New Books in Chinese Studies

Kerry Brown and Gemma Chenger Deng, "China Through European Eyes: 800 Years of Cultural and Intellectual Encounter" (World Scientific, 2022)


Listen Later

Europeans have been writing about China for centuries–ever since The Travels of Marco Polo described it as a faraway and mystical kingdom. European thinkers like Voltaire and Montesquieu used China to support their own theories of political philosophy, then writers in early modernity tried to explain why China was falling behind–and then, with the rise of Maoist China, how it represented true revolutionary potential.

China Through European Eyes: 800 Years Of Cultural And Intellectual Encounter (World Scientific, 2022), edited by Professor Kerry Brown and Gemma Chenger Deng collects an assortment of these observations written over several centuries, from illustrious writers like Matteo Ricci, Voltaire, Leibniz, Weber, Marx, and Beauvoir.

In this interview, Kerry and I talk about how the way Europeans understood China changed and shifted over eight centuries–and the ways in which they parallel the way we talk about cHina today.

Kerry Brown is Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London. He is an Associate of the Asia Pacific Programme at Chatham House, London, an adjunct of the Australia New Zealand School of Government in Melbourne, and the co-editor of the Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, run by the German Institute for Global Affairs in Hamburg. From 1998 to 2005 he worked at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as First Secretary at the British Embassy in Beijing, and then as Head of the Indonesia, Philippine and East Timor Section. He is the author of almost 20 books on modern Chinese politics.

You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of China Through European Eyes. Follow on Facebook or on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia.

Nicholas Gordon is an associate editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at@nickrigordon.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

New Books in Chinese StudiesBy New Books Network

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

10 ratings


More shows like New Books in Chinese Studies

View all
Economist Podcasts by The Economist

Economist Podcasts

4,197 Listeners

New Books in East Asian Studies by Marshall Poe

New Books in East Asian Studies

57 Listeners

Robert Wright's Nonzero by Nonzero

Robert Wright's Nonzero

581 Listeners

Making Sense with Sam Harris by Sam Harris

Making Sense with Sam Harris

26,332 Listeners

Odd Lots by Bloomberg

Odd Lots

1,855 Listeners

Sinica Podcast by Kaiser Kuo

Sinica Podcast

590 Listeners

Hermitix by Hermitix

Hermitix

343 Listeners

Chinese Whispers by The Spectator

Chinese Whispers

142 Listeners

Pekingology by Center for Strategic and International Studies

Pekingology

127 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,433 Listeners

端聞 | 端傳媒新聞播客 by 端传媒音頻 | Initium Audio

端聞 | 端傳媒新聞播客

87 Listeners

Ones and Tooze by Foreign  Policy

Ones and Tooze

329 Listeners

不明白播客 by 袁莉和她的朋友们

不明白播客

1,108 Listeners

Drum Tower from The Economist by The Economist

Drum Tower from The Economist

344 Listeners

Face-Off: The U.S. vs China by Airwave Media

Face-Off: The U.S. vs China

154 Listeners