From Mao to Now

Who was Deng Xiaoping? Deng’s first revolutionary experiences were as a student in France in the 1920s, when he developed a lasting friendship with a fellow radical youth named Zhou Enlai (throughout much of the Mao era, the second-most-important person in China) and became...

The Future

Is China bent on world domination? Although Americans perceived the Soviet Union as posing the greatest Cold War-era military challenge, they also periodically feared a “China threat” during those decades. Since the days of Mao, the PRC’s penchant for staging parades showing off its...

US–China Misunderstandings

What is the most common thing Americans get wrong about China? The preceding chapters have drawn attention to some important sources of US misunderstanding of Chinese realities. Discussion of the One-Child Policy, for example, noted a tendency for Americans to treat unintended side-effects of...

Imperial China

What were the main early dynasties? A standard way to break up Chinese history is to start with 221 b.c.e., the year that Qin Shi Huang transformed various small states into something big enough to qualify as an empire. There were earlier...

Schools of Thought

Who was Confucius? Confucius (551–479 b.c.e.) was a teacher and philosopher who lived during the Zhou (Chou 1 ) Dynasty (1045–256 b.c.e.), in what is known as the Spring and Autumn Era (722–476 b.c.e.). As with those of...

Revolutions and Revolutionaries

Who was Sun Yat-sen? Sun Yat-sen has been hailed as the founding father of the ROC and likened to George Washington in more than a few Chinese textbooks. Sun has the rare distinction of having been treated as a hero on both sides of...