The Search for Modern China
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Narrated by:
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Frederick Davidson
About this listen
The history of China is as rich and strange as that of any country on earth. Yet for many, China’s history remains unknown, or known only through the stylized images that generations in the West have cherished or reviled as truth.
With his command of character and event - the product of 30 years of research and reflection in the field - Spence dispels those myths in a powerful narrative. Over four centuries of Chinese history, from the waning days of the once-glorious Ming Dynasty to Deng Xiaoping’s bloody suppression of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, Spence fashions the astonishing story of the effort to achieve a modern China. Through the ideas and emotions of its reformist Confucian scholars, its poets, novelists, artists, and visionary students, we see one of the world’s oldest cultures struggling to define itself as Chinese and modern.
©1990 Jonathan D. Spence (P)2000 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- By: Graham Hancock
- Narrated by: Graham Hancock
- Length: 18 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Fingerprints of the Gods is the revolutionary rewrite of history that has persuaded millions of listeners throughout the world to change their preconceptions about the history behind modern society. An intellectual detective story, this unique history audiobook directs probing questions at orthodox history, presenting disturbing new evidence that historians have tried - but failed - to explain.
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Classic in Historical Mysteries
- By Kelly on 09-05-19
By: Graham Hancock
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The Secret History of Christmas
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Original Recording
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Christmas is the single biggest annual event on the planet, a time for merry-making, over-indulgence, peace, goodwill, and the occasional family row. It’s as comfortable and familiar as a pair of old shoes and yet still glittery and exciting. But what do you really know about it? It’s stuffed full of traditions and rituals that most of us have been observing all our lives without having the slightest idea of where they come from.
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Fascinating and Entertaining
- By Laura Carrington on 11-23-22
By: Bill Bryson
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World War 2 in the Pacific Collection: Across Wake Island, Bataan, Guadalcanal, Corregidor, and Iwo Jima
- Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific, The Saga of Pappy Gunn, On Valor's Side, The Coastwatchers, They Call it Pacific, Joe Foss Flying Marine, South from Corregidor, The Story of Wake Island, & Mission Beyond Darkness
- By: Robert Lackie, General George C. Kenney, T. Grady Gallant, and others
- Narrated by: Museum Audiobooks Cast
- Length: 66 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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This is a nine-book bundle on the Pacific War, the theatre of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and Oceania. The Pacific War saw the Allies pitted against Japan, aided by Thailand and its Axis allies, Germany and Italy. Fighting included some of the largest naval battles in history, and the war culminated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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Good collection, great bargain well worth a credit
- By R. Denton on 08-13-21
By: Robert Lackie, and others
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Black Elk Speaks
- Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux, The Premier Edition
- By: John G. Neihardt
- Narrated by: Robin Neihardt
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Widely hailed as a spiritual classic, this inspirational and unfailingly powerful story reveals the life and visions of the Lakota healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863–1950) and the tragic history of his Sioux people during the epic closing decades of the Old West. In 1930, the aging Black Elk met a kindred spirit, the famed poet, writer, and critic John G. Neihardt (1881–1973) on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
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Tale of tears
- By William Sanders on 01-25-15
By: John G. Neihardt
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Another butcher of the Chinese language
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The content is good but the narrator is terrible
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Excellent analysis
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The Story of China
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On China
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Between 1861 and 1865, the clash of the greatest armies the Western hemisphere had ever seen turned small towns, little-known streams, and obscure meadows in the American countryside into names we will always remember. In those great battles, those streams ran red with blood-and the United States was truly born.
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Indispensable for understanding the US China relationship
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A Brief History of China
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In his retelling of a Chinese history stretching back 5,000 years, author and China-expert Jonathan Clements focuses on the human stories which led to the powerful transformations in Chinese society - from the unification of China under its first emperor, Qinshi Huangdi, to the Mongol invasion under Genghis Khan and the consolidation of Communist rule under Mao Zedong. Clements even brings listeners through to the present day, outlining China's economic renaissance under Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping.
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Succinct and detailed overview of a huge topic
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Modern China (2nd Edition)
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China today is never out of the news: from international finance to human rights controversies, global coverage of its rising international presence, and the Chinese "economic miracle". It seems to be a country of contradictions: a peasant society with some of the world's most futuristic cities, heir to an ancient civilization that is still trying to find a modern identity. This Very Short Introduction audiobook offers the listener an entry to understanding the world's most populous nation, giving an integrated picture of modern Chinese society, culture, economy, politics, and art.
By: Rana Mitter
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Age of Ambition
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As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control.
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Come back when you have a warrant!
- By Neuron on 11-06-15
By: Evan Osnos
What listeners say about The Search for Modern China
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- BH
- 08-30-19
Don’t read tables please
Could have done without literally reading tables aloud. Just summarize the trends in the tables.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Person
- 05-21-21
bad narrator!
Why pick someone who can’t pronounce chinese names to read a book about chinese history? Book is fantastic
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- Delano
- 10-19-12
Excellent book, lazy narrator
This is a classic textbook on early modern and modern Chinese history. I've very happy to see it finally appearing in audio form, and I hope there are more on the way.
I have one complaint: The pronunciation of most of the Chinese names is so wrong that the reader might as well be making up random noises. For example, "zhou" is pronounced "joe," not "zoo," and it matters because "zhou" appears in the names of most Chinese geographic locations outside Beijing and Shanghai. It would take 10 minutes for the reader to learn the absolute basics of how to pronounce Chinese names. By being too lazy to take those 10 minutes, the next 20? 30? hours of audio lose much of their value for any listener who hopes actually to learn something.
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40 people found this helpful
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- Sam
- 10-19-17
Great Narration, Bad Pronunciation
The book is amazing. The narration perfect, at least when using English words. The pronunciation of the Chinese words is very incorrect and distracting if you are familiar with Chinese. With that minor caveat, I heartily recommend this book.
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- David
- 01-03-22
Great history, distractingly terrible pronunciatio
Classic in modern Chinese history but I would have gladly exchanged Davidson's posh RP narration for literally any other narrator who knew how to pronounce Chinese names.
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- John
- 11-28-12
An undisputed classic
This book is epic, narrative history at its absolute best, as it traces the history of China from the time of the late Ming until the present day. In its best moments, it evokes the likes of Edward Gibbon, as we follow the rise and fall of the larger-than-life personalities, from the Chongzheng Emperor to Deng Xiaoping, that dot the historical landscape of the Middle Kingdom. This is one of those rare historical tomes that I would recommend to anyone, regardless of whether one's interest in Chinese history is professional or casual, and regardless of one's level of scholarship. In short, this is a classic of Chinese history, and even, dare I say, a classic of narrative history.
The performance is solid as well, but has some serious problems. Although the reader never lost my attention, his pronunciation of Chinese names is inconsistent and, more often than not, incorrect. The audible edition is nonetheless worth spending a credit on, and comes highly recommended.
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18 people found this helpful
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- The Qing Dynasty
- 10-13-17
Cringeworthy pronunciations of Chinese terms
The male narrator has a magisterial nonrotic British accent suitable for this sweeping history, but the way he botches Chinese terms is distracting and confusing, all the more so for being so easily preventable with a bit of coaching. He apparently has no understanding whatsoever of how pinyin works. Get ready for Empress Dowager KEE-shee, Chen DUK-show, LUK-sion (Lu Xun!), HEE-bayee (Hebei) and other atrocities.
As for the book, it’s good. Spence had lately fashioned himself an annoying belle lettrist, but not yet here.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Jimmer
- 03-19-22
Pronunciations of Chinese names are insultingly bad
This book is just obscene.
The reader is using a posh voice that is clearly mad about the resulting loss of the Opium wars.
His incapable or directly malicious pronunciation of names, both places and people is simply unacceptable.
Frederick Davidson: You have done a disservice to history by providing such an abominable reading.
It’s embarrassing, on behalf of Western Culture, that we are still this incapable of moving on.
I wonder if this guy is still sore about “Burma” as well.
AMAZON: PLEASE REDO THIS BOOK.
NEW READER PLEASE.
The book itself is a powerfully important and valuable one, written by a remarkably notable historian. To hear it in such a format is sad.
I’ll be returning this directly. I simply cannot continue listening to it.
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- Taylor V. Smith
- 02-17-22
Narrator Pronunciation Problems
This was a fantastic book. The courage of Chinese resistors against domestic authoritarianism and foreign invasion is inspiring. My criticism is the narration. It can't take more than a day or two to learn to pronounce pinyin. Yet, the narrator consistently mispronounced names and places, often mangling them so badly that I couldn't tell to whom or where he was actually referring.
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- BJ
- 01-08-21
Good book, Horrible Narration
This is by far the worst narration I have ever experienced. His pronunciation was terrible not only of Chinese names and places but also of Russian, German and others. Even worse, he was inconsistent in his mispronunciation. In a five minute setting you can hear 3 or 4 different pronunciations of the same name. Beyond this, the narrator sounded bored or arrogant. Perhaps he might have a niche career as an aristocrat villain in period pieces, but he has no business reading books.
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