China

The Wars of the Poppies

Leslie Marchant sees the Opium Wars as a philosophical clash between two cultures and two notions of government and society.

Birth of Joseph Needham

Joseph Needham, one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable scholars, was born on December 9th, 1900.

Macau: The Last Outpost

Today best known for its gambling industry, the rich cultural history of Europe’s last colonial toehold in China might be the key to its future. 

Collaborators and Renegades in Occupied Shanghai

1930s Shanghai was notoriously populated by characters of dubious political and moral allegiances. Bernard Wasserstein shows how the Japanese used their contacts among the city’s low-life to assist in their invasion and occupation.