Books, Arts & Manners: Read China

The Search for Modern China, by Jonathan D. Spence (Norton, 876 pp., $29.95)

MODERN CHINA is a contradiction in terms. China is imprisoned by the great wall of its past, a past of absolute rulers and violent rebellions, artistic productivity and periodic famines, xenophobia and, paradoxically, the blind adoption of foreign ideas.

GJ

About the Author

George Jochnowitz

Featured Tags

The Search for Modern China, by Jonathan D. Spence (Norton, 876 pp., $29.95)

MODERN CHINA is a contradiction in terms. China is imprisoned by the great wall of its past, a past of absolute rulers and violent rebellions, artistic productivity and periodic famines, xenophobia and, paradoxically, the blind adoption of foreign ideas.