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The Search for Modern China

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The Search for Modern China is a history book by Jonathan D. Spence, published by Century Hutchinson and W. W. Norton & Company. The first edition was published in 1990, updated by the second edition in 1999,[1] and the third edition in 2013 with new scholarship.[2]

The first edition chronicles the history of China from the late Ming dynasty (circa 1600) to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.[3][4] Acclaimed for its "narrative techniques" and "wealth of illustrations",[4] the book went on The New York Times’s best-seller list and is widely adopted as a standard text for university-level courses on Chinese history.[5][6]

Contents

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The Search for Modern China narrates China’s trajectory from the late Ming collapse through the Qing rise and crises, the 1911 Revolution and Republican fragmentation, the Sino-Japanese War and Civil War, to the PRC’s Maoist campaigns (Land Reform, Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution) and the post-1978 reform era, ending—via later editions—with the 1990s–2000s market transformation and persistent one-party rule. Across this sweep Spence frames a recurring “search” for modernity—an effort to reconcile indigenous traditions with foreign pressures. Spence stated that he chose 1600 as the starting point so he could "get a full sense of how China's current problems have arisen, and of what resources – intellectual, economic, and emotional – the Chinese can call upon to solve them."[7] According to Spence, the book was about the efforts to create a "Modern China", which he defined as "both integrated and receptive, fairly sure of its own identify, yet able to join others on equal terms in the quest for new markets, new technologies, new ideas." By this definition, Spence held that a Modern China had not yet come into being.[8]

The Search for Modern China was developed from Spence's high-demand lecture series at Yale. Its 1990 publication right after the Tiananmen Square protest draw heightened interest from the public, as it provided valuable historical background and contexts to understand the event. The book adopted "vivid storytelling" of "individual lives and odd moments", unfolding the big picture of Chinese history in small details.[4]

The 1990 edition has a total page count of 876 with 49 maps and 49 tables.[9] There is an additional section for endnotes, as well as a Further Reading section that provides supplementary materials dedicated to each chapter. Munford stated the items of photography "are refreshingly different from the ones that are normally reproduced in Chinese history books", "especially the black and white" ones.[10] Very little hanzi are in the book. According to Munford, the ones there "are so poorly printed as to hardly be legible."[10]

Reception

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George Jochnowitz of National Review wrote that the book had been "highly praised"; Jochnowitz added that he felt this was "deservedly so", citing the "relaxed and natural style" and "fascinating information".[11]

Theresa Munford in Far Eastern Economic Review, praised the book as "well-designed", and described it as "more of a textbook" than The Gate of Heavenly Peace, an earlier work by Spence on Chinese revolutions from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century, which she described as lighter reading.[10]

Vera Schwarcz of The New York Times wrote that Spence's "excellent" book was a best starting point to understand China's past burdens, struggles, and efforts in its modernization. She commended the book's "thematic focus", "wealth of illustrations", and "narrative technique" that were not present in other books of similar topics.[3]

Frank Ching, when commenting on the first edition, stated that of Spence's works, this was "the most ambitious" for its encyclopedic scope.[12]

Arif Dirlik described the book's writing style as an "easy fluency that makes it accessible to the nonspecialist reader."[13]

References

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  1. ^ Spence, Jonathan D. (1999). The search for modern China (2nd ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-97351-8.
  2. ^ Jonathan D. Spence (2013). The Search for Modern China (Third Edition).
  3. ^ a b Schwarcz, Vera (1990-05-13). "CHINA: THE HARD ROAD TO NOW". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2022-08-17. Retrieved 2022-08-16.
  4. ^ a b c Genzlinger, Neil (2021-12-27). "Jonathan Spence, Noted China Scholar, Dies at 85". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2025-05-28. Retrieved 2025-07-21.
  5. ^ Wakeman Jr., Frederic E. "Jonathan Spence – AHA President". historians.org. Retrieved 2025-07-21.
  6. ^ "Memories of a Late Ming Man | Asia Society". asiasociety.org. 2017-07-25. Retrieved 2025-07-21.
  7. ^ Spence 1990, Preface xx.
  8. ^ Ching 1990b, p. 336.
  9. ^ Ching, Frank (1990-05-27). "China's Quest for China : THE SEARCH FOR MODERN CHINA by Jonathan D. Spence (W.W. Norton: $29.95; 876 pp., illustrated; 0-393-02708-2)". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2025-01-04. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  10. ^ a b c Munford, Theresa (1990-10-18). "From Ming to Mao". Far Eastern Economic Review. Vol. 150, no. 42. Hong Kong. p. 42. ProQuest 208179377.
  11. ^ Jochnowitz 1990, p. 43.
  12. ^ Ching 1990b, p. 337.
  13. ^ Dirlik 1992, p. 94.

Bibliography

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  • Ching, Frank (1990b). "Reviewed work: The Search for Modern China, Jonathan D. Spence". Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 30: 336–339. JSTOR 23889775.
  • Dirlik, Arif (1992). "Sisyphus in China". Transition (55): 94–104. doi:10.2307/2934853. JSTOR 2934853.
  • Jochnowitz, George (1990-08-06). "Read China". National Review. Vol. 42, no. 15. New York City. p. 43. ProQuest 229616121.
  • Spence, Jonathan D. (1990). The search for modern China (1st ed.). New York, N.Y.: Norton.

Further reading

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China

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