The Search for Modern China

The Search for Modern China is about the journey the Chinese have taken throughout history. Although Chinese history spans thousands of years and ranks among some of the oldest countries with deep rich histories, the relevant information (at least in Spence’s eyes) start from the Ming dynasty and end in the present day just beyond the Tiananmen Square incident. The book is intended to give...more

The Search for Modern China is about the journey the Chinese have taken throughout history. Although Chinese history spans thousands of years and ranks among some of the oldest countries with deep rich histories, the relevant information (at least in Spence’s eyes) start from the Ming dynasty and end in the present day just beyond the Tiananmen Square incident. The book is intended to give readers an overall view of the subject, not necessarily focused on any particular event but rather how each event influenced both related events and future events. I’m sure that given the proper scope, Spence could expound on any one of the points in his book. If one wanted to encapsulate how China got to where it is now without having to do a Ph.D. dissertation on the matter, this would be the definitive book to read. The book’s structure is purely overview, and while it doesn’t go into detail on any particular event, it makes up for that by the sheer volume of information that amazingly relates to each other as one thread of thought. It is daunting to know that to even approach the subject, Spence admits that “it is only by starting at [the late Ming dynasty] that I feel we can get a full sense of how China’s current problems have arisen…” However, Spence will lead you by the hand, and will in fact jerk you forward into a text that is suprisingly not dry for a history book (it’s very wet, in fact). I laughed while reading, as Spence points out some of the ironies in the past history of China!    hide