Chinese history

My spouse and I have been interested in China since I was a kid . Her dad was with the Flying Tigers in WW II. Most of my reading has been on the history of China from WW II until now, with an emphasis on the era of Mao, with a special emphasis in that era of the Great Leap Forward ... which was a disaster for China. Jonathan Spence wrote a very readable history of China entitled, "The Search for Modern China."

Perhaps you have read the Dream of the Red Chamber and also The Three Kingdoms. Many say the only way to begin to understand China is to have read these classics.

 

Yes, much has changed in China since 1911. In fact much has changed since 1986, the year I first visited China. However the underpinnings of the Chinese culture is still very much in tact. China really was never a Communist country in the true sense of the word Communist. Rather it was a Confucian country with Communist lipstick.

It is not just professors who study the classics. There are groups, lay groups if you will, all over China that meet and discuss these classics. There are BB's on the internet that discuss them also.

The Cultural Revolution was such a disaster for china. So many places and objects from antiquity were harmed or destroyed. It was a very sad era and resulted in what the Chinese call the "Lost Generation." Also the "three bad years" 1959 to 1961 were horrible when up to 60 million Chinese starved ... and it was totally the fault of a corrupt and fear ridden government.

It will be very interesting to see how the one child policy will affect the Chinese culture. Family has been so very important in China throughout the ages. The one child policy is destroying family as it has been known.

Here are several titles of good books on China:

"A Higher Kind of Loyalty," by Liu Binyan.
"Wild Swans," by Jung Chang
"The New Emperors: China in the Era of Mao and Deng" by Harrison Salisbury
"Life and Death in Shanghai" by Nien Cheng
"Iron and Silk" by Mark Salzman.

"River Town" by Peter Hessler. This is an extremely interesting book on one American's experiences teaching in China. Many of his experiences parallel my experiences in China.

These are simply a few of the good books on China in the modern era.


Cheers and happy reading.

 

Chinese food yes....their history, not so much.:wavey: