This book came to me on a recommendation and was much-hyped, but it wasn’t a slam dunk. The language in spots was a bit too arcane for my liking and the source materials aren’t exactly the kinds of materials I’d pick up for one of my weekend reads. Though Spence’s discipline shines clearly through its lines, I did, however, walk away with a newfound appreciation for the fact that as concerns Western impressions of China, there’s “…nothing new under the sun.” It’s just been playing itself out over the centuries, broken record-style.

Posted via web from Adam Daniel Mezei’s posterous