Kerry Brown, a leading China scholar based in London, discusses the challenges of 2020 and the growing need to understand China and its history. Berkshire first published This Is China: The First 5,000 Years in 2010. Professor Brown has now updated the book in a second edition with a new chapter on recent developments.
Listen to the podcast to hear why are stories so important in understanding China, and how the chapter “China Today” might easily be called “Xi Jinping’s China.” As Brown explains, “If China is going to be more significant and prominent, which is almost certain, if we’re going to have arguments with China, we may as well know what we’re talking about.” In the book itself, he provides insightful answers to today’s questions about the world’s newest superpower and offers an engaging framework for understanding its meteoric rise.
Length: 22 minutes. Subscribe via RSS or iTunes.
“A seamless and lucid essay on Chinese geography, prehistory, history, and culture. Teachers everywhere will welcome This Is China as a classroom aid and a virtuoso contribution to the genre of short books on China” Gregor Benton, Cardiff University.
Kerry Brown is professor of Chinese Studies and director of the Lau China Institute, Kings College in London. Previously, he was professor and director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Brown is the author of many books, including What’s Wrong with Diplomacy: The Case of the UK and China and CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping. He is editor in chief of the Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography, and of the forthcoming second edition of the Berkshire Encyclopedia of China.
Karen Christensen is the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Berkshire Publishing Group and a writer specializing in sustainability and community with a focus on China. One of her current projects is with George R. Goethals and Crystal L. Hoyt of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond, as coeditor of Women and Leadership: History, Concepts, and Case Studies.
More at Berkshire Bookworld
In a previous episode recorded in November 2016, we talked to Professor Brown about Brexit, UK-China relations, anti-globalization, and dealing with the China that is, rather than the China we might have been hoping for. Both podcasts will be useful to teachers, scholars, and business professionals concerned about China’s role in the global community.
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