Based on a series of lectures given by Professor Jenner in New Zealand shortly after Tianenmen Square in 1989, this book examines the peculiarities of Chinese history, and of the unique burden that history places on present-day China, which the author sees in a state of serious crisis, possibly even of potential collapse.

The Tyranny of History: The Roots of China's Crisis (Penguin History)

History

JENNER, W.J.F.

Asia

Penguin Group USA

Modern Chinese stories; (Oxford paperbacks, 222)

Literature & Fiction

Short Stories & Anthologies

Oxford U.P.

Text: English, Chinese (translation)

Modern Chinese Stories (English and Chinese Edition)

Oxford Univ. Pr.

Two young Chinese journalists conduct sixty interviews in the Studs Terkel mode, with Chinese of all ages, backgrounds and standards of living, from those who have lived through 20th century China from the Manchus to the new free-markets, to today's youth.

Chinese Lives

Sang, Ye

Davin, Delia

Zhang, Xinxin

Pan/Macmillan

Photographs from the Magnum archives reveal diverse aspects of China during the past fifty years, including landscapes and peoples, years of war and strife, the turbulent years under Mao, and today's new phenomena

CHINA

Pantheon

China: a photohistory, 1937-87

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

Thames&Hudson

Over a quarter of the human race lives within the borders of China, the empire that has outlasted all its rivals from the Roman to the British. But, claims the author of this sweeping and provocative study, the Chinese empire is in terminal crisis, a crisis that goes much deeper than the decline of the current regime and threatens the survival both of China as a unified state and of the high tradition and culture that span more than three thousand years. According to Professor Jenner, China has been both held together and held back by the tyranny of its history, by a culture and an education system that have always looked back, have rooted authority in the past and have inhibited creative thinking. Although in this century the orthodoxy has borrowed the language of Marxism, 'revolutionary' history has contrived to celebrate the authoritarian values of the imperial bureaucracy and the single orthodox tradition of pre-revolutionary China. The tyranny of China's past is not simply a matter of history and politics, however, but derives equally from the Chinese writing system, which is inherently authoritarian, and the Chinese family, which inhibits both individuality and a sense of citizenship and provides the building blocks of the autocratic state. The very successes of pre-modern China's productive technology have left the present with an ecological nightmare that recent economic growth has only exacerbated. This remarkable book, by a very experienced observer of Chinese history and culture, greatly deepens our understanding of recent events and the challenge of the future. Democracy, though appealing as a slogan to some Chinese, will not easily find a place in the China that W.J.F. Jenner portrays. Yet he also sees hope as the tyranny of China's past and the unity of the Chinese imperial state begin to unravel and the many local components of the Chinese world assert their own identities and defend their own interests.

The Tyranny of History: The Roots of China's Crisis

Viking Adult

Journey to the West (6 Volumes)

CIPG

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Books by JENNER, W.J.F.