Thursday, December 17, 2015

421. American Images of China



It seems that American Image of China is a catchy title as a book. Recently one used the title again for his book published in 2014. History is a study of the past. It is good for a writer do trace back the history of American’s image of China. The author started his description of Americans’ understanding of China from 1776. However, the founders of this country had started their efforts to borrow from Chinese civilization long before 1776. Can a nation's history be cut? Can we understand the whole process of Americans' understanding of China? Clearly, without the examination of the founders great visions on how Chinese civilization could be used to build a new nation in North America, any image of China created after the founding of the United States remains an image of the writer’s own image, even though plus some quotes from some persons. A simple question is, In a book of discussing the image of China, should an author ignore the founders’ image of China?

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