Forbidden City: A Novel of Modern China Review

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Forbidden City: A Novel of Modern China Review"Forbidden City" was a powerful and dramatically graphic book which described the personal account of the Chinese tragedy which took place in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in 1989.The story centres around the struggle for freedom which young revolutionaries had during a time when the Chinese government was unstable. Horrifying details illustrate the horrors that the Chinese people coped with. Surprisingly, these horrors were the result of the martial law handed down by the Chinese government to stop the Chinese citizen's cries for freedom and democracy. This book truly portrayed the horrific and uncivilized side of mankind. Images of bodies being crushed by looming Chinese tanks in the streets of Beijing and the careless bloodshed of innocent people in the centre of Tiananmen Square paint a picture of true brutality and coldness which we as humans take for granted in such times of chaos, not only in China but around the world. This book portrays the delicacy of life and how we all take for granted not only life itself, but our God-given freedom which we as humans consider as a right, which in reality, is a priviledge which we fight for each and every day of our lives.The central theme in "Forbidden City" is similar to the themes in "The Holy Bible" in that struggles for freedom take place throughout the book and involve all cultures. In contrast, "Forbidden City" was a much more personalized account of the tragedy which took place. I was able to explore the mind of a visitor to China who witnessed the brutal images in Tiananmen Square and was deeply affected by what was seen. "The Holy Bible", similar to "Forbidden City", provided a sense of hope for those in their stuggles for freedom and the oppressors, which, through over whelming strength and perseverence, broke free of their dictators and retained their identity, living with pride and ostentation. I recommend this book for people who feel as though they are oppressed by others whether it be parents, bosses or teachers who feel the need to break loose of what is holding them back. This truly dramatic and thought-prevoking book will provide you with the inspiration you need to continue on in your own lives having pride in your culture, family, and most importantly, yourself.Forbidden City: A Novel of Modern China Overview

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A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World Review

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A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World ReviewThis is a well written and well researched book by the young university lecturer Rana Mitter at Oxford. He is also the author of at least two other books on China. The author attempts to tell us the 20th century story of China's political awakening by tracing many of the historical figures and writers to the small number of universities primarily in Beijing and Shanghai and the demonstrations of May 1919 in Beijing.
The book starts around the time of the May 4, 1919 demonstrations or what the author calls the first Tian'anmen Square (gate) demonstrations. The small number of protestors served as a touch stone or reference to future generations of Chinese as the century unfolded. In summary that group wanted to free China of its past ties to Confucianism and replace it with science and democracy. The author tells us the story of the development of China from that date and we read about a general "awakening" and the recent history of modern China. At the time of the 1919 demonstrations China was fragmented politically and had only 28,000 university students. Although the Nationalists had seized power, it lacked its own central authority and unifying government and was dominated by war lords and by colonial powers, the latter at its major seaports. The author believes that the students from the 1919 era and their contemporaries or those that followed in the decade after - the 1920s - set in motion the ideas, the political philosophies, and provided the leaders that changed China into a more modern state.
The modernization of China sharply lagged behind its Asian neighbor Japan, who started to modernize in the early 1850's building steel plants, railways, shipyards, and universities, in a unified effort among banks, the government including the military, and industry. China on the other hand remained fragmented, divided, a vast agrarian society with its costal cities dominated by colonial powers. The universities and intellectual base were very small by any standards, and for a country of the size of China were very small. In some ways China was similar to Russia in that it had a revolutionary spirit and rural unrest but a political vacuum. There was a general yearning for a new government or economic system and the communists filled that void almost by default after the Nationalists were weakened by WWII.
In any case the author tells a very detailed story about the people and ideas of the early café societies in Shanghai and the Beijing University that produced many popular writers and famous politicians including Mao and others. The author tells us about other writers such as Zou Raofen, Lu Xun, and the woman Ding Ling who wrote her "Miss Sophie" about her inner thoughts including sexuality in her writings, and about popular magazines such as "Life". The author goes on to lead us through the Nationalist movement, the communists, the invasion by Japan, the rise of the communists, the great leap forward, the cultural revolution, the failures of communism, the 1989 Tian'anmen massacre, etc. Instead of science and democracy China suffered through a series of crisis with as many as 60 million or more dead by famine and wars, with the people sometimes turning to cannibalism. Through all of the politicians and writers including Mao and others would reference the spirit of May 1919 although their own actions were no longer a reflection of the early ideals.
The book is just over 300 pages in medium font and gives a good introduction and overview to the development of modern China with many details on writers and political figures. As an added feature he includes nine pages of comments on follow up readings - mostly academic books or histories or other popular books - and mostly in English divided by category.
I enjoyed the book but thought it a bit short. Still it is worth 5 stars.A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World Overview

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The Jews of Kaifeng, China: History, Culture, and Religion Review

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The Jews of Kaifeng, China: History, Culture, and Religion ReviewThe book, "The Jews of Kaifeng, China: History, Culture and Religion," by Xin Xu is a wonderful work which describes in great detail the culture, religious rites and history of the community of Jews that settled in Kaifeng back when it was the capital city.
He talks about relations with their neighbors, their clothing styles, religion, customs, language, diet and more.
Xin conducts a thorough and intricate study regarding this unique and astounding group of Jews who were cut off from the rest of the Jewish world for centuries.
oThe Jews of Kaifeng, China: History, Culture, and Religion Overview

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Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962 Review

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Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962 ReviewThis important and very revealing book is a serious effort to enhance understanding of the horrendous famine resulting from the Great Leap Forward of the last 1950s and early 1960s. In reading this book, its important to understand DiKotter's method with its strengths and limitations. A complete and systematic narrative and analysis of the Great Leap Forward is not possible at this time. Much of the key documentation is hidden in closed archives in China and will probably remain inaccessible until the Communist Party loses its political monopoly. DiKotter pursued documents related to the Great Leap Forward in a number of less tightly guarded provinical archives. This effort produced a number of revealing documents generated by provincial party and government (often the same thing) officials, and copies of important documents from the central party-government apparatus. Supplemented by prior secondary sources and some other archival research, DiKotter was able to assemble a great deal of revealing information about the Great Leap Forward. Since DiKotter's approach is driven heavily by his archival research, this book often has an anecdotal quality, though DiKotter supplements his vignettes with some background narrative and analysis.
The cumulative effect of DiKotter's reliance on his primary sources is, however, a powerful and devastating exposure of the dimensions of this tragedy and the culpability of the Chinese Communist Party. DiKotter takes pains to rebut the common impression that the famine of the Great Leap Forward was the inadvertant consequence of a terribly mistaken policy exacerbated by bad weather. DiKotter shows very well that the famine and its accompanying events go well beyond simple criminal negligence. The Great Leap Forward was not just an ill-advised attempt at forced industrialization. DiKotter demonstrates a number of other important aspects including incredibly stupid and destructive efforts to completely re-engineer the hydrology of China and Chinese agriculture, to extend the power of the Party into all aspects of Chinese life, and to make China the leading nation of the Communist bloc. In common with other writers on this topic, DiKotter emphasizes Mao's crucial role in generating and sustaining the policies of the Great Leap Forward. DiKotter also makes clear that Mao would never have succeeded without the support of other important figures in the Party, and DiKotter shows well that Mao's messianism and incredibly callous attitude extended throughout the Party.
DiKotter favors a high estimate of the death toll associated with the Great Leap Forward, some 45 million people. If correct, this would be the greatest human caused slaughter in history, and it occurred in a span of about 4 years. The magnitude of the death toll, even at the smaller estimates of about 30 million, is unimaginable. DiKotter provides many examples of the ways in which the Chinese people died and these clearly written sections make for excruciating reading.Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962 Overview

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Rightful Resistance in Rural China (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics) Review

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Rightful Resistance in Rural China (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics) ReviewBorrowing from James C. Scott theories on "everyday resistance" and acknowledging the importance of political opportunities and political process for social movements and protest, Kevin O'Brien and Lianjiang Li describe a form of protest and political contention that they dub "rightful resistance." Based on their interview and field work in rural China, O'Brien and Li explain this creative form of resistance developing in China whereby people attempt to contest the state but do so from within the confines that that same state has delineated. Through such tactics as leveraging higher levels of authority to pressure more local ones, employing the language of citizenry and the rights such status ought ostensibly entail, adopting the policies and rhetoric of the central government in order to hold the local accountable, or even taking advantage of little used legal mechanisms, rural Chinese have often unsettled the political ground enough to successfully bring about their claims - but they do so as faithful members of the state.
O'Brien and Li's insightful work is must reading for those interested in the politics of contemporary China as well as for those interested in processes of political change and rights work.
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The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500D1800 (Critical Issues in World and International History) Review

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The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500D1800 (Critical Issues in World and International History) ReviewDavid E. Mungello is a historian known for his research on the Jesuits missionaries in China in 16-17th centuries, some of which he summarized 20 years ago in his more scholarly book, Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology. That one is a great book, if you are interested in the subject and have enough patience to read it, but reading that book alone gives you a feeling of incompleteness: it focuses on the period from 1582 (Ricci's arrival to China) to 1700 (condemnation of Figurists by Sorbonne), and tries not to go out of scope, discussing things that happened before or after. Of course, if you are interested in the subject, it makes you go look for other books - which are provided in the ample bibliography.
In "The Great Encounter", Professor Mungello tried to cover a period twice as long in a space half as much. That was made possible by writing the book in a different format: not a monograph loaded with inline references and provided with a Chinese-character glossary at the end, and targeting readers such as history grad students, but a book written in a more popular style, perhaps with a bright high school student or a college freshman as a reader in mind. This is something that can well serve as a first book on the topic for someone who'd never heard the name of Matteo Ricci or the Kangxi Emperor before. (And yes, in the intro he gives a lovely explanation why one should say "the Kangxi Emperor" and not "Emperor Kangxi"). About half of the material in this think book seems to have been based from "Curious Land" (with the material greatly condensed and made much more accessible), and the rest is new (partly based on the author's other scholarly works as well), and gives the reader "the rest of the story" - from the first landing of the Portuguese in south China in 1514 to the Macartney Embassy in 1792-94. And many of the things added in this book are quite fascinating too, from Yu the Great being presented as a model to Paul I of Russia (p. 97) to the sad story of Matteo Ripa's Chinese seminarians in Naples. The new illustrations, extracted primarily from all kinds of Chinese works of the period, are also quite interesting.
With all that, the book's style as a popular account would make it somewhat "deficient" for a reader who looks for more details: e.g., instead of inline references, there is just a general "list of works consulted" at the end of each chapter; and there are no Chinese characters given for Chinese name, even in those cases when the person or place mentioned would be very obscure in European-language sources. And, as it is necessarily the case with a book this small, any reader with a particular special interest that *could* be thought as related to the book's topic (e.g.: China vs. Russia in the Amur/Heilongjiang Basin in 1650-1690; French Jesuit cartographers in China ca. 1700; the "Southern Ming" Yongli Emperor's court asking for Pope's help; early contacts between Europe and Tibet) may be surprised that his pet topic is not even mentioned here. Oh well, this is no doubt meant as a first book for a reader who is interested - or may become interested - in the history of Sino-European interaction, and it is written well enough to, hopefully, make quite a few readers interested, and get them to look for other books.
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Escape to Shanghai: A Jewish Community in China Review

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Escape to Shanghai: A Jewish Community in China ReviewAs readable as a novel, but based on painstaking research, Ross's account of the Jews who lived out the Holocaust in Shanghai focuses on four individual and their families. There is another book that deals mostly with the religious Jews in Shanghai (which Ross, disappointingly, ignores except for one or two disparaging remarks), but this book presents an excellent overall picture by following the lives of specific people. Highly recommended.Escape to Shanghai: A Jewish Community in China Overview

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Voices from Shanghai: Jewish Exiles in Wartime China Review

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Voices from Shanghai: Jewish Exiles in Wartime China ReviewThe book is very good. The kindle edition very poor. The tipography sizes varies wildly. Some text is presented as an image and the font size is very tiny and you cannot change it (because it was scanned not typed). Some text in the same phrase is not horizontally aligned.Voices from Shanghai: Jewish Exiles in Wartime China Overview

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Shanghai Diary: A Young Girl's Journey from Hitler's Hate to War-Torn China Review

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Shanghai Diary: A Young Girl's Journey from Hitler's Hate to War-Torn China ReviewWhen I started Shanghai Diary, I found that I simply couldn't put it down. I hadn't known the story of the Shanghai Jews in the Hongkew ghetto, and I was riveted by the well-written story of Ursula Bacon's 8 years as a young girl in Shanghai, where it was nothing to see a dead baby girl thrown on a heap of trash and where day-to-day existence was harsh and often degrading. Despite all of this, Ursula's family managed to maintain their dignity and prevail. To me it was a story of great courage. When she left Shanghai at the end of the war, far from being devastated by the experience, Ursula took away the lesson that she had seen first hand what hate can do, and she would never hate anyone as long as she lived. The book was so moving that I had to sit quietly and reflect for quite some time after I read the final page.Shanghai Diary: A Young Girl's Journey from Hitler's Hate to War-Torn China Overview

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A Girl Named Faithful Plum: The True Story of a Dancer from China and How She Achieved Her Dream Review

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A Girl Named Faithful Plum: The True Story of a Dancer from China and How She Achieved Her Dream ReviewWhat a beautiful story and what a great writing style for telling it!
I read this book in two days, as I just could not stop. The story of Zhongmei is inspiring and moving. It sets an example of how talent and especially will can take you to achieve your goals, no matter the how high you are aiming at and the many obstacles life is disseminated with.
But it also sets an example of how the struggle for your goals does not forcely turn you in a cold hearted person.
I will present this book as a gift to the persons I love most.A Girl Named Faithful Plum: The True Story of a Dancer from China and How She Achieved Her Dream Overview

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