The Gate of Heavenly Peace

Summary

An ambitious history of modern China told through the writers, reformers, and revolutionaries whose lives spanned the fall of the Qing through the Cultural Revolution. Spence centers figures like Kang Youwei, Lu Xun, and Ding Ling, treating literature and political thought as inseparable forces in China's upheavals. His narrative method humanized a century often reduced to ideology and statistics for Western readers.