thedailychannel.com — recommended books

Sextants of Beijing
by Joanna Waley-Cohen

This is the best book on Chinese history I have ever read. I took a course in East Asian history in college, but until I read Sextants of Beijing there was quite a lot of Chinese history that simply remained unclear for me. I have to admit, after reading the intrudction and conclusion (both quite worthwhile) I skipped right to chapters 6 and 7, which deal with the 20th century. Almost right away, I found out why Paris has such a large Chinese population. And interestingly enough, that both Chou Enlai and Deng Xiau Ping were in Paris as students.

The great thing about Joanna Wale-Cohen's outlook is that it is evidence-based: a good nostrum against unfiltered progaganda. At a time when China is being demonized for human rights violations, attempts at political manipulation and spy-mongering, it's sort of a treat to look at China without the political imprecations of the US Republican party or the fundraising imperatives of the US Democratic Party getting in the way and clouding (or trying to cloud) your vision.

I read the first page of this book out loud to my seven-year old. He liked hearing about the daring pirates of the early fifth century.

Many of the books listed in the "further reading" section were written since I took my course in East Asian history.

China is a huge country with a long history. What's amazing is how much Joanna Waley-Cohen packs into just 250 pages.

If you have ever been interested in China, you definitely ought to consider reading Sextants of Beijing. by Joanna Waley-Cohen. It's a book designed for the general reader, not the specialist, and the design succeeds. It helped me to understand and interpret the importance of China, and I learned 4 or 5 really interesting things on practically every page.

reviewed May 29, 2000