Superpower Interrupted
The Chinese History of the World
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
This global history as the Chinese would write it gives brilliant and unconventional insights for understanding China's role in the world, especially the drive to "Make China Great Again."
We in the West routinely ask: "What does China want?" The answer is quite simple: the superpower status it always had, but briefly lost.
In this colorful, informative story filled with fascinating characters, epic battles, influential thinkers, and decisive moments, we come to understand how the Chinese view their own history and how its narrative is distinctly different from that of Western civilization. More important, we come to see how this unique Chinese history of the world shapes China's economic policy, attitude toward the United States and the rest of the world, relations with its neighbors, positions on democracy and human rights, and notions of good government.
As the Chinese see it, for as far back as anyone can remember, China had the richest economy, the strongest military, and the most advanced philosophy, culture, and technology. The collision with the West knocked China's historical narrative off course for the first time, as its 5,000-year reign as an unrivaled superpower came to an ignominious end.
Ever since, the Chinese have licked their wounds and fixated on returning their country to its former greatness, restoring the Chinese version of its place in the world as they had always known it. For the Chinese, the question was never if they could reclaim their former dominant position in the world, but when.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Schuman surveys more than 3,000 years of Chinese civilization in his incisive and approachable debut. Documenting the rise of the Shang dynasty around 1600 CE, the building of the original Great Wall under the Qin dynasty (221 206 CE), the "golden era" of the Tang dynasty (618 BCE 907 BCE), and the launching of 400-foot-long "treasure ships" bearing porcelain and silk to Africa, India, and the Middle East in the 15th century, Schuman highlights "the Chinese self-belief in their own exceptionalism" and the autocratic impulse running throughout Chinese political history. From the Chinese perspective, Schuman writes, losing "superpower status" during the mid-19th century was a "mere blip" in the historical record. He sees the resurrection of Chinese cultural traditions under President Xi Jinping as a replacement for the "communist utopia" that was promised but never delivered, and argues that until the country can reclaim its technological superiority over the West, it will fall short of its goal to return to the top of the global order. Schuman cuts through the cavalcade of names, places, and events with an amiable sense of humor ("After all, barbarians will be barbarians"), though he doesn't break much new ground in analyzing Chinese geopolitical ambitions. Still, this brisk chronicle delivers meaningful context for readers looking to go beyond the daily headlines about China.
