The Age of Openness – China before Mao explores the Republican era from 1911 to 1949. Frank Dikotter in his long essay of 102 pages…
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Tag: Historical China Biographies
A Daughter of Han
This is the life story of a Chinese peasant who lived from 1867 to 1938. Born in Peng Lai, a city in Shantung, facing Manchuria…
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Six Records of a Floating Life
This memoir on six distinct areas of the life of a Ching dynasty scholar, Shen Fu, was written in 1809. We only have four records…
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The Handover of Hong Kong
Hong Kong was surrendered to the British for perpetuity by the Ching dynasty when Britain won the First Opium war. Kowloon was surrendered for perpetuity…
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Introduction to Western specialists on China’s history (Part 3)
Jonathan Spence is the doyen. Formerly a Brit, now an American, his book output on China is prolific. One of his best is Treason by…
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Introduction to Western specialists on China’s history (Part 1)
Joseph W Esherick is an expert on Chinese History. In Ancestral Leaves, he gives us a human history of China from the 14th century to…
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Mao: The Man Who Made China
This is arguably the best one-volume biography on Mao. Revised in 2017, Philip Short has written a very readable book backed up by tremendous research.…
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A Critical Introduction to Mao
This is not an introduction to Mao. It is a deep dive. In this 2010 book comprising 14 essays by 15 scholars the subjects covered…
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Mao Tse Tung (Part 1)
All biographies of Mao focus on his failures and foibles. They magnify his disastrous Hundred Flowers Campaign of Feb 1957, and the Anti-Rightist Movement that…
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CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping
It is ironic that the Cultural revolution of 1966, which caused untold misery to millions, had some beneficial consequences. It enabled Deng Xiao Ping and …
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