Most people wrongly assume the Macartney Embassy of 1792-94 gave the Western world its first glimpse of the secretive Middle Kingdom. Why? Such an erroneous…
View More Embassies to the Qing court—Part 2
Tag: Chinese History (Books)
Embassies to the Qing court—Part 1
Most people are familiar with the Macartney Embassy of 1792-94 for two reasons. First, the response by Emperor Qianlong to the British request to open…
View More Embassies to the Qing court—Part 1
Invented in China
Francis Bacon said the three greatest inventions are paper and printing, gunpowder, and the magnetic compass. All three were invented in China by the Chinese.…
View More Invented in China
The Jesuit in the Ming Court—Part 3
The Jesuits from 1579 to 1724 mounted a sustained mission to spread Christianity to China during the reign of the Ming Wanli emperor (1563-1620) to…
View More The Jesuit in the Ming Court—Part 3
The Jesuit in the Ming Court—Part 2
Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia is an expert on Catholicism history. He is best known for his 2010 biography A Jesuit in the Forbidden City, Matteo Ricci.…
View More The Jesuit in the Ming Court—Part 2
The Jesuit in the Ming Court—Part 1
China had 200 million people at the end of the 16th century. It was the dream of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, to convert…
View More The Jesuit in the Ming Court—Part 1
Tibet and Photography
Tibet in history has two schools of thought. One views Tibet as a feudalistic backwater where religion and rule by theocracy imposed by the elites…
View More Tibet and Photography
1911 Revolution—Part 1
Dr. Sun Yat-sen has been given too much credit for the 1911 Revolution that toppled the Ching dynasty. (The Unfinished Revolution: Sun Yat-sen and the…
View More 1911 Revolution—Part 1
Reading Tibet
History of Modern Tibet (4 volumes) by Melvin C. Goldstein is considered the most authoritative and balanced history of modern Tibet. Goldstein uses both Chinese…
View More Reading Tibet
Red Star Over China
Red Star over China is now considered a classic work as it was the first account the world had of the Red bandits of China…
View More Red Star Over China