了解中国就读一本书《21世纪中的中国》

出版社一个月总要大概寄两三本有关中国的书来让我

给它们说说好话。我会根据一种特别的逻辑来决定要去读哪一本，这种逻辑带点随机性。我会挑那本正好符合我航班飞行时间长度的书。当我从纽约的美国律师协会国际法律组演讲归来的时候，我挑中了那本最棒的书，《21世纪中的中国：每个人都需要知道的所在》。此书由华志坚（Jeffrey Wasserstrom）撰写，有着大概五个小时的阅读篇幅。华志坚在加州大学欧文分校教授中国历史同时也是博客“中国节拍”（China

Beat）的博主之一。

这本书是牛津大学的丛书“人人都需知道的所在”的部分之一。华志坚在赫芬顿邮报里很好地解释了本书的写作目的：

如果说这本新书没有拿那些以前我说过的或写过的来构成

其中部分的话，那是不准确的。我所选择在书中包括的问题很多都是从以前的经历中挑选出来的。过去十年里当我在飞往亚洲的漫长旅程中，经常会有坐在邻座的学生，同事，陌生人来问我问题，在一些宣传活动中会有学校的教师来问我问题，在各个场合都会有一些意想不到的人，他们在听说我就是通过教授和撰写有关中国的内容谋生后，来询问我一

直以来他们都想知道的有关那个国家的事情。写这本书让我有机会能把以前对那些疑问的即席回答加以完善，并将这些完全不同的问题的一系列回答编织成一幅生动的图景，用它来展现出当今中国所处在的状况和她正在前进的方向。与此同时，我也将有机会来解除对中国的普遍误解。我觉得这种误解妨碍了我们有能力去真正地了解那个国家，这个地方确实不可思议地复杂但却绝不是“不可理喻的”（一个用滥了的词总是不加引号地出现在各种人各个场合下的讨论）。

不过那些读过我博客帖子和相关立场下评论的人会觉得，我在最近几年里频繁地在写的都是些非常短的文章，而这本书在某种程度上就是这些短文的一个冗长的版本。（篇幅不小但算不得冗长，就像政治学家谢淑丽在封底所作的那个非常到位的点评一样，本书的长度正好适合你在太平洋的一侧岸边起飞后前往对岸的途中阅读。）确实，我写了不少博客帖子和报纸评论，我这样做多半是因为那些有兴趣了解更多的人常常向我问新问题，有时我又会对其中一些问题有了完全新鲜的看法或者是我感到我中国的一些观点遭到了别人的曲解。

本书的Part I

的标题是“历史遗产”其中分为以下几个章节：

1.思想学派

2.帝制的中国

3.革命与革命者

本书的Part II

的标题是“现在和未来”由以下几个章节组成：

1.从毛时代到今天

2.中美误解

3.未来

书中还有一部分作为“进阶阅读”，写得很深入。最近还不会被出版，只在亚马逊上有一小段评论，不过写得倒很中肯。

“21世纪中的中国”很好得展现出了中国的背景，虽然读起来还是有点平淡。除了介绍中国的背景之外，华志坚还从一种公正的角度讲述了一些重要问题（诸如“台海战争的可能性”）。作者给出了恰当的关注，提醒读者虽然很多中国民众之间竞争惨烈，但她最大的工商企业中的70%依旧是国有的。然而，这本书还是缺乏对于中国未来的具体设想，尤其是她的经济。

这本书只有大概150页，从这一点来判断，这本书写得很了不起。我对中国历史的知识基本来自于一点儿大学时期的课程，后来阅读各个当前的事件让我对相关的历史事件有了简短的接触。而在我读着这本书中的历史部分的时候，我发现这让我把大多过去那些浮于表面的互相脱节的知识在脑中

放在一起进行了一次条分缕析的格式化处理，这让我感到既

舒服又很受益。如果你也并非一个正牌的中国历史专家的话，那么我保证这本书无论是作为一个起步台阶还是温故知新的材料都是恰如其分的。华志坚所做的杰出的工作不仅揭示了过去发生过什么，还解释了它们对今天中国之间的关联和影响。

尽管我常常觉得我对中国的今天已经很熟悉了，我依然欣赏华志坚所摸索出的那些不同时期中国之间的线索。在一些很具争议性的问题，比如西藏问题，他很明显地就试图用一种公平的角度来解释中国的立场以便于让美国民众也能理解。他将西藏和夏威夷类比，而如果夏威夷寻求独立的话，美国人又会怎么想呢？

这不是一本能让你沉溺其中的书，但这是一本会对你有所帮助的书，它能弥补那些你对中国的所知中薄弱的部分并让那些你比较熟悉的部分了解得更为深入。除非你都有了一个中国历史的学位或是这门学科的教授，你都该去读读《21世纪中的中国》。China In The 21st Century. The Book You Must Read. At Minimum/For

Starters. By Dan

Harris on April 15th, 2010 Posted in Recommended Reading

I typically receive (unsolicited) maybe two to

three China books a month from publishing houses hoping for positive reviews. My

decision on which book to read is based on my own somewhat random logic. I choose

the one I believe will best match the length of my flight. I just got back from

speaking at the ABA International Law Section in New York and I picked the

perfect book,China

in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know. The book is by Jeffrey Wasserstrom and it takes maybe five

hours to read. Wasserstrom

teaches Chinese History at UC-Irvine and is also one of the founders of the China Beat blog.

The

book is part of an Oxford University series, “What

Everyone Needs to Know.” Wasserstrom nicely explains the goals of the book

on the Huffington

Post:

It would be inaccurate, though, to claim that there was nothing I’d said or

written that served as a building block for this new book. This is

because the

questions I chose to include were culled largely from the many that have been

put to me during the last decade by students, colleagues, strangers sitting next

to me on long flights to Asia, school teachers at outreach events, and people I

have run into in unexpected places who after learning that I teach and write

about China for a living told me what they had always wanted to know about that

country. The book gives me a chance to refine the off-the-cuff answers I have

given to these queries and try to weave a large collection of responses to

disparate questions into a lively presentation of where China has been lately

and might be headed. In the process, I am also offered the opportunity of

working to unsettle common misunderstandings about China that I feel hinder the

ability to see it for what it is–a place that is amazingly complex

but by no

means “inscrutable” (a word that still shows up far too often, generally without

the scare quotes, in discussions of the place and its people).

In a sense,

then, as those who have read my posts to this blog and commentaries for related

venues will realize, the book can be seen in part as a

long-long-form version of

the often very short pieces of writing I’ve been publishing frequently in recent

years. (Long-form, but not that long, as China in the 21st Century is still

plenty short enough, as political scientist Susan Shirk pointed out in her very

nice endorsement statement for the back cover, to be read

in-flight between

taking off from one side of the Pacific and touching down on the other.) And, in

fact, when I’ve written blog posts or newspaper commentaries, I’ve often done so

in part to try to answer or place into a radically new light a

question put to

me by someone who was curious to learn more or I felt had gotten a distorted

idea about China.

Part I of the book is entitled “Historical Legacies” and it is broken down

into the following subsections:

1. Schools of Thought

2. Imperial

China

3. Revolutions and Revolutionaries

Part II is entitled, “The Present

and The Future” and ot consists of the following subsections: 1. From Mao to

Now

2. US-China Misunderstandings

3. The Future

The book also has a

very thoughtful section on “Further Reading.”

It is either not out yet or

just came out this week and there is only one review on Amazon so far, but it is

quite accurate:

“China in the 21st Century” provides a good background on China, though it is

rather bland reading. In addition to providing background on China, Wasserstrom

also add resses important issues (eg. “Is war likely over Taiwan?”) in a

even-handed manner. The author also brings appropriate focus –eg. reminding

readers that even though intensively competitive, about 70% of its largest

businesses are still state-owned. However, the book lacks any solid projections

for the future –especially China’s economics.

It is only about 150 pages and judged

within that confine, it does an amazing job. My knowledge of Chinese history

comes mostly from a few college courses and from current event readings that

make brief mention of relevant historical events. I found reading the history

section of the book very helpful and enjoyable because it pulled together in a

coherent format much of what had been floating somewhat disjointedly in my head.

If you are anything less than a true China history expert, I guarantee this book

will serve either as a great starting point for you or as a great refresher.

Wasserstrom does a great job explaining both what happened and its

relevance/impact on present day China.

And though I already consider myself

pretty familiar with China today, I enjoyed that section as well because

Wasserstrom does a great job explaining China’s current situation and the

influences of its past. On the more controversial issues, like Tibet, for

instance, he clearly tries to be evenhanded and he also tries to explain China’s

position in a way Americans can understand. He does this by analogizing Tibet to

Hawaii and asking how Americans would feel if Hawaii were to seek

independence.

This is not a book you are going to love, but it is a book that will serve you well and shore up the weak areas in your China knowledge and

reinforce your strong suits. Unless you just got your degree in Chinese history

or are teaching it, <China

in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know is a book you should read.

UPDATE: Adam Daniel Mezei has

done a masterful (and thorough) review of the book in his post, entitled, “Finally,

a Guide for the Perplexed! China in the 21st Century: What Everyone (Yes,

Everyone!) Needs to Know.” I did disagree, however, with Mezei mentioning

how China experts might skip the first half of the book, dealing with China’s

history. Though the first half of the book will seem familiar if you have taken

Chinese history 101, it does serve as a great refresher and if you are no a

Chinese historian, I guarantee there will be some things in there that you have

forgotten or just never knew. I am not one of those people who believes history

predicts everything, but I do believe that knowing a country’s history borders

on essential for knowing the country.

6-7-2010 UPDATE: The Asian Review of

Books just did a nice short review of the book here.

8-26-2010

UPDATE: Xujun Eberlein at Inside-Out

China just did an excellent and very positive review on the book.

10-10-2010 UPDATE Matt Schiavenza just gave it a very good review here标题：China

In The 21st Century The Book You Must Read At Minimum/For Starters

推荐者：异议