An urgent, indispensable guide to why Taiwan matters – for China, the West and for everyone’s future\nWhen the bloody Chinese Civil War concluded in 1949 two Chinas were born. Mao's communists won and took China’s Mainland; Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists fled to the island Taiwan. Since then, China and Taiwan have drifted into being separate political and cultural entities.\nTaiwan is now a flourishing democracy, has a successful economy – underpinned by a single company producing 85 per cent of the world’s the beating heart of the world economy – and a free, diverse society. For the US and the West, the island is a bastion of freedom against Chinese aggression in the region. And yet China, increasingly bellicose under Xi Jinping, insists Taiwan is part of its territory and must be returned to it. Should China blockade the island and mount an invasion the US may intervene, leading to all-out war pitching the world’s biggest economies and militaries – China and the US – against each other. Taiwan is thus an explosive powder keg in geopolitical terms.\nWhy Taiwan Matters helps us understand how and why we’ve arrived at this dangerous moment in history – and what we can do to avoid disaster and plot a safe route into the future. With unparalleled access to Taiwan's political leaders and a deep understanding of the country’s history and culture, Professor Kerry Brown provides a new reading of Taiwan, its 23 million people, and how they navigate being caught in this frightening geopolitical standoff. This is the essential book delving into Taiwan’s story, buried behind the headlines, told in an accessible, expert and urgent way.

The Taiwan Story

History

Kerry Brown

Asia

Penguin books, limited

The Great Reversal Britain, China and the 400-Year Contest for Power

Yale University Press

Poppy Wash

Michelle Pike

Sikh Art and Literature

Routledge

Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography 4-Volume Set

Reference

Berkshire Publishing Group

The Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography (1979-2015) provides a riveting new way to understand twenty-first-century China and a personal look at the changes that have taken place since the Reform and Opening Up era started in 1979. One hundred key individuals from this period -- including politicians and government officials, film directors, activists, writers, and entrepreneurs from the mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan -- were selected by an international group of experts, and the stories were written by more than 70 authors in 14 countries.

Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography Volume 4 (B&W PB)

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Berkshire Publishing Group LLC

This Is China is almost certainly the shortest introduction to historic and contemporary China. In the revised and updated second edition, China expert Kerry Brown, director of the King's College London, provides insightful answers to today's questions about the world's newest superpower and offers an engaging framework for understanding its meteoric rise.Jonathan Spence, a professor at Yale University and author of many acclaimed books about Chinese history, writes: It is hard to imagine that such a short book can cover such a vast span of time and space. This Is China: The First 5,000 Years will help teachers, students, and general readers alike, as they seek for a preliminary guide to the contexts and complexities of Chinese culture. The book includes Chinese characters and pinyin for many words, making it useful in language teaching. It can be used in curriculum development and as an adjunct reader in social studies, international relations, international business, and political science courses. This is a well-written and concise compilation of facts about China, helpful to all who are interested in this new relationship. --Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, author of 45 books and America's most famous and trusted sex therapist A seamless and lucid essay on Chinese geography, prehistory, history, and culture. Teaches everywhere will welcome it as a classroom aid and a virtuoso contribution to the genre of short books on China --Gregor Benton, Cardiff University

This Is China: The First 5,000 Years (Kerry Brown, editor)

The Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography (1979-2015) provides a riveting new way to understand twenty-first-century China and a personal look at the changes that have taken place since the Reform and Opening Up era started in 1979. One hundred key individuals from this period were selected by an international group of experts, and the stories were written by more than 70 authors in 14 countries. The authors map the paths taken by these individuals-some rocky, some meandering, some fateful-and in telling their stories give contemporary Chinese history a human face. The editors have included-with the advice of myriad experts around the world-not only the life stories of politicians and government officials, who play a crucial role in the development of the country, but the stories of cultural figures including, film directors, activists, writers, and entrepreneurs from the mainland China, Hong Kong, and also from Taiwan. The "Greater China" that comes through in this volume has diverse ideas and identities. It is often contradictory, sometimes fractious, and always full of creative human complexity. Some of the lives rendered here are heroic. Some are tragic, and many are inspirational. Some figures come in for trenchant criticism, and others are celebrated with a sense of wonder and awe. Like previous volumes of the Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography, this volume includes a range of appendices, including a pronunciation guide, a bibliography, and a timeline of key events.

Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography Volume 4

Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography

Chinese history can be overwhelming, and no one claims to understand in detail more than specific periods of this great sweep of political, social, and economic development. But the world's leading China scholars can, together, tell us the whole story. The Dictionary of Chinese Biography will make this immense history manageable--easier to comprehend and digest--by taking the reader through it in the life stories of key figures who have shaped, influenced, and transformed China. These individuals include emperors, politicians, poets, writers, artists, scientists, explorers and philosophers. This unique and ambitious project is built on the success of the monumental Berkshire Encyclopedia of China, published in 2009. Similar but longer articles--of 5-10,000 words--will make up the Dictionary of Chinese Biography. This is the first time that such an overview will be available in one place, produced by internationally recognized experts, and designed to satisfy the growing thirst for knowledge about China.

Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography Volumes 1-4

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Books by Kerry Brown