2021 in Books

History

This is China: The First 5,000 Years - Haiwang Yuan (General Editor)

This is China is short book, 126 pages of content with medium sized font. It covers the history of China from the Xia dynasty¹ to the present day. Since it is so short, not many words can be devoted to each period of Chinese history. Despite the title, This is China does not provide a detailed description of 5000 years of Chinese history. Instead, the book tries to portray long term historical trends and cultural achievements. On its own, I did not find This is China a compelling read. This is China would make a satisfactory history textbook for a high school or introductory college class.

The Search for Modern China - Jonathan Spencer

The Search for Modern China tells the history of China from the late Ming dynasty to the 1990, when the book was published. It covers all the significant events in China post 1500. It covers the late Ming to the expansion of China under the Kangxi and Qianlong Emperors to the First Opium War to the Taiping rebellion² to the end of the Qing in only 269 pages. The remainder is devoted to the highly tumultuous 20th century: the new Republic of China, its decent to warlordism, the rise of the Nationalists and Communists, the Nanjing Decade, World War II, the conclusion of the Chinese Civil War, the creation of the PRC, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the reformist 1980s. Throughout, Spencer focuses on intellectual history, often bringing up authors, playwrights, poets, and painters whose works were influential or captured the zeitgeist. This choice makes sense when we consider that the dominant class in most of Chinese history have been Confucian bureaucrat. Spencer also uses tables to illustrate the economic conditions of a time.

It tells a good, if temporally uneven story of modern China up to 1976. The later chapters suffer from myopia. In 1990, the Tianmen Square massacre was less than a year old. Hong Kong was still a British colony. Search for Modern China does not focus enough on the economic reforms of the 1980s, which birthed a superpower. It does not focus enough on the One Child Policy, which has created a looming demographic crisis. These are minor weaknesses; Search for Modern China is a historical work not a geopolitical prediction. But the 30 years of perspective is important. From 2021, we know that the search for modern China is over. Now begins the search for a what world with a modern China will look like.

Social Science

Gang Leader for a Day - Sudhir Venkatesh

When I was a teenager, I read Freakonomics. It from Freakonomics where I heard the opening story of the book: Venkatesh had wandered into a public housing project where he was forced to stay the night by the local gang. Yet at the end of this harrowing experience, he returned to learn more about the gang and the residents of the Robert Taylor homes. For the duration of his graduate studies at the University of Chicago, Venkatesh observed the Black Kings gang and its interactions with tenants. What emerges is a rich picture of difficult circumstances, community grit, and self-sabotage. Things are never simple. The Black Kings sell drugs and commit violent acts, but they also keep the peace in the housing project. The Black Kings mediate disputes, protect women from crackheads, and even fund block parties. Residents of the Robert Taylor homes work together to raise children and protect them from violent crime. Gang Leader for a Day is an incredible work of ethnographic research, painting a complex world most Americans never see.

It is also a personal story, as Venkatesh gets close to the gang leader J.T. Venkatesh eats soul food cooked by Ms. Mae, J.T.’s mother, in her apartment while completing classwork. Initially, he is only allowed supervised tours of the Robert Taylor homes. It takes years of relationship building before Venkatesh is able to roam freely throughout the high rises of the Robert Taylor homes. Eventually, Venkatesh gains deep access to the gang and their territory: acquiring a copy of the gang’s books and, yes, becoming a gang leader for day. In one instance, Venkatesh is deeply involved, including dragging an injured resident to the lobby during a drive-by shooting. Over 7 years, they had grown to rely on each other, which makes their separation an emotional affair, something neither could have suspected when Venkatesh was forced to stay a night by the local gang.