I was saddened to read this morning of the death of Jonathan Spence, Yale professor and author of some of my favorite books about Chinese history. Like so many others, I was introduced to the world of Chinese history by his book The Search for Modern China, published in 1991. During my stint in China […]
An Insane Collection
I was recently talking with a Chinese friend in Minnesota who had just returned from a road trip to New York and Washington with her husband. “Tell me something interesting you have observed in your travels around the US this year,” I said to her. “Every little town has a museum,” she told me. “In […]
China in the 1940’s
After yesterday’s post about the China History Podcast, I decided to do some more posts about Chinese history this week. Unless you’re a Chinese or World War II history buff, you may not know that the US military had a fairly robust presence in China during the War. The famous “Flying Tigers” had bases and personnel […]
The Genius that was China
I am currently teaching a course on Chinese history and culture at Taylor University in Indiana. In my class this morning I had the students watch episode 1 of a fantastic (but old — 1990) TV series called “The Genius that was China.” Here is the description of the series, from the Hulu Plus site: […]