AMA'S 5 STAR REVIEW IN SUNDAY TIMES

"A bridge builder between East and West, following ancient archaeological findings, she often dives into historic settings more than 2,000 years back in time.

In her novel the 52-year-old author makes a bold swerve into less-travelled territory. She chooses for her protagonists Ama, an African priestess, living in China’s Macao in the 17th century; Ruben, a Portuguese Jesuit priest; and Fr Benedict, an Orthodox Christian.

The book explores the rapidly-growing Macao, its changing sights, sounds and smells from different perspectives, from that of a bat to a goddess to a spirit. Its miracle and its enigma are within the worlds of inner alchemy of the Age of Enlightenment.”

Check this fascinating tale of History of Ancient China at the Age of Enlightenment exploring the very essence of European vs Chinese Development of Thought #books #readers #readerlife #reading #fiction #historicalfiction #natasapantovic https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06X6GQHT

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A-Ma Amazon Links

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Here is a list of recommended books on eastern and southern Asia. While I have read most of them, in the interests of efficiency I'll just list them without comment.

1. Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 by Romila Thapar

2. A History of Japan (3 vols.) by George Sansom

3. Empires of Ancient Eurasia: The First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE–250 CE by Craig Benjamin

4. The Mongols by David Morgan

5. The Mughal Empire by John Richards

6. Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1545-1879 by Noel Perrin

7.  The Search For Modern China by Jonathan D. Spence

8.  The Making of Modern Japan by Marius B. Jansen

9.  White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India by William Dalrymple

10. The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857 by William Dalrymple

11. Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941 by David C. Evans and Mark R. Peattie

12  The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War by Jeremy A. Yellen

13.  Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941-1945 by Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper

14. Freedom at Midnight by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins

15. India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guh

16. Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China by Ezra Vogel

In the century that followed the Opium War Britain exerted a predominant influence in many areas of China. Their merchants sold goods irrespective of governmental objections, their missionaries enjoyed a privileged status to carry out their work, and their officials collected customs duties to fill British coffers rather than those of the Chinese. Much of this began to change in the 1920s, as anti-imperial riots and strikes prompted the beginning of a gradual reduction in Britain's imperial presence in the country.

As Phoebe Chow argues, however, to begin the story of Britain's imperial "retreat" in the 1920s misses a good deal of the process. Her book, which offers an examination of British attitudes towards China in the early twentieth century and their influence on policy, offers a strong argument for dating the beginnings of this withdrawal earlier, to the start of the twentieth century. Though Britain began it having just participated in the successful suppression of the Boxer Uprising, as she notes there were already arguments in favor of reducing a baleful influence on China. One early reflection of this was the campaign against selling opium to China, one which led to the phasing out of the trade in 1907. These arguments gained greater momentum in the aftermath of the First World War, when Britain's weakened economic position led to calls to reassess their presence in China. The May Thirtieth Movement thus served as confirmation for these skeptics, helping to push the British government to a disengagement that was well underway by the end of the 1920s.

By intertwining popular attitudes with policy formation, Chow provides readers with an interesting look at Anglo-Chinese relations at a pivotal point in both countries' histories. Yet her thesis leads her to focus more on the advocates of retreat rather than on the defenders of Britain's position in China, which imbalances her coverage of the debate; moreover, the degree of coverage of the other side of the relationship -- the Chinese and their perspective on the British presence -- lacks anywhere near the level of detail Chow brings to her analysis of the British, This latter deficiency, however, is perhaps understandable given the differences in archival resources, and doesn't diminish the value of Chow's book as a study of the British declension from their empire in Asia.

Over the course of the 19th century, China found itself facing the growing encroachment of their sovereignty by the Western powers. With the government unable to respond effectively to the challenge of economic exploitation and missionary activity, a grassroots movement sprang up in the countryside as the century came to an end. Dubbed the Boxers, they embodied the frustration that many Chinese felt with the privileges enjoyed by Westerners and Chinese converts to Christianity, which they expressed with attacks on both groups. These attacks culminated with assaults on the foreign legations in Beijing in June 1900, which prompted the Western powers to set aside their rivalries to mount a multinational relief effort that captured the imperial capital and forced a humiliating series of concessions from the imperial government.

David SIlbey's book is far from the first work on the subject. Yet it is among the best as an introduction to the event, thanks to Silbey's clear writing and lucid analysis. He does a good job of explaining the underlying issues at play, both between the Chinese and the West and among the Western powers themselves. In doing so, he sets the Rebellion squarely within the context of contemporary events, helping readers better understand the whys and hows of the rising and its outcome. Though Silbey's favoring of English-language and translated sources limits the depth of his coverage, these limitations are understandable, and don't detract from his book's usefulness as a primer to a dramatic episode in the history of both China and Western imperialism.