{"product_id":"the-chans-great-continent-china-in-western-minds-9780393319897","title":"The Chan's Great Continent: China in Western Minds","description":"China has transfixed the West since the earliest contacts between these civilizations. With his characteristic elegance and insight, Jonathan Spence explores how the West has understood China over seven centuries. Ranging from Marco Polo's own depiction of China and the mighty Khan, Kublai, in the 1270s to the China sightings of three twentieth-century writers of acknowledged genius-Kafka, Borges, and Calvino-Spence conveys Western thought on China through a remarkable array of expression. Peopling Spence's account are Iberian adventurers, Enlightenment thinkers, spinners of the dreamy cult of Chinoiserie, and American observers such as Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Ezra Pound, and Eugene O'Neill. Taken together, these China sightings tell us as much about the self-image of the West as about China. \"Wonderful. . . . Spence brilliantly demonstrates [how] generation after generation of Westerners [have] asked themselves, 'What is it . . . that held this astonishing, diverse, and immensely populous land together?' \"--\u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSpence, Jonathan D.:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eJonathan D. Spence\u003c\/strong\u003e is Sterling Professor of History at Yale University, where he has taught for thirty years. He has been awarded MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, and the \u003cem\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/em\u003e Book Award. \u003cem\u003eThe Search for Modern China\u003c\/em\u003e won the Lionel Gelber Award and the Kiriyama Book Prize.","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50543655256338,"sku":"9780393319897","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_30f9d365-6182-4f20-8bd5-c3906145c799.jpg?v=1731512601","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-chans-great-continent-china-in-western-minds-9780393319897","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}