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.…
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Tag: History of China
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…
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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…
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The Tiananmen Papers – Part 3
The Tiananmen Papers are fake documents. So asserts Alfred L Chan, [author of Xi Jin Ping, HC 2022 ed] [see p 277 Deng Xiao Ping…
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The Tiananmen Papers – Part 2
Are the Tiananmen Papers fake? Ezra F. Vogel, in his monumental Deng Xiao Ping and the Transformation of China [2011], has the best discussion. He…
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The Fragile Strength of the Qing Dynasty – Part 2
It is a fallacy to think that the Chinese emperors made decisions arbitrarily. Since the time of the Northern Song, the emperors felt compelled to…
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The Fragile Strength of the Qing Dynasty – Part 1
Why did the Ching dynasty survive for so long, till 1912, when it was in its death throes caused by the Taiping Revolution [1850 to…
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Excellent book – China in the Age of Xi Jinping
This 2021, 763-page book is actually the history of China written in a concise and readable manner. Its emphasis is on the politics from the…
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China & The Age of The Opium War
Rutherfurd’s China is one of my rare forays into Fiction. Published in 2021 it is a grand saga of several characters swept up by the…
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A gem insider’s view — Dealing with China
This book by a former US Treasury Secretary under President George W Bush, and head of Goldman Sachs is worth reading even now. Paulson’s account…
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