Dimensions
165 x 241 x 29mm
The vastness of China and the antiquity of its culture have both fascinated and troubled the West since their earliest contacts. In The Chan's Great Continent Jonathan Spence, perhaps now the leading historian of China in the English-speaking world, sets out to explore the intricacies of western attitudes as they have developed over centuries of trade, conflict and sometimes edgy co-existence.
His account begins with the writings of Marco Polo in the 1270s and ends with China's modern place in the literature, diplomacy and daydreams of the West. Along the way it examines the impressions of visitors and observers as diverse as Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries Voltaire, Lord Macartney, Henry Kissinger and Mark Twain. It is a story of fantasy, wishful thinking, and occasional insight as generations of westerners struggle with the puzzles of China's culture and with their own preoccupations. The result is as much a portrait of Europe and America's changing ideas about the wider world as it is of China itself.
