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 enlarge | Author: Simon Winchester
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  41 reviews
Sales Rank: 1565
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0060884592
Dewey Decimal Number: 509.2
EAN: 9780060884598
ASIN: 0060884592
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
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| Customer Reviews:
 This is a fascinating story! August 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Joseph Needham was a bright, elegant, sophisticated scientist with an impeccable pedigree. His work in Cambridge was in biochemistry, a profoundly intense field, and he was a huge and influential success. He was a freethinking intellectual, however, who had predilections for both the decidedly base love of nudism and unique brands of folk dance. With this wide range of interests, he attracted a great deal of attention from colleagues and friends --- and, although married at the time, lovers as well. In 1937 he met Lu Gwei-djen, a Chinese scientist, and they embarked on a long-term, long-distance relationship that first brought him into contact with his beloved China.
Simon Winchester, esteemed author of THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMEN, brings Needam's story and the love that created his most lasting accomplishments to light with profound research and remarkable emotional acuity in THE MAN WHO LOVED CHINA.
Winchester is not exactly a flowery writer, but he somehow manages to tell historical tales about deep-thinking men and women through their emotional entanglements. It is this delving into the souls of these high-flying intellectuals that THE MAN WHO LOVED CHINA finds its center. Needham is a fascinating character, and Winchester wastes no words in relaying his most fervent desires to understand the "middle kingdom" at a time when China and its eons-old culture was an exotic and strange mystery yet to be solved. From the first chapters, where the foundation is laid for the love that Needham and Gwei-djen shared, to the thrilling episodes of Needham's rough-and-ready travels as a stranger in a strange land, Winchester manages to extrapolate the warmth and heartfelt desire Needham had to mine both in the hearts and minds of the fantastic culture that he brought to light.
In the early part of the 20th century, the many inventions and creative traditions of the Chinese culture and its history were not yet given credit by the masters of industry from First World nations. It was into this morass of misinformation that Needham strode, holding fast to his convictions that Chinese technology and inventions --- which included the compass, suspension bridges and even toilet paper --- were making a quiet but significant mark on the world-at-large. His great tome, SCIENCE AND CIVILISATION IN CHINA, tried to put a face to the timeline of Chinese innovation, and by the time he died, he had created 17 volumes of remarkable information that not only proved his convictions but ensured his spot in the world history books.
Needham's passion is matched by Winchester's sharp and easy-to-read richness of language and scene. They are a perfect pair, and THE MAN WHO LOVED CHINA is a thrilling story of yet another eccentric who looked into the void and pulled forth a work built on lust, desire, love, passion and sheer academic brilliance. This is a fascinating story!
--- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano
 Winchester's book-length author's bio of Needham and his opus shortchange both August 17, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Biography of Joseph Needham reads something like an extended review of his epic opus "Science and Civilization in China" (24 volumes to date, starting in 1954, and still in progress). Everything in the biography points to this life work, but then at the point when a more extended description and review of this manifold work is in order, Winchester steams to his finish with a chapter describing a political pothole Needham created for himself in the deepest part of the coldest-War McCarthy era, and then a chapter about the end of his career and his final decline and death.
So while Needham's story is fascinating, I left it feeling shortchanged and wanting to know more about both Needham and his book. He was a lifelong small-"s" socialist and even small- "c" communist (and constant supporter of Mao and his Communist revolution), but never a Communist. Yet he appeared to be an unwitting dupe of an anti-American plot that subsequently unclassified Chinese, Korean, and Russian documents have revealed were pure Cold War propaganda set pieces. At least Winchester concludes Needham's unwitting dupehood (dupeness? dupicity?), but I was left wanting to know more about the incident from British archives or other sources (in Winchester's defense, he found during his research that American archives on the incident were still classified at the time of writing).
I would have also have liked to know more about the fact-gathering trips around China made by Needham during his first five-year sojourn there (for example, maps showing key cities and points of discovery on his various routes would be nice), and about subsequent trips made to China on similar fact-finding missions.
Finally, I was left wanting to know more about Science and Civilization itself. Winchester clearly states Needham's purpose in planning and writing of the book: first to document China's many historic firsts in discovery and invention to counteract Western intellectual laziness and presumptive (and spectacularly wrongheaded) NIH snobbishness, and second to answer the question of why, approximately 500 years ago) Chinese inventiveness ground to a halt.
But I want to know more about the product itself. For example, a family tree of the books' titles, volumes, and sub-volumes, and tables of contents would be interesting, and perhaps brief sketches of highlights of each volume. An appendix listing the titles, publication dates, authors and coauthors (nearing the end of his long working life, Needham realized he would be unable to complete the vast work he had envisioned, and subcontracted out writing of sections and entire volumes to other authors) would also be nice.
And finally, while the comparison to the Oxford English Dictionary and the Dictionary of National Biography is briefly mentioned, as all three are vast multi-volume encyclopedic works that grew out of one man's vision, it would be interesting to know more about these parallels. Particularly interesting, and curiously missing in light of Winchester's earlier bestseller The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary are more parallels to that great work. Surely, in researching and writing these two books Winchester found many more interesting parallels and ideas of concordance and apposition than the brief mention he gives here.
In short, while this was not a bad book, I was left a bit frustrated by these inadequacies, especially from such a well-read and criticly-acclaimed writer.
I Loved "The Man Who Loved China" August 12, 2008
I have recommended this CD set to everyone I think would be interested. This is the story of a brilliant man, a scientist, with an avid curiosity about all aspects of life, but his passion becomes China, her language and her past. Joseph Needham was a Cambridge scholar, a lover of women, an adventurer and wrote the definitive volumes on the scientific contributions China made to civilization. If this sounds dry, believe me, it isn't. Narrated by the author, Simon Winchester, it is written with humor,elegance, and a genuine admiration and enthuiasm for this unique man. Winchester's narration is as crisp and brilliant as his writing. I actually think it is better to hear this book than to read it as his pronunciation of Chinese names and cities is flawless and unless one is familiar with China these strange names could prove stumbling blocks in the reading.
Keys to China August 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
At a recent Book Club MeetUp, we ended with a discussion of our own minority experiences. As a good proportion of Silicon Valley's residents are from Mainland China, Taiwan and India, several of the participants were dark-skinned Indians and at least one was Chinese. Towards the end of our time together a Chinese woman spoke up for the first time to announce in a soft voice that she was, in her words, "a racist".
We were astonished. But she was not kidding.
"I believe the Chinese people are inferior to Westerners," she said very clearly. Then she explained that since she had come to the U.S. in 1989, she has seen how advanced this country is compared to China.
We were taken aback and hastened to assure her that we respected China for its ancient civilization and its increasing industrial and technical prowess. But as she spoke I thought, all we hear about China is the Tiananmen Square, the cruel Cultural Revolution, starvation and political repression.
I had already planned to read "The Man Who Loved China", by Simon Winchester. Spurred by that 'racist' comment- a confession of humiliation, perhaps- when I checked the book out of my local library I plowed through the many, many details of Needham's academic career.
A scholar obsessed with all things Chinese and an ardent socialist, Joseph Needham devoted his entire career as an Oxford don to living in and traveling through China from 1943 through the Mao years, dallying along the way with attractive Chinese women- never fully described, darn it- apparently tolerated by his English wife.. The result of his endeavors? Several volumes, the sine qua non on China's intellectual and scientific, geographic, anthropologic, religious and social history. Fascinating, yes. But as I neared the end of this mighty tome, I despaired that nothing in this man's life story would make that Chinese woman feel proud of China today.
However, when I reached the epilogue my efforts were richly rewarded. In this chapter Winchester describes both China's 'attitude' of absolute superiority, of not needing anything from the west. He lists the various theories for this: national personality characteristics; the many western military invasions; the `it's too big to govern or feed itself'; structural, philosophical and so on. The not needing is the key to Chinese humiliation. They really did and do believe they are superior. As Christians feel superior to non-Christians, as Muslims feel superior to Christians and I might say, as Jews feel superior to everybody. Everybody wants that `respec', man.
Winchester says we won't be hearing much about `humiliation' in the future because that old attitude of isolated superiority was already changing in 1989. Now China has opened its gates. It has to: ChinaMobile has over a half a billion cell phone subscribers and adds thousands every week. Good-bye Chinese humiliation, hello China Number ONE: at the Games and in technology, manufacturing and art and science and everything the West is good at. Winchester says isolationism was only a short phase- three hundred years- in a the longest living civilization on earth.
This new Leap Forward won't take long. A look at the long appendix listing China's remarkable inventions from time immemorial- the compass, gunpowder and the printing press for starters, not to mention a thirteenth century protoairplane- is worth the entire book. We are just beginning to feel the power of this vast and brilliant people as they gather themselves, and us, along with the rest of the world, into the shape our common future.
REVIEW OF SIMON WINCHESTER'S THE MAN WHO LOVED CHINA BY JOHN CHUCKMAN August 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a good read. Simon Winchester provides a tight and fairly vigorous story of the remarkable man, Joseph Needham.
Needham was a brilliant man, gifted in science and languages. He was also a genuine non-conformist, both in his personal life and in political affairs, and he had the fabled abilities of a great scholar to sit for all hours of the day, day after day, analyzing ancient texts and writing world-recognized works about what he discovered.
Needham had the good fortune of being appointed by the British government, as a scientist of world reputation, on a mission to unoccupied China during World War II. His task was to contact as many Chinese academics as possible and help them obtain the resources, provided by the British government, they needed to carry on their work. This was both war-time assistance and an investment in future relations.
As in any effort he undertook, Needham quickly went to work with great vigor. He made a couple of epic journeys across large stretches of China and a number of smaller ones. He contacted many people of note, helping scientists and scholars obtain equipment and supplies to keep their efforts going under the great privations of war.
But, at the same time, he also did something else very important. He collected, wherever he found them and could purchase them, ancient Chinese texts which went back to England with him. Very early the idea struck him of writing a scholarly work on the ancient contributions of China to technology and science.
Needham was such an impressive intellect and so clearly in love with China - he typically wore gowns styled after the gowns worn by Chinese scholars and spoke fluent Mandarin and was bursting with enthusiasm about the things he saw and discovered - that a number of Chinese who only met him briefly were motivated to collect, long after he went home to England, and send him great quantities more of truly precious historical materials.
Needham's great project, a virtual encyclopedia of the history of Chinese science and technology, was never finished by him, but the volumes he did write were immediately embraced by the academic world as important new contributions to knowledge, and the work remains a classic.
Needham discovered - then unknown outside China - that the Chinese had invented a remarkable number of things before they were discovered in Europe. Moveable type - first in the ninth century as wood, later as bronze - was perhaps the most remarkable of these, but there were literally hundreds of others including an early compass and some very early sophisticated mathematics.
Needham's volumes became an important East Asian collection in the libraries of Cambridge University.
An interesting anecdote in the book, unrelated to the subject, concerns Needham's tours to lecture on his discoveries. One was to Chicago, and author Winchester discovered that Theodore Kaczynski, the gifted mathematician who later sank into deep schizophrenia and became the infamous Unabomber living in the wilderness, attended a lecture.
Winchester speculates whether that lecture, including a discussion of gunpowder as it did, might have influenced Kaczynski later. I did think this speculation a bit naive and a bit of research would have eliminated it. Kaczynski grew up in Chicago, as I did, and as a teenager he made the newspapers with the sophisticated rockets he was building. His rockets were made of metal and used fuel more sophisticated than gunpowder, becoming a subject of interest because they climbed over a mile in altitude, possibly threatening civilian aviation. It seems pretty clear he did not need Needham's lecture on gunpowder.
My only regret about this book is that it was too brief. Needham and his adventures and work are a large subject.
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