Suggested reading for 1st visit to China
 

I'll be traveling to China in Oct/Nov this year and looking for suggestions on some pre-trip reading. Looking for something along the lines of "History of China for Dummies" or "Chiness Culture for Dummies". Sadly my knowledge of Chinese history is pretty limited and I'd like to get a little under my belt before I go to help me appreciate what I'm seeing and learning.

Thanks!

Hi travelgirl, you'll find that most guidebooks have a good chapter on the history of China. In planning my trip, I rented movies including The Last Emperor and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which really were helpful in learning about China, both historically and visually, especially when coupled with doing follow up research on wikipedia etc. Also, Discovery Channel recently aired Behind the Great Wall. Not sure when it will be on again, but you can probably find it on DVD.

China (Blue Guide) by Frances Wood with Neil Taylor, is entirely hopeless as a practical guide, but it begins wiht a concise history, and brief sections on religion, culture, art, architecture, and so on. The entries for individual destinations and sites are rich in cultural background material , but anecdotal and entertaining rather than dry.

Wood is a professional Sinologist and Curator of the Chinese section of the British Library, so the historical and cultural material is actually accurate whereas that in many other guides is highly suspect.

But you'll certainly need a more practical guide if planning any independent travel--the Blue Guide was absurdly outdated back in 2001 when its last edition came out, with some of the hotel recommendations dating back to the first in 1992.

'The Great Wall: China Against The World 1000BC -- AD2000' by Julia Lovell gives good historical material to wrap the story of the Great Wall, in a very readable, pithy, and often tart style. This is the perfect anecdote to the nonsense spouted by guides and official histories, and often very amusing. Lovell teaches Chinese literature and history at Cambridge, so again this is an authoritative source, but written very much for the general reader.

Peter N-H

Have you tried "wikipedia"?

If you are looking for a book something like "History of China for Dummies", then I'd suggest the histories written by Isaac Asimov, who is primarily known for his science fiction writings (Foundation, etc.) Asimov's style is very easy to read and he doesn't overburden readers with too many facts, but gives a wonderful sweeping view of history.

I don't know which of his history books are still available. Check amazon.com, etc. Extremely readable accounts.

A very lucid writer and an excellent scholar to boot is Jonathan D Spence. His "Search for Modern China" is not heavy on "traditional China" but will give you a good idea of the more recent centuries. HUGE volume.

A more readable book is his "Emperor of China," about the K'ang-hsi Emperor, one of the greatest of China's emperors. If you visit any of the historical palaces, such as the Forbidden City, this book will give you a very good idea of what it was like to be living as an emperor in China.

More fun to read are the Judge Dee detective stories written by a Dutchman, Robert Van Gulik. It's like reading Agatha Christie mysteries - or perhaps a better analogy is Umberto Eco -, except that these are set in ancient China and will give you a good idea how the classical Chinese judicial system worked. OTOH, you may find the ancient Chinese world a bit too "strange" to grasp all the nuances of these books, so this may interfer with your full enjoyment of Van Gulik's mysteries.

Other than these, the usual travel books, as Nutella has mentioned, will have a thumbnail sketch of Chinese history.

the Wild Swans will give you an idea of the history of china, through a woman`s eyes. It covers 3 generations of chinese women, all who lived through a lot. Another good autobiograhy is Mao`s Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin. He lived through the cultural revolution, and became a famous ballet dancer, even though when he was selected by a committee, he didn`t even know what ballet was. Both excellent books.

I have a bunch of books highlighted on my blog. Also, I have posted a number of summaries on various destinations in China based on travel experience of me and my family during our posting in China. The blog is at http://travel.chinafinds.com

Anything by John Gittings.

And "Wild Swans", of course.

I also recommend for recent history in fictional form J G Ballard's "Empire of the Sun".

And never go past a Penguin.

If you have time, an excellent book about modern China is:

INSIDE THE RED MANSION by Oliver August, who was Beijing bureau chief for the London Times





http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/bo...mp;oref=slogin

Besides some listed above...enjoyed:

Oracle Bones, Peter Hessler (also read his River Town several years ago)

The Great Wall, Julia Lovell

Two other moving memoirs written by Chinese women -- LIFE AND DEATH IN SHANGHAI by Nien Ching, a heartbreaking story of survival. Also FALLING LEAVES by Adeline Yen Mah.

Check out the book

"When Red is Black"

which is a very interesting book about the changes China is going through.