My colleague Drew gave me this book as a birthday gift.  It’s a mini-handbag-sized, 140-page overview of modern China.  I particularly like this quote:

China is a continent, not just a country.  It is a series of identities, some shared, some differentiated, and some contradictory: modern, Confucian, authoritarian, democratic, free, and restrained.  Above all, China is a plural noun. (11)

I found a great video of professor Rana Mitter introducing his book.  (That’s a screenshot below.  Click here to watch the video.  It includes an anecdote about how Chairman Mao pioneered an exercise program involving thrusts for optimal fitness.)

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One Response to Defining Modern China: A Little Book with a Multifaceted Perspective.

  1. [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Matthew Stinson, Leslie Forman and Leslie Forman, Daniel Feldman. Daniel Feldman said: RT @stinson/ @leslieforman: "China is … modern, Confucian, authoritarian, democratic ..China is a plural noun." http://tinyurl.com/yabdgb3 [...]

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