The Sextants of Beijing: Global Currents in Chinese History

By Joanna Waley-Cohen

Book Overview

An inviting history of China from the days of the ancient Silk Road to the present, this book describes a civilization more open and engaged with the rest of the world than we think. Whether in trade, religious belief, ideology, or technology, China has long taken part in fruitful exchange with other cultures. With implications for our understanding of and our policies toward China, this is a must read.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393320510
• ISBN13: 9780393320510
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Good Thesis but boring at times.

There was a time we simply taught that China was isolated from the rest of the world by mountains, seas, deserts, and its own ethnocentrism. More and more we are finding out that this "white lie" of history is an over simplification. The Silk Road, Zheng He, are just two examples of ways China was not as isolated as we used to think. The Sextants of Beijing is a wonderful look (especially in the opening chapters) on just how China was connected to the rest of the world in ways we have overlooked or just did not understand. Personally I felt the later chapters got boring and less interesting, but the first 1/3 of the book is great. For a new look at China read this book and combine it with 1421 and the new biography of Ghengis Khan.

Good analysis of western influence in China

Wonderfully written assessment of the Western Influence in China.

Bucking the conventional wisdom of Chinese isolationism

Many Westerners have traditionally considered China to be an isolationist culture. They cite the Great Wall being designed to keep out foreigners and resistance to Christianity and the refusal of the McCartney mission in the 1790s to prove this. However, all through history, the Chinese have indeed engaged the world and have been influenced by it. Waley-Cohen does an excellent job of narrating this in her book.She reveals all through Chinese history how the Chinese adopted religious ideas from overseas (notably India), science (initially from Islamic regions and later Westerners), to the 1960s, when many Westerners assumed that China was closed to the world because it was closed to them. In fact, China was open to other Asians and to Africans.Waley-Cohen's writing is easily readible and is of value both to the China watcher like myself, as well as the layperson wishing to understand the "Middle Kingdom" a bit better.