Synopses & Reviews
Written for a broad audience, this book provides a coherent reevaluation of Western ideas about China. It covers perceptions of China from the earliest times through the late 1980s and draws on a range of sources, including literature, journalism, and the arts, to show how changing power relations have influenced Western ideas about China, its people and its history. The book describes in particular how China has served both as a model and as a threat for different schools of thought in the West.
Synopsis
Written for a broad audience, this book provides a coherent reevaluation of Western ideas about China. It covers perceptions of China from the earliest times through the late 1980s and draws on a range of sources, including literature, journalism, and the arts, to show how changing power relations have influenced Western ideas about China, its people and its history. The book describes in particular how China has served both as a model and as a threat for different schools of thought in the West.
Table of Contents
Early western images of China -- Jesuit missionaries and the philosophers -- Nineteenth-century imperialism and China -- The first half of the twentieth century -- Contemporary images of the Peoples's Republic of China, 1949-66 -- The Cultural Revolution, 1966-76: images of a present and past decade -- Images of Post-Mao China, 1976-89 -- Western images since 1989: politics and international relations -- Western images since 1989: economics and society, the future.