China's version of world history is different than ours - much different. 

In their version, the Chinese get their inspiration from their own emperors, ministers, heroes, poets, philosophers, and other historic figures. In a nutshell, Western historic figures were largely irrelevant to China and its history, at least until the 19th century, when China came into military conflict with the Europeans. 

To be sure, China had faced many fierce enemies, lost many wars, and conquered many times. But the Europeans were different. Unlike all its prior enemies, the Europeans did not hold China's civilization in high esteem. 

China views its humiliating losses from the 1830s to the 1940s as a mere aberration, a disruption, of its long and consistent history of being a superpower. 

There is much that we don't know about China. And frankly, as China reaches the status of a global superpower, that's more than a little disconcerting. 

To better understand China’s history and its own perception of its history, I spoke with Michael Schuman, who is a nonresident senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub. He is also a contributing writer to The Atlantic, and was previously a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and Time magazine. His most recent book is Superpower Interrupted: The Chinese History of the World – which we discussed here. His two previous books are Confucius and the World He Created, and also The Miracle: The Epic Story of Asia’s Quest for Wealth. As a journalist, Mr. Schuman has had 25 years of experience in Asia and, for this conversation, he joined us from Beijing. To learn more about Mr. Schuman, you can visit his homepage, the link for which is provided in the detailed caption of this episode.

Below, are links to other episodes about China: 

S2E1: China's real estate, Prof. Shih

I hope you enjoy these episodes.

Adel

Host of the History Behind News podcast

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