Books The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom
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Rating: - A Good First Try
Simon Winchester brings his considerable literary talent to a subject which one wouldn't think would catch the popular imagination. Joseph Needham is not exactly a household name. In the years of my academic training, I could have identified him and maybe even looked into his books once or twice but neither the subject nor the encyclopedic majesty of the works asserted by Winchester would have been high on any of my quite diverse scholarly horizons. I only made use of Needham's work when looking into Chinese attitudes toward nature and then it was the last book on agriculture, written entirely by someone other than Needham, which drew my attention. When I looked into the earlier volumes I found them listy without the kind of synthesis of history which would have made them more useful. In fact Winchester never addresses how much Needham's works really added to our understanding of Chinese history. At the end of the book Winchester does address, the "Needham problem," why China was so advanced and then completely dropped out the technological and scientific race. But it is clear that Needham's massive endeavor adds little to answering the question. The issue of who invented what first, establishing Chinese priority, seemed to be Needham's goal. While vaguely interesting like sports' records, what counts is the context of first and what that means, something which Needham may have presented, but we find little of in Winchester's biography.

What we do learn is about Needham's life of which I was entirely ignorant. What an interesting man and what a polymath. I am impressed and find myself coming up short in comparison. I have done hardly anything compared to Needham nor possess anywhere near the raw intellectual power and ability to work. Needham's personal life is intriguing. He was able to weave two, if not many more, capable women into his bed and get them to support him in his ambitious projects. He had his cake and et it, although after his wife and paramour die, his underlying neurotic need for female companionship is exposed. Then there was his achievement as a scientist. That alone makes him stand out. When tied to his work in China during the war, he becomes even more impressive. He both supports science and has an opportunity to live a bit of a Marco Polo existence. Here I feel there is an imbalance, maybe it is in Winchester's presentation or maybe in Needham's way of seeing the world. Needham is like an upper-class English radical: great social values, but not really applied to how he lives. He travels through the chaos of war torn China, and though commenting on it, does not really seem to take in the horror of it all. He has a kind of indifferent stiff upper lip. Maybe it is Winchester's presentation but I think it was Needham himself. Here is where I would have liked Winchester to give more historical context and maybe be a little more critical of his hero. An example, though from a different era was Winchester's discussion of the great Min river irrigation and water containment projects of the Qin dynasty. Winchester follows Needham in seeing this hydraulic achievement as another first, 3 centuries before the Roman aqueducts, and making possible the agricultural growth and stability of China. But there is nary a mention of the human cost of construction nor the incredible brutality of Qin's autocratic rule. The science and engineering priority come first,

This fits with Needham's incredible political naiveté. A confirmed socialist in the `20s and `30's who witnesses Chiang Kai-shek's corruption during World War Two, Needham has good grounds for his outlook. But his blindness when it comes to Mao's China, like the innocence of progressives visiting the Soviet Union in the 1930s, is inexcusable and says something about Needham that Winchester does not fully explore. Needham didn't see through the show the Chinese put on for him when he visited nor figure out that his friends had vanished during the cultural revolution. And that he wasn't principled enough to call a spade a spade says something about Needham's personality or Winchesters lack of criticalness in presenting Needham's life. On the whole, the book is interesting but as in Winchester's other writings it would have profited from a more incisive application of critical history. I would also liked to have had an evaluation of how "Science and Civilization," fits into an understanding of China's past.

Charlie Fisher, author of Dismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World

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Rating: - Not so good
Okay, I've read two books by this guy and frankly, he's a hack. He has this obvious device of constantly creating false tension and the payoff is almost always disappointing. There is no real story here; nothing that could not be told in 1/3 the number of pages, quite possibly less, and even then, probably not worth the read.

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Rating: - Must read for all China enthusiasts!
This is a great book covering Joseph Needham, Ph.D. and his life work on 19 volumes of "Science and Civilization in China", Caius College, Cambridge University, UK.

His personal life is interesting. He has a wife who is into biochemical research, and has several paramours. The second marriage with Lu Gwei-djen was a great read. Lu waited for him, her whole life.

If China invented all of these scientific products, then what is the reason that China fell behind western countries in the last 50 years?

It is communism, that killed all the innovation. Cultural revolution and gang of four destroyed China's science and technology. Mao Zedong is the major problem for the lack of leadership.

History changes after Deng XiaoPing took charge. Deng was the major force for economic reform.

Unfortunately, Joseph Needham was either too old, or too much involved in the old China. He totally missed the new China development. He passed away in 1995, and that is when the new China started to take off.

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Rating: - man behind the legend
How lucky we are to have a book about the man who changed the way the West viewed China. Having stuided Needham's work in graduate school I was fascinated and amazed at all he discovered and often wondered about the scientific scholar with such outstanding abilities.
Winchester writes well and gives us an intimate look into the man who certainly fit the sterotypical picture of the eccentric Englishman. His works (carried on by his disciples) continues today and is still the gold standard for those interested in the history and civilization of China.