The History Book Club discussion
CHINA
>
INTRODUCTION - CHINA
date
newest »
newest »
Jim, sounds good. I tend to like books where the author has a personal and relevant connection. Sounds very interesting, thanks for the addition.
This looks interesting. Winner Take All: China's Race for Resources and What It Means for the World
by
Dambisa MoyoSynopsis
Commodities permeate virtually every aspect of modern daily living, but for all their importance—their breadth, their depth, their intricacies, and their central role in daily life—few people who are not economists or traders know how commodity markets work. Almost every day, newspaper headlines and media commentators scream warnings of impending doom--shortages of arable land, clashes over water, and political conflict as global demand for fossil fuels outstrips supply. The picture is bleak, but our grasp of the details and the macro shifts in commodities markets remain blurry.Winner Take All is about the commodity dynamics that the world will face over the next several decades. In particular, it is about the implications of China’s rush for resources across all regions of the world. The scale of China’s resource campaign for hard commodities (metals and minerals) and soft commodities (timber and food) is among the largest in history. To be sure, China is not the first country to launch a global crusade to secure resources. From Britain’s transcontinental operations dating back to the end of the 16th century, to the rise of modern European and American transnational corporations between the mid 1860’s and 1870’s, the industrial revolution that powered these economies created a voracious demand for raw materials and created the need to go far beyond their native countries.
So too is China’s resource rush today. Although still in its early stages, already the breadth of China’s operation is awesome, and seemingly unstoppable. China’s global charge for commodities is a story of China’s quest to secure its claims on resource assets, and to guarantee the flow of inputs needed to continue to drive economic development. Moyo, an expert in global commodities markets, explains the implications of China’s resource grab in a world of diminishing resources.
Mod
Race and Racism in the Chinas: Chinese Racial Attitudes Toward Africans and African-Americans
by M. Dujon Johnson (no photo)Synopsis:
This book examines the history of Africans and African-Americans in Mainland China and Taiwan, the Chinese and African nation's relationship and its political repercussions for Mainland China and Taiwan, and the Chinese/African-American social relationships in the United States. Although the Chinas are thought by western societies to advocate racial equality in their respective countries, this book uncovers the everyday racial attitudes of the Chinese people and governments toward Africans and African-Americans. In this book, crucial events in the Chinas such as the forced opening of China by the west and Chinese philosophical views throughout her history, are analyzed in how they have been instrumental in shaping racial attitudes that have led to racial polarization, racial violence and race riots against Africans and African-Americans in the Chinas.
One of the most foreign of practices to the Western eye is the practice of foot binding of upper class Chinese women. Although it has been outlawed, there are still examples extant in elderly women. It was a horrible and painful process that permanently disabled the women, who could barely walk on feet that were only 3-4 inches long. This book is dedicated more to the shoes of the "lotus feet" than the actual practice but it does touch on the process. A good explanation with illustrations can be found at the link cited at the bottom of this post. It is a fascinating subject.Every Step a Lotus
by Dorothy Ko (no photo)Synopsis:
In Every Step a Lotus, Dorothy Ko embarks on a fascinating exploration of the practice of footbinding in China, explaining its origins, purpose, and spread before the nineteenth century. She uses women's own voices to reconstruct the inner chambers of a Chinese house where women with bound feet lived and worked. Focusing on the material aspects of footbinding and shoemaking--the tools needed, the procedures, the wealth of symbolism in the shoes, and the amazing regional variations in style--she contends that footbinding was a reasonable course of action for a woman who lived in a Confucian culture that placed the highest moral value on domesticity, motherhood, and handwork. Her absorbing, superbly detailed, and beautifully written book demonstrates that in the women's eyes, footbinding had less to do with the exotic or the sublime than with the mundane business of having to live in a woman's body in a man's world.
Footbinding was likely to have started in the tenth century among palace dancers. Ironically, it was meant not to cripple but to enhance their grace. Its meaning shifted dramatically as it became domesticated in the subsequent centuries, though the original hint of sensuality did not entirely disappear. This contradictory image of footbinding as at once degenerate and virtuous, grotesque and refined, is embodied in the key symbol for the practice--the lotus blossom, being both a Buddhist sign of piety and a poetic allusion to sensory pleasures.
Every Step a Lotus includes almost one hundred illustrations of shoes from different regions of China, material paraphernalia associated with the customs and rituals of footbinding, and historical images that contextualize the narrative. Most of the shoes, from the collection of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, have not been exhibited before. Readers will come away from the book with a richer understanding of why footbinding carries such force as a symbol and why, long after its demise, it continues to exercise a powerful grip on our imaginations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_bin...
A Dragon's Head and a Serpent's Tail: Ming China and the First Great East Asian War, 1592-1598
by Kenneth M. Swope (no photo)Synopsis:
The invasion of Korea by Japanese troops in May of 1592 was no ordinary military expedition: it was one of the decisive events in Asian history and the most tragic for the Korean peninsula until the mid-twentieth century. Japanese overlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi envisioned conquering Korea, Ming China, and eventually all of Asia; but Korea’s appeal to China’s Emperor Wanli for assistance triggered a six-year war involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers and encompassing the whole region. For Japan, the war was “a dragon’s head followed by a serpent’s tail”: an impressive beginning with no real ending.
Kenneth M. Swope has undertaken the first full-length scholarly study in English of this important conflict. Drawing on Korean, Japanese, and especially Chinese sources, he corrects the Japan-centered perspective of previous accounts and depicts Wanli not as the self-indulgent ruler of received interpretations but rather one actively engaged in military affairs—and concerned especially with rescuing China’s client state of Korea. He puts the Ming in a more vigorous light, detailing Chinese siege warfare, the development and deployment of innovative military technologies, and the naval battles that marked the climax of the war. He also explains the war’s repercussions outside the military sphere—particularly the dynamics of intraregional diplomacy within the shadow of the Chinese tributary system.
What Swope calls the First Great East Asian War marked both the emergence of Japan’s desire to extend its sphere of influence to the Chinese mainland and a military revival of China’s commitment to defending its interests in Northeast Asia. Swope’s account offers new insight not only into the history of warfare in Asia but also into a conflict that reverberates in international relations to this day.
One of the most striking and historic edifices in the world. This book separates the myth from fact about this wonder of the world.The Great Wall of China
by Stephen Turnbull (no photo)Synopsis:
The Great Wall of China is the most extensive and famous example of fortification in the world. Charting its development from construction in the 7th century BC through to the present day, this account reveals the true history of the wall, and explores the myths that surround it.
Stretching over 4,000 miles, the Great Wall began as a collection of defensive walls built by the northern vassal states under the Chou dynasty. With the unification of China in 221 BC the walls were interlinked and extended to fight off the invaders from the North. The wall as it is seen today is almost entirely the result of major renovations that started with the founding of the Ming Dynasty in 1368 AD and took 200 years to complete.
Included are details of what it was like to live within the wall, the ideas behind the defensive systems, how it was garrisoned and patrolled, and a discussion of how effective it was against attack. Through extensive examination of both ancient and modern sources, color maps, artwork and photographs, this book illustrates why the wall is one of the great wonders of the world.(
Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937–1945(no image) Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945 by Rana Mitter (no photo)
Synopsis:
For decades, a major piece of World War II history has gone virtually unwritten. The war began in China, two years before Hitler invaded Poland, and China eventually became the fourth great ally, partner to the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain. Yet its drama of invasion, resistance, slaughter, and political intrigue remains little known in the West.
Rana Mitter focuses his gripping narrative on three towering leaders: Chiang Kai-shek, the politically gifted but tragically flawed head of China’s Nationalist government; Mao Zedong, the Communists’ fiery ideological stalwart, seen here at the beginning of his epochal career; and the lesser-known Wang Jingwei, who collaborated with the Japanese to form a puppet state in occupied China.
Drawing on Chinese archives that have only been unsealed in the past ten years, he brings to vivid new life such characters as Chiang’s American chief of staff, the unforgettable “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell, and such horrific events as the Rape of Nanking and the bombing of China’s wartime capital, Chongqing. Throughout, Forgotten Ally shows how the Chinese people played an essential role in the wider war effort, at great political and personal sacrifice.
Forgotten Ally rewrites the entire history of World War II. Yet it also offers surprising insights into contemporary China. No twentieth-century event was as crucial in shaping China’s worldview, and no one can understand China, and its relationship with America today, without this definitive work.
Mod
message 61:
by
Jerome, Assisting Moderator - Upcoming Books and Releases
(last edited Nov 24, 2014 02:34PM)
(new)
Mod
Release date: April 21, 2015
The China Mirage: The Hidden History of American Disaster in Asia
by
James D. BradleySynopsis:
In each of his books, James Bradley has exposed the hidden truths behind America's engagement in Asia. Now comes his most engrossing work yet. Beginning in the 1850s, Bradley introduces us to the prominent Americans who made their fortunes in the China opium trade. As they---good Christians all---profitably addicted millions, American missionaries arrived, promising salvation for those who adopted Western ways. And that was just the beginning. From drug dealer Warren Delano to his grandson Franklin Delano Roosevelt, from the port of Hong Kong to the towers of Princeton University, from the era of Appomattox to the age of the A-Bomb, The China Mirage explores a difficult century that defines U.S.-Chinese relations to this day.
Hmmmmmm.....is this revisionist history? You decide.1421: The Year China Discovered America
by
Gavin MenziesSynopsis:
On 3/8/1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from China. Its mission was "to proceed all the way to the ends of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas" & unite the whole world in Confucian harmony. When it returned in 10/1423, the emperor had fallen, leaving China in political & economic chaos. The great ships were left to rot at their moorings. Most records of their journeys were destroyed. Lost in China's long, self-imposed isolation that followed was the knowledge that Chinese ships had reached America 70 years before Columbus & had circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. Also concealed was how the Chinese colonized America before the Europeans & transplanted in America & other countries the principal economic crops that have fed & clothed the world.
Unveiling incontrovertible evidence of these astonishing voyages, "1421" rewrites our understanding of history. Our knowledge of world exploration as it's been commonly accepted for centuries must now be reconceived due to this landmark work of historical investigation.
One of the most fascinating and powerful non-royal families in China's history.The Soong Dynasty
by Sterling Seagrave(no photo)Synopsis:
Descendants of a Chinese runaway who grew up in America under the protection of the Methodist church and who returned to his homeland to make a fortune selling Western bibles, the Soong family became the principal rulers of China during the first half of the 20th century and won the support of the American government and press for many decades. Sterling Seagrave describes for the first time the intricate and fascinating rise to power of Charlie Soong and his children: daughters Ai-ling, who married one of China's richest men, H.H. Kung; Ching-ling, who married Sun Yat-sen, leader of China's republican revolution; May-ling, who married Chiang Kai-shek, the autocratic ruler of Nationalist China whose ties to the Shanghai underworld the author has documented; and son T.V. Soong, who at various times served as Chiang's economic minister, foreign minister and premier. How all of the Soongs except Ching-ling amassed enormous wealth while millions of Chinese starved or were killed in the long fight against Japan and the equally bitter struggle with Mao are just some of the revelations in this explosive book.
Mod
I had a hard time with Romance of the Three Kingdoms; the family history got a bit much, but if anyone has recommendations on other good Chinese history I would like to hear them. I am lucky, I saw China in 1982 as part of a music tour and it has changed so much since then. I don't recognize Shanghai when I see recent photos.
Hi, John. Please remember to use the correct citation when mentioning a book. See below and please correct your post in message 66.
by
Luo Guanzhong
I was wondering if anyone could recommend me a book that covers the Taiping Rebellion? The deadliest civil war in human history, but is often overshadowed by the American Civil War which overlaps with it and the Boxer Rebellion which occurred a few decades later.
This is the correct thread to post book inquiries inhttps://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Happy reading ☺
Mod
Mod
by
Peter FrankopanThe No. 1 Sunday Times and international bestseller - a major reassessment of world history in light of the economic and political renaissance in the re-emerging east.
'Magnificent' Sunday Times
'Immensely entertaining ... so ambitious, so detailed, so fascinating' The Times
For centuries, fame and fortune were to be found in the west – in the New World of the Americas. Today, it is the east which calls out to those in search of riches and adventure. Sweeping right across Central Asia and deep into China and India, a region that once took centre stage is again rising to dominate global politics, commerce and culture.
A major reassessment of world history, The Silk Roads is a dazzling exploration of the forces that have driven the rise and fall of empires, determined the flow of ideas and goods and are now heralding a new dawn in international affairs.
Mod
by
Patricia Buckley EbreySynopsis:
More populous than any other country on earth, China also occupies a unique place in our modern world for the continuity of its history and culture.
In this sumptuously illustrated single-volume history, noted historian Patricia Ebrey traces the origins of Chinese culture from prehistoric times to the present.
She follows its development from the rise of Confucianism, Buddhism, and the great imperial dynasties to the Mongol, Manchu, and Western intrusions and the modern communist state.
Her scope is phenomenal--embracing Chinese arts, culture, economics, society and its treatment of women, foreign policy, emigration, and politics, including the key uprisings of 1919 and 1989 in Tiananmen Square.
Both a comprehensive introduction to an extraordinary civilization, and an expert exploration of the continuities and disjunctures of Chinese history, Professor Ebrey's book has become an indispensable guide to China past and present. Patricia Ebrey is Professor of East Asian Studies and History and the author of Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook (1993).
The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The Cambridge Illustrated History of China (other topics)The Silk Roads: A New History of the World (other topics)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Vol. 1 of 2 (other topics)
The Soong Dynasty (other topics)
1421: The Year China Discovered America (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Patricia Buckley Ebrey (other topics)Peter Frankopan (other topics)
Luo Guanzhong (other topics)
Sterling Seagrave (other topics)
Gavin Menzies (other topics)
More...
The author (born and raised in Montreal) went to China as an idealistic teen during the Mao years. She then compares it to visits in more recent years (1990s). The cover of the edition I have notes that it was one of Time magazine's ten best books of 1996.