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Title: God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan by Jonathan D. Spence ISBN: 0-393-31556-8 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: January, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.42 (19 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Fascinating
Comment: The first book by Jonathan Spence I have managed to finish--he is an author I come across constantly, but I have not until now really enjoyed him--God's Chinese Son is admittedly not splendidly written. The narrative seems distorted and "out of focus" at points, depending on Spence's personal interest in textual evidence. But the Taiping Rebellion is such a bizarre and engrossing episode in world history that it deserves to be read, even if there are better academic studies of it out there. I must recommend it to anyone intrigued by religion and messianic movements, and one does learn a lot about the impact of Western technology and economic power on 19th century China in general. From a purely military standpoint, the strategy and wonderfully fluctuating political dynamics behind the rebellion are also worth looking at--an interesting coincidence that the American Civil War was going on at the same time. I cannot say this book reveals anything profound about contemporary China, but it is a good old epic story with eccentric personalities everywhere.
Rating: 3
Summary: unsatisfying, but not a failure
Comment: With this book, Jonathan Spence has brought us another accessible look into Chinese history - this time the revolutionary Taiping movement of the mid-1800s, which nearly overturned the entire Chinese ruling order and set in motion changes that would ultimately cause the dynasty to fall.
What I was expecting with this book was a popular overview of the Taiping movement, written with Spence's usual eye for interesting detail. In some ways this is what the reader gets: a narrative packed with contextual information on popular religion, reconstructions of what it was like to live through the rebellion, and descriptions of the involvement of Westerners. Yet there are major gaps in the story too: the perspective of the Qing dynasty and how it was able to turn back the Taiping threat, the successes and failures of the Taiping social and economic program, and the rebellion's impact on culture and politics in China are all nearly completely absent from the story.
Ultimately the lack of attention to these issues left me dissatisfied with the book, even if Spence warns the reader from the beginning that he is not writing comprehensively. But even his stated focus, "the mind of [Taiping leader] Hong Xiuquan", can't explain his excessive attention to Westerners. Though the transmission of Christianity is obviously a key factor, it's hard to understand the need, for example, to devote an entire paragraph to the names and characteristics of European pet dogs who had been killed by starving Chinese refugees. One suspects that Spence is trying to give his readers a familiar anchor in an alien world; unfortunately, this merely distracts from more central issues while reinforcing our eurocentric cultural biases.
Spence's decision to forego analysis and evaluation in favor of straightforward narrative was also disappointing since the Taiping rebellion offers such fertile ground for interpretive work. But in spite of my complaints, reading this book was hardly a waste of time. Spence has given us a window into a movement virtually unknown in the West, but which was centrally important to late imperial Chinese history.
Rating: 2
Summary: a slog doesn't begin to describe....
Comment: For all of Prof Spence's scholarly research - I got a better understanding of the Taiping from Flashman and the Dragon!
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Title: The Search for Modern China by Jonathan D. Spence ISBN: 0393307808 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War by John W. Dower ISBN: 0394751728 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 12 February, 1987 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Treason by the Book by Jonathan D. Spence ISBN: 0670892920 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild ISBN: 0618001905 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer ISBN: 0471265179 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 18 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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