Books The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - Seeing the Future through the Lenses of the Past
Winchester has, characteristically, written a superbly readable, inevitably simplified, and seriously informative book about both an extraordinary human life and a profoundly important human truth. Joseph Needham was an original - Teddy Roosevelt's physical courage, Charles Darwin's intellectual ambition, George Bernard Shaw's literacy and zest for life in all its dimensions. And he tackled with unbelievable efficacy the gulf between Western self-referential perception of history and the reality of Asia's, and most particularly China's (for in truth India's ancient contributions in mathematics are under explored by both Needham and Winchester), astonishing contributions to the world. This book is a brilliant primer as we enter the Asian Century - a wake up call to those of us who have come to believe that all innovation comes from the West, and will continue to do so. As Winchester, through Needham, demonstrates, neither of these beliefs are true - and the consequences in the near future will be immense.

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Rating: - Another Tour de Force
Once again Simon WInchester has brought his extraordinary intellect, insatiable curiosity and remarkable eye for detail to bear upon another unique and fascinating subject. His remarkable life as a world class journalist and author has taken him to every corner of the world. Reviewers occasionally try to tag him as a stodgy academic which is far from the truth. Indeed, such a notion is positively ludicrous. Winchester is an adventurer who never stops scanning the horizon for new knowledge and new experiences.

Needham's life encompasses an overlaying of eras; colonial traditions, wars, scientific revolutions and unprecedented social changes. While all went on around him, he documented the cultural and scientific history of a great civilization. The Needham Question asks why China's brilliant technological growth simply stopped around 1500 AD. While the question is fascinating It is hard to comprehend Needham's wholehearted embracing of Chinese communism. Countless young leftists of the 1930s hoped communism would bring real social justice to the masses. Stalinist atrocities and horrors like the Cultural Revolution caused most to look elsewhere for hope, recognizing that tyranny can come in many forms and never brings social justice. Needham viewed the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution as growing pains. Ironically, the priceless collection of books and manuscripts he took back to Cambridge would likely have been destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. Underlying some protests he made against the regime, he still hoped for a better future for the people of China.

Now, more than ever before our understanding of China in all its complexities is crucial. Winchester brings that understanding to his readers with skill and eloquence. Surely Needham would have been delighted and proud to have such a biographer tell his story. Winchester is without doubt one of the great writers of our time.

This is a great read to be taken slowly, pondered and savored. At a time when China's actions are so very controversial, it is worthwhile to remember that while China's human rights record is more than a little repugnant, there is much to appreciate and understand about a culture rooted in 5,000 years of history. Without China's role in world history, our lives would be radically different.

As the book was launched, worldwide riots and protests denounced China's treatment of Tibet and the Tibetan people. Rightly so. (Not that America has much to brag about these days. Guantanamo, Guantanamo, Guantanamo.) Winchester was in the unenviable position of promoting a title that spoke of love and China when the world has little love to offer China. Perhaps, a deeper international understanding will lead to full and inalienable human rights world wide and most particularly in China and America. Without doubt, to read this book is to gain wider, richer perspectives of today's world. Yet, it is impossible to suppress a shudder as his epilogue ends. This soaring exploration of the Needham question, ends with the chilling description of a sign outside of China's space center, Jiuquan, "Without Haste. Without Fear. We Conquer The World."


Sue Morrow Flanagan

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Rating: - China is once again emerging as a major player in the family of nations
China is once again emerging as a major player in the family of nations. But certain questions have lingered with scholars and historians. Why did China, a nation which was so inventive and which experienced five thousand years of a flourishing civilization, fail to establish an industrial revolution similar to that of the west, thereby spending the decades of the 19th and 20th century mired in poverty, revolution, and instability? Joseph Needham was a respected Cambridge scholar and scientist who in 1937 fell in love with a visiting Chinese study and through his mistress became interested in her home country. By the time he died, Needham has authored seventeen volumes on China and cited by the academic community as a singular expert on Chinese history, culture, and society. "The Man Who Loved China" is the deftly written biography of a most extraordinary man and this flawlessly produced, complete and unabridged, nine hour audio book, written and read by Simon Winchester, provides an informed and informative story of an eccentric scientist whose dedication and meticulous scholarship explained the mysteries of China to the world. This superb CD audio book edition of "The Man Who Loved China" is highly recommended for personal, academic, and community library collections.

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Rating: - The Man Who Revealed China To The World
Simon Winchester can always be counted on for an extraordinary reading treat. In The Man Who Loved China we have his best work since The Professor and the Madman.

Joseph Needham was a brilliant scientist and a remarkable eccentric. He could be affable one moment and withdrawn the next, he practiced nudism and had a very "modern" interpretation of his marriage vows, an interpretation his wife shared and which led to a menage a trois which lasted for decades. Most of all, Needham was a lover of China and of China's scientific gifts to the world. During World War II he was sent to China at the behest of the British and American Armed Forces to re-connect with the professors and other staff members of Chinese universities which had been evacuated during the war with Japan. During his adventures, which Winchester provides a marvelous description of, Needham became convinced that China was the originator of much of what has become modern science. He spent the last fifty years or so of his very long life writing an extraordinary multi-volume work, which is still in the process of publication, on science in Chinese civilization.

As always, Winchester has a keen eye for a good anecdote and a clear and witty writing style. He does an excellent job depicting Needham's extraordinary life, both his heights of achievement and his lows, such as the time his naivete about politics led to his being conned by Soviet propaganda and then black-listed for years by the US government, so that he was unable to visit the many American universities which wished to honor him. Winchester also reveals the many interconnections and odd conjunctions with which Needham's life was filled, for example his connection with the creation of the term "gung-ho" and the unwitting (and innocent) assistance he gave the Unabomber.

I teach AP World History, which of necessity spends much time on China. I am grateful to Joseph Needham for doing so much to reveal that land's multitudinous gifts to the world and to Simon Winchester for writing so engaging a biography of this complex, fascinating man.