This is as it says on the tin: a very brief history of China, organised chronologically/by dynasties. Linda Jaivin does push back against the tendency for such political/economic histories to exclude women's voices and experiences. Women's role in shaping Chinese society is readily acknowledged here, and Jaivin makes good use of poetry and literary references to add some shading and depth to her narrative. I did find the prose a little choppy at points, and transitions between topics could have been smoother. But for a quick, big-picture introduction to Chinese history, this is solid. ( )

I discovered Five Books at Twitter and have been keeping an eye on it ever since as a useful guide to book recommendations on non-fiction subjects. (Fiction, not so much.) Their website describes what they do as...

... a library of knowledge, curating book recommendations on any topic. Experts recommend the five best books in their subject.

So when their China expert recommends Linda Jaivin's The Shortest History of China, you know it must be pretty good to have been chosen from amongst hundreds to be one of the five. By 'good', I mean 'authoritative' because I can only judge whether the book is interesting or well-written. I have no expertise to judge whether it gives an accurate picture of China or not.

The Shortest History of China is a remarkable feat. In only about 250 pages, it covers China's ancient beginnings to the present day, beginning the history of our powerful neighbour with one of its creation stories:

Far, far back in time, a popular Chinese creation story tells us, primal chaos congealed into an egg, in which the complementary cosmic energies of Yin and Yang thickened around a hairy, horned giant called Pángû. Eighteen thousand years passed. Pangu hatched fully formed, holding an axe, with which he hacked apart the Yin 陰 and Yang 陽. The Yin became the earth beneath his feet, and the Yang, the sky. As he grew taller, he pushed the two further and further apart. After Pangu died, his flesh turned to soil, his sweat to rain and his breath to wind. His blood flowed as rivers and seas. His eyes became the sun and the moon. From his hair sprung plants and trees, and the fleas in his fur became animals and people. (p.10).

Beginning in this way signals that the book is a cultural history, much more than just a timeline of dynasties and a catalogue of events.

When I was at school, we learned about the ancient civilisations of the Middle East: the Sumerians and the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans. These days, the Year 7 Australian Curriculum (V8.4) mandates a general overview of the ancient world (Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Greece, Rome, India, China and the Maya) and students then learn in detail about one Mediterranean civilisation: Egypt or Greece or Rome, and one Asian civilisation: India or China. My guess is that there are many students who find Jaivin's history very useful indeed.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/02/17/the-shortest-history-of-china-2021-by-linda-... ( )

לכאורה אמביציה בלתי אפשרית. תולדות סין במשך אלפי שנים ב 280 עמודים על ידי לא סינית. אבל למרות זאת הצלחה לא קטנה - קריא, מעניין, ומלמד הרבה, ביחוד לאחד כמוני שלא ידע דבר על הנושא ( )

An incisive summary of 2000 years of Chinese history in one small paperback. Some of the endless feuding of rival clans gets a bit boring in the first few chapters - but I guess it was a bit more tiresome to the millions who had to live through it! In more recent centuries I learned new things about some of the depredations visited upon Chinese civilisation by invading outsiders. Towards the end of the book Jaivin stands up for Chinese civilization against the currently ruling version of an intolerant CCP. Not a must read but the book does better than most at summing up so much history in one small book.