“China: A History”, by John Keay

 

608 pages, Basic Books, ISBN-13: 978-0465025183

One can’t help but be impressed by John Keay’s attempt – or perhaps we should be appalled by his presumption? – to tell the 3000 year history of the Middle Kingdom in a mere 600 pages or so, but his book, China: A History, does just that. For the most part, his book is accessible to the general reader who is mostly ignorant of China, outside of current events (thanks again for the worldwide coronavirus infection, assholes!), although all is not well. He begins his record from before unification under the Qin Dynasty to the start of the 20^th Century. In spite of ending his narrative at the cusp of the modern world, there is still, naturally, a lot of history to cover, but Keay succeeds in giving the reader a pretty inclusive overview of the evolution of China.

Keay’s China history is certainly different than many conventional ones written on the subject, and, at least in the beginning, this is not only informative but entertaining, as well. But the author evidently finds it difficult to keep his biases and opinions to himself, and all too soon you see “fact” after “fact” cropping up that are merely his opinions, masquerading as such. Perhaps to compensate for past histories that put the Han Chinese front and center for most of Chinese history, Keay instead dwells a great deal on the non-Han minorities that populate China, alongside the Han. Noble, perhaps, but it felt like, in an effort at fairness, he went overboard and sacrificed much to do so, such as Chinese developments in art, culture or religion.

But there is a further criticism I have with Keay’s book, and that is that it feels like a rush job; a weird thing to say about a 600 page book with reams of notes and an extensive bibliography, but the number or errors throughout the text, inconsistencies in reasoning and conclusions without merit are just too much to stomach. All of this is confusing in the extreme – until, that is, you learn that Keay is a journalist by trade and not an historian (a reason, perhaps, but not an excuse; journalists are held to objective standards of fact as are historians); furthermore, this journalist’s forte is India, not China, and while perhaps he should be applauded for expanding his horizons, maybe greater talks with experts in the field would have done him some good.

China: A History is not any easy read, for the journalist Keay has such a turgid style that I marvel that he still has a job writing. Furthermore, while there may be something to be said for the nonlinear approach to writing, Keay’s tumbling back and forth through decades and, even, centuries creates a confusing story to follow (it is here that Keay’s over-rebalance on Marco Polo becomes obvious). I dunno: this book is informative but frustrating; enlightening but confusing; knowledgeable but opinionated. I’m just going to have to find another, better history of China.