Tag Archives: Michael Duke

Ge Zhaoguang’s Intellectual History of China

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An Intellectual History of China, Volume One: Knowledge, Thought, and Belief before the Seventh Century CE

Ge Zhaoguang 葛兆光, translated by Michael S. Duke and Josephine Chiu-Duke

In An Intellectual History of China, Professor Ge Zhaoguang presents a history of traditional Chinese knowledge, thought and belief to the late six century CE with a new approach offering a new perspective. It appropriates a wide range of source materials and emphasizes the necessity of understanding ideas and thought in their proper historical contexts. Its analytical narrative focuses on the dialectical interaction between historical background and intellectual thought. While discussing the complex dynamics of interaction among the intellectual thought of elite Chinese scholars, their historical conditions, their canonical texts and the “worlds of general knowledge, thought and belief,” it also illuminates the significance of key issues such as the formation of the Chinese world order and its underlying value system, the origins of Chinese cultural identity and foreign influences.

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Lucas Klein on The Fat Years

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My review of The Fat Years 盛世：中國 2013年, by Chan Koonchung 陳冠中 and translated by Michael Duke, is now online at Rain Taxi. Be forewarned: I was unimpressed by the novel and the translation. Here’s how the review begins:

The cover screams “The Book No One in China Dares to Publish,” the Financial Times and The Observer have offered ad-like reviews, and copies have spilled off bookstore displays in Hong Kong and London for months; The Fat Years is the new must-have for the politically righteous book consumer in the English-speaking world. Consumer, that is, not reader, since most reports mention little about the story other than its premise. Probably better this way, since aesthetics too often fail when put up against political righteousness.