150+ critical reviews of books on China's rise, by the author of Modern Japanese Novelists
In Volume One
* The Two Coronavirus Scandals, the uncanny similarities in how both SARS (2003) and Covid (2019 onwards) were handled by the Chinese government.
* The Party, Xi Jinping, and the Modern Era.
* China Gets Rich, from the first hints of policy change in the early 1980s to the embrace of rampant capitalism in later years.
* China's Police State, with its incredible arsenal of surveillance tools and Artificial Intelligence.
* China's Critics. Are they right? And why do Western politicians consistently fail to develop an effective China policy?
* China's Periphery, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, the South China Sea, Southeast Asia, and beyond.
* Mao Zedong and Marshal Zhu De, their remarkable life-stories.
* The Long March, with vivid first-hand accounts of some who took part.
* Closing the Missions, how China severed the connection with Western religion and morality.
In Volume Two
* First-hand accounts from Shanghai before the "Liberation".
* 10 books by or about the China Hands - leading journalists and diplomats based in China between the two world wars. Did they cause us to "lose China"? You decide!
* A brief but engrossing dive into China's Distant and Not-So-Distant Past, leading up to the Taiping Uprising of the mid-19th century - which portended the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
* A selection of Overviews about China and its people.
* The Criminal World and its roots in secret societies.
* Chinese Spies at home and overseas, including the extensive influence operations now being conducted.
* Fleeing and Staying, the stories of those who fled Red China, and those who chose to stay.
* Miscellaneous Memoirs, autobiographies by both Chinese and foreigners, including the incredible tale of Sidney Rittenberg who played cards with Mao, promoted the Cultural Revolution, served two sentences in jail, yet somehow lived to tell his story to an accomplished biographer.
In Volume Three
Volume Three takes us to a new level of understanding with chapters on:
* The Cultural Revolution.
* Dissidents, including two works by cosmologist Fang Lizhi.
* The inside story of Tiananmen 1989 with books by participants and observers.
* A chapter on Intellectuals, including studies of two books by philosopher-sinologist François Jullien.
* Novels and Stories, critical essays on 10 books of literature, including works by Lu Xun, Ding Ling, Shen Congwen, Wang Zengqi and Yu Hua.
* In the chapter on Visitors, we get the reaction to China by foreigners like Ernest Hemingway, Arthur Miller and Bertrand Russell.
* Two final chapters examine the relationship between America and China, and - as a add-on, there's a deeper exploration of certain events in the 20th century in W.H. Donald and the Sian Incident, during which Donald was a key player during some of the great turning-points of world history.
The 3-volume series
In these three volumes of in-depth reviews and commentary, John Lewell, author of Modern Japanese Novelists (Kodansha, New York & Tokyo, 1993), takes the reader on a journey of exploration, concentrating on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, but with some dives into China's distant and not-so-distant past. You can read the essays in any order, but it's a good idea to start with Volume One. It contains the author's Introduction to the series, while Volume Three has the complete series Bibliography.
Unashamedly a book-lover with a preference for printed works, the author has included a bonus for readers of the paperback and hardback versions: several added pages of key quotes from each essay, grouped together in the Appendices.
A Message from the Author
"Although some people in the West are beginning to understand China, no one can do it without reading books, especially books by authors who've had first-hand experience of living for long periods on China's mainland. But who today, apart from scholars and specialists, can spare the time to read so extensively?
"I've spent three years putting together My China Library and I'd now like to share my discoveries with people who don't wish to read 150+ books. Yes, My China Library itself is quite a "big read," but it's a whole lot shorter than the physical library on which it is based. Maybe my selection wouldn't have been yours, but among the works I've chosen are many that provide essential insights into how China has become what it is today: "the world's factory," with a multitude of environmental, political, and social problems - and unusual ways of dealing with them.
"Collectively, the Chinese and Western authors of the books in My China Library have spent over a thousand years in modern China. That's a lot of experience! Yet many of the books are either banned or hard to obtain in China - and some are out of print and expensive to buy in the West. I think it's fair to say that a person reading the three volumes of My China Library will be able to reach a more accurate impression of events over the past century than is held by most Chinese citizens themselves."
"Your American medicine heals the body but it poisons the heart!" - Captain Fu, in Bird of Sorrow, by John Romaniello.
"Trying was not enough. You had to succeed...."
- Woman Wang, quoted by Sun Shuyun, in The Long March.
"...there are no trivial matters in diplomacy..."
- Zhou Enlai, quoted by Peter Martin in China's Civilian Army.
"I graduated from the University of Outlaws."
- Mao Zedong, quoted by Li Zhisui, in The Private Life of Chairman Mao.
"I wanted them [the Communists] to win."
- John S. Service, in The China Hands' Legacy, ed. Paul Gordon Lauren.
"Even my secret-police minder felt sorry for me."
- Chinese poet and author Liao Yiwu, in Bullets and Opium.
On Amazon, now
View or buy: My China Library, from - amazon.com | amazon.co.uk | or from other Amazon stores worldwide.
Critical acclaim for the author's earlier book Modern Japanese Novelists
"The considered response of a sensitive and independent-minded reader to his encounter with virtually a hundred years of literary tradition." - Professor Thomas Rimer, University of Pittsburgh.
"Loaded with original insights. Readers will be provoked, challenged, and forced to rethink their earlier readings. Recommeded equally to the newcomer and to seasoned scholars in search of fresh stimulus." - Makoto Ueda, Stanford University.
"Lewell provides just the right balance between biographical information and enlightening interpretations of the major works of modern Japanese fiction."
- Van C. Gessel, Brigham Young University.
"...excellent reference material for those who need to know more about Japanese writers and their literary groupings. What's great about this collection of mini-essays/bios is that it gives one a foundation to start with when reading contemporary Japanese literature." - Tosh Berman, publisher, on Goodreads.
