The Sextants of Beijing: Global Currents in Chinese History

Rating:
Summary: Good analysis of western influence in China
Review: Many Westerners have traditionally considered China to be an isolationist culture. They cite the Great Wall being designed to keep out foreigners and resistance to Christianity and the refusal of the McCartney mission in the 1790s to prove this. However, all through history, the Chinese have indeed engaged the world and have been influenced by it. Waley-Cohen does an excellent job of narrating this in her book.

She reveals all through Chinese history how the Chinese adopted religious ideas from overseas (notably India), science (initially from Islamic regions and later Westerners), to the 1960s, when many Westerners assumed that China was closed to the world because it was closed to them. In fact, China was open to other Asians and to Africans.

Waley-Cohen's writing is easily readible and is of value both to the China watcher like myself, as well as the layperson wishing to understand the "Middle Kingdom" a bit better.

Rating:
Summary: Bucking the conventional wisdom of Chinese isolationism
Review: Many Westerners have traditionally considered China to be an isolationist culture. They cite the Great Wall being designed to keep out foreigners and resistance to Christianity and the refusal of the McCartney mission in the 1790s to prove this. However, all through history, the Chinese have indeed engaged the world and have been influenced by it. Waley-Cohen does an excellent job of narrating this in her book.

She reveals all through Chinese history how the Chinese adopted religious ideas from overseas (notably India), science (initially from Islamic regions and later Westerners), to the 1960s, when many Westerners assumed that China was closed to the world because it was closed to them. In fact, China was open to other Asians and to Africans.

Waley-Cohen's writing is easily readible and is of value both to the China watcher like myself, as well as the layperson wishing to understand the "Middle Kingdom" a bit better.

Rating:
Summary: Good analysis of western influence in China
Review: Wonderfully written assessment of the Western Influence in China.