The Shortest History of China

**‘A fascinating enormously dynamic portrait of a superpower. Essential reading’ JULIA LOVELL‘A fast-paced and witty survey of China’s past ... Iconoclastic informative and more attentive to female figures than comparable works’ JEFFREY WASSERSTROM‘Succinct lucid and with a keen eye for detail this slim book is an indispensable primer on China’ LOUISA LIM****A PACY HISTORY OF CHINA THAT CAN BE READ IN AN AFTERNOON BUT WILL TRANSFORM YOUR PERSPECTIVE FOR A LIFETIME. **From kung-fu to tofu tea to trade routes sages to silk China has inf luenced cuisine commerce military strategy aesthetics and philosophy across the world for thousands of years. Chinese history is sprawling and gloriously messy. It is full of heroes who are also villains prosperous ages and violent rebellions cultural vibrancy and censorious impulses loyalists dissidents and wits. The story of women in China from the earliest warriors to twentieth century suffragettes is rarely told. And historical spectres of corruption and disunity which have brought down many a mighty ruling house continue to haunt the People’s Republic today. Modern China is seen variously as an economic powerhouse an icon of urbanisation a propaganda state or an aggressive superpower seeking world domination. Linda Jaivin distils a vast history into a short readable account that tells you what you need to know from China’s philosophical origins to its political system to the COVID-19 pandemic and where the PRC is likely to lead the world.