China: A History (John Keay, 2008)

Over the last 12 months I've read histories of Europe and London, and now I've just finished John Keay's China: A History, which I enjoyed thoroughly. It's strange to enjoy reading a non-fiction book so much I think, I read histories to learn and fictions to be entertained, but Keay really made what could have been a hard slog over a couple of thousand years of history into something I couldn't wait to read. 

I've read lots about modern China in recent articles in The Week and Time magazines, and as far as I can see it's shaping up to be the next super power, so I wanted to learn more about this huge country, about which I knew embarrassingly little. Now I couldn't quote figures, dates and names about Chinese history after reading this book (my memory sucks) but I've got a great overview of what made China into a future world leader. The worlds of the emperors, both ancient and not-so-ancient were vividly brought to life through Keay's accessible prose - he made the often-similar sounding or confusing names of people, peoples, dynasties and places such as the Qing, Manchu, Song or Beijing, understandable. I found this history (for there's a reason it's called 'A History', as Keay explains in the introduction, there have been many histories written through the centuries, and as the adage goes, history is written by the victors, so writing a comprehensive history means teasing out the nuances and biases of the old texts) of China fascinating and compelling - it's amazing what effect internal and external forces have on creating (or destroying) cultures. 

It's amazing how much Keay packs in to just over 500 pages, and my only note of negativity about the book is that the final chapters concerning the birth of Maoism and the People's Republic of China left me a little confused, but I've got a biography sat on the shelf to help me get up to speed. But I think that will wait until another day. I need a change of pace from massive history tomes, as interesting as they are. I see from the front of the book that Keay has written a history of India... I just may seek that out.