The Shortest History of China
by Linda Jaivin
Description
From kung-fu to tofu, silk to gunpowder, tea to trade routes, ancient sages to contemporary poetry, China has influenced cuisine, commerce, military strategy, aesthetics and philosophy across the world for thousands of years.
Chinese history is sprawling and gloriously messy. It is full of heroes who are also villains, prosperous ages and violent rebellions, cultural vibrancy and censorious impulses, rebels, loyalists, dissidents and wits. The story of women in China, from the earliest warriors to twentieth-century suffragettes, is rarely told. And historical spectres of corruption and disunity, which have brought down many a glorious ruling house, continue to haunt the People’s Republic of China today.
Modern China is, depending on whom you ask, an economic powerhouse, a beacon of urbanisation, a propaganda state and an aggressive geopolitical player seeking world domination. China expert Linda Jaivin distils a vast history into a short, readable account that tells you what you need to know about the Middle Kingdom, from its philosophical origins to its political system, to the COVID-19 pandemic and where China’s future is likely to take the world.
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Rights Information
Rights held: world
Rights sold: UK/Comm ex ANZ (Old Street Publishing)
Endorsements
“A fast-paced and witty survey of China’s past, written with spirit and verve. Jaivin knows her stuff but wears her erudition lightly. Iconoclastic, informative and more attentive to female figures than many comparable works. Highly recommended.” —Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author of Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink
Author Biography
LINDA JAIVIN is an American-born Australian translator, essayist, novelist and sinologist. She has written several works of fiction, non-fiction and criticism, and writes regularly for The Saturday Paper, The Monthly and Australian Foreign Affairs.
Black Inc.
An imprint of Schwartz Books, Black Inc. is a leading independent Australian book publisher of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. We are passionate about diversity, inclusivity, social justice, new ideas and writing which informs, entertains and inspires. We are fiercely independent, but also strongly commercial. We publish local and international commercial mass-market titles under our Nero imprint, and children’s books under Piccolo Nero. Our La Trobe University Press imprint brings leading scholars and exports to deliver books of high intellectual quality, substance and originality. Schwartz Books also publishes the issue-defining journals Quarterly Essay and Australian Foreign Affairs.
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher/Imprint Black Inc. / Black Inc.
- Publication Date May 2021
- Orginal LanguageEnglish
- ISBN/Identifier 9781760641122
- Publication Country or regionAustralia
- FormatPaperback
- Pages208
- ReadershipGeneral
- Publish StatusUnpublished
- Dimensions198 x 128 mm
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