political history rather than economic, cultural educational etc.
June 22, 2017
This book was an excellent crash course in modern Chinese history, with the caveat that you really have to want to read it! It is long, exceptionally dry sometimes and (as is the nature of the topic) ruinously complicated; only with extreme dedication is it possible to get through it at all. Having said that, there were parts of the book, particularly on more well-known episodes of history, such as the 1949 communist victory or the Cultural Revolution, that were completely mesmerising. Of course, this is tempered by the fact that nearly everything in the book is almost unimaginably bleak; Fenby does not hold back from truly gruesome descriptions and frank estimates of the human cost of the many upheavals in Chinese history. This often results in one feeling hopelessly morose, though of course this is no fault of the author's.
There were, however, a couple of things I wish had been done differently. A lack of familiarity with Chinese names means that following the twists and turns across dozens of pages can be exasperatingly challenging. In this regard, the author should always have given surname and forename except for the handful of well known characters (Mao, Deng, Empress Dowager etc). I can't count the number of times I got one of the many Hu individuals mixed up. And the length of the book should have been reduced. This would have forced out some of the more tortuous side episodes and helped the reader focus on the overarching narrative Fenby courageously develops across the 670-odd pages. Perhaps some more diagrams and lists would have been of use to follow who was in what position at a given time: for example, it would have been very helpful to have had a list of Chinese premiers after 1949, expanding on the mere two lists (of Chairmen and party secretaries) at the back.
Criticisms aside, learning all this new information about Chinese history was almost intoxicating at times and Fenby's charming little anecdotes and quirky style really helped enliven the succession of facts, and characterise the many people, that inhabit this dense work. I thoroughly enjoyed this book but could only recommend it to those as hell-bent on learning about Chinese history as I was. For the more casually curious, shorter and more appropriate books will exist I'm sure.
There were, however, a couple of things I wish had been done differently. A lack of familiarity with Chinese names means that following the twists and turns across dozens of pages can be exasperatingly challenging. In this regard, the author should always have given surname and forename except for the handful of well known characters (Mao, Deng, Empress Dowager etc). I can't count the number of times I got one of the many Hu individuals mixed up. And the length of the book should have been reduced. This would have forced out some of the more tortuous side episodes and helped the reader focus on the overarching narrative Fenby courageously develops across the 670-odd pages. Perhaps some more diagrams and lists would have been of use to follow who was in what position at a given time: for example, it would have been very helpful to have had a list of Chinese premiers after 1949, expanding on the mere two lists (of Chairmen and party secretaries) at the back.
Criticisms aside, learning all this new information about Chinese history was almost intoxicating at times and Fenby's charming little anecdotes and quirky style really helped enliven the succession of facts, and characterise the many people, that inhabit this dense work. I thoroughly enjoyed this book but could only recommend it to those as hell-bent on learning about Chinese history as I was. For the more casually curious, shorter and more appropriate books will exist I'm sure.
June 24, 2012
Jonathan Fenby's overview of modern Chinese history emphasises the continuities with the late imperial period that belie the Communist revolution of 1949. Two key tensions inform the book. The first is that between the centripetal forces which drew power towards the emperor in Beijing (an emperor in peasant's garb, in the case of Mao), and the centrifugal forces which periodically plunged the Middle Kingdom into civil war. The second is that between the struggles for power at the top of the system, detailed in mind-numbingly intricate detail by Fenby, and the sporadic upheavals which convulsed it from the bottom. Perhaps the greatest achievement of Chairman Mao, the book's central figure, was to exploit these tensions to his own ends, inciting the grassroots activism of the Red Guards in order to tighten his grip on power.
I found it a struggle to read this book - not because it was badly written, but from the sheer cumulative weight of all the misery and human waste recounted in its pages. In the retelling, Chinese history from the peasant revolts against the increasingly beleagured Qing dynasty in the late nineteenth century through to the death of Mao in 1976 (if not later!) appears as a dreary parade of uprisings, civil wars, crackdowns, invasions, witch-hunts, reprisals, famines, power plays and bloodbaths. Fenby's book helped me to understand why the present-day Chinese Communist Party places such a premium on stability, and why it is prepared at all costs to maintain a moribund political system that sits uneasily with the market-oriented economic policies pursued by Deng Xiaoping and his successors. Whether the system can continue to hold up under its internal contradictions remains to be seen. We live in interesting times!
I found it a struggle to read this book - not because it was badly written, but from the sheer cumulative weight of all the misery and human waste recounted in its pages. In the retelling, Chinese history from the peasant revolts against the increasingly beleagured Qing dynasty in the late nineteenth century through to the death of Mao in 1976 (if not later!) appears as a dreary parade of uprisings, civil wars, crackdowns, invasions, witch-hunts, reprisals, famines, power plays and bloodbaths. Fenby's book helped me to understand why the present-day Chinese Communist Party places such a premium on stability, and why it is prepared at all costs to maintain a moribund political system that sits uneasily with the market-oriented economic policies pursued by Deng Xiaoping and his successors. Whether the system can continue to hold up under its internal contradictions remains to be seen. We live in interesting times!
February 2, 2013
I had second thoughts when I first picked this one up. I knew I would be in for a slog... Yet 3 weeks later it was well worth the investment. It gave me insights into a country's history I knew rather little about. Never had I imagined China's modern history would be akin to that of an epic period drama. It's hard to think of a nation who has endured as much struggle as that of China. From war to natural disasters and dictatorship, this country has experienced it all and on unprecedented levels. In the West, we may be familiar with the atrocities of Hitler and Stalin, yet in contrast Mao's reign takes the sheer vastness of terror and lives lost to a whole new level. I could only shake my head in disbelief at the politics that resumed in play for decades and to a lesser extent, still exist today. In a world of endless change and evolution, China's story proves ultimately unique. An ever-growing economic powerhouse in the modern world, yet its social progress still firmly bound by the political handcuffs of a system fearful of conceding it's legacy of power and struggling to embrace democracy and real change.
August 8, 2013
Not an easy read but very informative, at least for someone like me who started off with very limited knowledge about the history of China.
Jonathan Fenby's "Penguin History of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850-2009" helped me to begin to comprehend the amazing metamorphosis which China underwent in about one and a half century: from a disintegrating empire, through a turbulent warlord era, through crippling Japanese occupation, civil war, sweeping early communism, excruciatingly unsuccessful attempts to resurrect the economy followed by widespread famine, then the so-called *cultural* revolution, through crushed attempts to change the one-party system - to booming economic growth and increasing material wealth for a significant part of the population. Unfortunately, the country still faces multiple systematic problems, which is also very well explained in the book.
Many thanks to Laszlo Montgomery for recommending this book in one of the episodes of his wonderful "China history Podcast"!
Jonathan Fenby's "Penguin History of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850-2009" helped me to begin to comprehend the amazing metamorphosis which China underwent in about one and a half century: from a disintegrating empire, through a turbulent warlord era, through crippling Japanese occupation, civil war, sweeping early communism, excruciatingly unsuccessful attempts to resurrect the economy followed by widespread famine, then the so-called *cultural* revolution, through crushed attempts to change the one-party system - to booming economic growth and increasing material wealth for a significant part of the population. Unfortunately, the country still faces multiple systematic problems, which is also very well explained in the book.
Many thanks to Laszlo Montgomery for recommending this book in one of the episodes of his wonderful "China history Podcast"!
March 14, 2021
The author has written a piece of rhetoric disguised as an history of China. It has the sections many books of the history of China cover but neglects a range of other possible parts of the complexity of the development of modern China. This is inevitable in a 700 page piece, but the the way he writes and the sources he uses are highly dubious.
He makes it clear early in the book that he is an author who admires of modern western capitalism and that no other system should be seriously considered. I presume this is the reason he portrays Chinese history as a series of negative experiences and leading people of differing periods as lesser men not comparable to those he admires in western countries.
He also chooses sources which are biased and those which have been shown to be false. In some cases so far from the truth that respectable western publishers won’t touch them.
Such a pity.
He makes it clear early in the book that he is an author who admires of modern western capitalism and that no other system should be seriously considered. I presume this is the reason he portrays Chinese history as a series of negative experiences and leading people of differing periods as lesser men not comparable to those he admires in western countries.
He also chooses sources which are biased and those which have been shown to be false. In some cases so far from the truth that respectable western publishers won’t touch them.
Such a pity.
May 10, 2014
An excellent summary of the history of Modern China that highlights clearly the issues that led to China's downfall and its rebirth. Having not read a great deal on this topic before I can safely report that this was a very good starting point to get a good grasp on the topic as it was written very concisely without being too verbose. In picking up this book I was particularly interested in finding out more about the Great Leap Forward and the resulting famine and this book dealt succinctly with this moment in China's recent misfortune and investigated how this combination of nature and human stupidity combined to create a monumental catastrophe. If you are interested in recent Chinese history then I would highly recommend this book.
June 3, 2015
I would recommend watching the documentary "china a century of revolution" before embarking on this book for readers who do not have much background in modern china's history. The details of the stories while helped one to imagine what it was liked then, at certain times it feels overwhelming especially for chapters on the civil war period. Fenby's point of view seemed to be that a democracy is the ultimate political stable development for any country. I can't agree totally with his perspective but it was interesting noting for dangers and risks for a single party political system.
January 18, 2012
set reading for school. lots of names and anecdotes, not really enough attention to economic and geographic context for my liking. it's hard to keep track of everything. plus the general critique I would level at any book The Economist likes, i.e. fundamentally conservative idea of the proper subjects of "history". having said all that: it was pretty readable and I learnt some things and I don't know enough to mouth off about Chinese history.
June 11, 2019
Some of his Mandarin translation is (intentionally?) wacky, which does detract from his credibility. Transliteration does not work - the cultural nuances of language are not handled at all. One senses that this ‘historian’ has an agenda from the onset to tell history through Western neo-liberal lenses. Communism bad, insert bad quote, jingo jingo. Mao funny man, bad quote, batty, kill much. Deng short man, kill less.
February 3, 2015
Very hard to follow at first, but from World War II onwards became compelling. It's a bleak read though and feels at times like an unrelenting catalogue of human suffering.
June 16, 2024
"The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been."
Jonathan Fenby somehow manages to avoid the cliché of including this timeless opening line from Romance of The Three Kingdoms in his masterpiece, The Penguin History of Modern China, though I can't quite avoid the temptation. Fenby charts a course through China from 1850 to the present, which is quite the achievement even at a lengthy seven hundred pages. To underline this point, had Fenby decided to cover in comparable detail the four thousand years for which records of Chinese culture exist, Modern China would merely be the last of twenty-five volumes, each of a similar length.
Fenby tells the story of a civilisation-state by introducing a cast of brilliant, vicious and tragic characters and the millions who suffered for their whims, their fears, their grand plans and their gravest mistakes. Unsurprisingly, one figure looms largest of all: Fenby vividly describes how Mao Zedong provoked, undermined and betrayed even his closest allies, and how he cultivated a toxic political atmosphere that drove them to exile, addiction and even suicide, forever wondering if the Chairman was on their side that day. Modern China is particularly valuable because it takes the reader step-by-step from a pre-industrial agrarian Middle Kingdom through to the People's Republic we know today, linking the Xianfeng Emperor to Chiang Kai-Shek, Mao Zedong and President Xi Jinping through the common issues that defined their leadership -- the legitimacy of their rule, the territorial integrity of China, and China's role in the world. Fenby also draws plausible links between China's many mass movements, especially the pro-Qing Boxer Rising of the late nineteenth century and the pro-Communist Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, both of which were fomented and co-opted by leaders afraid that their grip on power was failing.
At times, Modern China feels like an unnecessary build-up to a foregone conclusion, namely that as its economic growth stabilises and the world around it becomes more complex, China will suffer for its tightening political limitations under President Xi Jinping. The absence of dedicated chapters for Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan is a little disappointing, considering the importance of territorial integrity to successive Chinese governments and the three chapters Fenby dedicates to the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Ultimately, however, Fenby achieves the impossible: Modern China provides the patient reader with a framework through which to view this complex civilisation-state, without resorting to wholesale acceptance of its horrors or dismissal of its successes.
In 1949, only socialism could save China. In 1978, only capitalism could change China. In 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, only China could save socialism. In 2007, after the global financial crisis, only China could save capitalism. Exactly what China will change as we enter 2020 -- or what will change China -- is unclear, but as is often said of the Middle Kingdom, if history doesn’t quite repeat itself, it certainly tends to rhyme.
Thus it has ever been.
Jonathan Fenby somehow manages to avoid the cliché of including this timeless opening line from Romance of The Three Kingdoms in his masterpiece, The Penguin History of Modern China, though I can't quite avoid the temptation. Fenby charts a course through China from 1850 to the present, which is quite the achievement even at a lengthy seven hundred pages. To underline this point, had Fenby decided to cover in comparable detail the four thousand years for which records of Chinese culture exist, Modern China would merely be the last of twenty-five volumes, each of a similar length.
Fenby tells the story of a civilisation-state by introducing a cast of brilliant, vicious and tragic characters and the millions who suffered for their whims, their fears, their grand plans and their gravest mistakes. Unsurprisingly, one figure looms largest of all: Fenby vividly describes how Mao Zedong provoked, undermined and betrayed even his closest allies, and how he cultivated a toxic political atmosphere that drove them to exile, addiction and even suicide, forever wondering if the Chairman was on their side that day. Modern China is particularly valuable because it takes the reader step-by-step from a pre-industrial agrarian Middle Kingdom through to the People's Republic we know today, linking the Xianfeng Emperor to Chiang Kai-Shek, Mao Zedong and President Xi Jinping through the common issues that defined their leadership -- the legitimacy of their rule, the territorial integrity of China, and China's role in the world. Fenby also draws plausible links between China's many mass movements, especially the pro-Qing Boxer Rising of the late nineteenth century and the pro-Communist Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, both of which were fomented and co-opted by leaders afraid that their grip on power was failing.
At times, Modern China feels like an unnecessary build-up to a foregone conclusion, namely that as its economic growth stabilises and the world around it becomes more complex, China will suffer for its tightening political limitations under President Xi Jinping. The absence of dedicated chapters for Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan is a little disappointing, considering the importance of territorial integrity to successive Chinese governments and the three chapters Fenby dedicates to the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Ultimately, however, Fenby achieves the impossible: Modern China provides the patient reader with a framework through which to view this complex civilisation-state, without resorting to wholesale acceptance of its horrors or dismissal of its successes.
In 1949, only socialism could save China. In 1978, only capitalism could change China. In 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, only China could save socialism. In 2007, after the global financial crisis, only China could save capitalism. Exactly what China will change as we enter 2020 -- or what will change China -- is unclear, but as is often said of the Middle Kingdom, if history doesn’t quite repeat itself, it certainly tends to rhyme.
Thus it has ever been.
September 5, 2021
Fenby's The Penguin History of Modern China attempts to be a comprehensive book, the third edition is over 700 pages - other books have attempted to cover a broader history of China in less pages. This is one of the strengths of Fenby's account - a complete history of China is an impossible take for any book, so Fenby focuses on what he deems to be critical - for example his section of Deng Xiaoping runs to almost 100 pages and is longer than the section on the Kuomintang, here his judgment is probably correct - for those interested in course China may follow in the twenty-first century more weight should be given to its experiences in this era. It is likely that the third edition in 2019 has been updated since the original publication in 2008 to include sections on Xi Jinping, but this section is a bit light and does not reach the standard of the rest of the book (it also has more than a few errors, perhaps indicative of a rush to put in into place).
But the flip-side of the book's strength of relying on Fenby's judgement on also contributes to its weaknesses - as it can over focus on certain aspects as well become a vehicle for expressing Fenby's own viewpoint: namely in his disappointment that China has not moved to political democracy. In the epilogue he writes:
"The over throw of the empire and the establishment of the republic in 1912 did not bring the social transformation the country needed ... politically, the world's most population remains in a systematic time warp stretching back to 221 bc and most recently epitomized by a leader whose authority reflects the imperial past..." (pp705-6, emphasis added).
This criticism is also reflected in the three chapters on Tiananmen, which is disproportionate with the weight given to other events in the book, but much space is given to quoting critics of the regime. These sections feel better suited to a book on political philosophy in arguing what the ideal system is. But I think they are a disservice in a history book, should be to provide facts and information on the events that occurred, and enable us to make informed judgments on what may follow. In doing so we need to take the situation as we find it and engage with the actual situation. The fact is that China is a democracy, and the world needs to engage with it as it is, nor should we fantasise that the implementation of a liberal democracy is a panacea for all ills. There is not better evidence of that events in Afghanistan in 2021 - all countries are influenced by complex factors some of which can be better understood through their history. To that extent the book would be better served by presenting a more balanced account and also longing for a counterfactual where China had adopted a different political model. Nevertheless Fenby's account of China from the Qing dynasty to the mid-twentieth century is quite good - the overall book would have been better if he had applied this template to the rest of it.
But the flip-side of the book's strength of relying on Fenby's judgement on also contributes to its weaknesses - as it can over focus on certain aspects as well become a vehicle for expressing Fenby's own viewpoint: namely in his disappointment that China has not moved to political democracy. In the epilogue he writes:
"The over throw of the empire and the establishment of the republic in 1912 did not bring the social transformation the country needed ... politically, the world's most population remains in a systematic time warp stretching back to 221 bc and most recently epitomized by a leader whose authority reflects the imperial past..." (pp705-6, emphasis added).
This criticism is also reflected in the three chapters on Tiananmen, which is disproportionate with the weight given to other events in the book, but much space is given to quoting critics of the regime. These sections feel better suited to a book on political philosophy in arguing what the ideal system is. But I think they are a disservice in a history book, should be to provide facts and information on the events that occurred, and enable us to make informed judgments on what may follow. In doing so we need to take the situation as we find it and engage with the actual situation. The fact is that China is a democracy, and the world needs to engage with it as it is, nor should we fantasise that the implementation of a liberal democracy is a panacea for all ills. There is not better evidence of that events in Afghanistan in 2021 - all countries are influenced by complex factors some of which can be better understood through their history. To that extent the book would be better served by presenting a more balanced account and also longing for a counterfactual where China had adopted a different political model. Nevertheless Fenby's account of China from the Qing dynasty to the mid-twentieth century is quite good - the overall book would have been better if he had applied this template to the rest of it.
November 4, 2024
An excellent book to read if you want to understand how modern China has become what it is now and how it is functioning.
Of course I knew a bit about China, like we all do, but the history for me was no more than snippets.
This book gives you the full picture, the complete history. The starting point of 1850 of this book is well chosen.
From being the poor, very populated country that was kicked around by the more powerful countries of these days things have changed beyond recognition.
The path from The Dowager Empress to Sun Yat Sen, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and finally Xi Jinping has been painful for the country and caused a lot of victims.
Especially Mao Zedong who officially should be named the biggest crook in history all over the world.
A life in China was never very valuable, but Mao took this principle to the limit.
Like all dictators things were double: there is the wish to let the heritage of the rule continue and pick a strong person who can take over, but then there is the constant fear that this person or his followers can do something to threaten your rule and even your life.
Normally it is sufficient to get this person out of the way. This was done with Lin Biao, formerly known by us as Lin Piao. I never knew how it was done, the books explains this.
More often Mao started big "projects", like the "Big Leap Forwards" or the "Cultural Revolution" to get rid of some people. That this also caused for millions of other people to perish was no problem at all.
So the rigid grip of Xi Jinping on the country is not a surprise for me, it's no more than a continuation of the rule of the Communist Party of China. China has always been ruled centralised, except for the days of the War Lords and the Civil War.
So the change of the governing of Hongkong is not exceptional, nor the desire to get Taiwan back into the grip of China.
All in all this book is a great read, even when you have to read about all the horrors of massacres and famines.
Of course I knew a bit about China, like we all do, but the history for me was no more than snippets.
This book gives you the full picture, the complete history. The starting point of 1850 of this book is well chosen.
From being the poor, very populated country that was kicked around by the more powerful countries of these days things have changed beyond recognition.
The path from The Dowager Empress to Sun Yat Sen, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and finally Xi Jinping has been painful for the country and caused a lot of victims.
Especially Mao Zedong who officially should be named the biggest crook in history all over the world.
A life in China was never very valuable, but Mao took this principle to the limit.
Like all dictators things were double: there is the wish to let the heritage of the rule continue and pick a strong person who can take over, but then there is the constant fear that this person or his followers can do something to threaten your rule and even your life.
Normally it is sufficient to get this person out of the way. This was done with Lin Biao, formerly known by us as Lin Piao. I never knew how it was done, the books explains this.
More often Mao started big "projects", like the "Big Leap Forwards" or the "Cultural Revolution" to get rid of some people. That this also caused for millions of other people to perish was no problem at all.
So the rigid grip of Xi Jinping on the country is not a surprise for me, it's no more than a continuation of the rule of the Communist Party of China. China has always been ruled centralised, except for the days of the War Lords and the Civil War.
So the change of the governing of Hongkong is not exceptional, nor the desire to get Taiwan back into the grip of China.
All in all this book is a great read, even when you have to read about all the horrors of massacres and famines.
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