BOOK REVIEW| Understanding China: THE CULTURE OF CHINA

The book “The Culture of China” was published on 2011 by Britannica Education/Publishing and was edited by Kathleen Kuiper, who was a senior editor in arts and culture for Encyclopedia Britannica. She wrote multiple books like Ancient Rome: from Romulus and Remus to the Visogoth Invasion, The Culture of India and Mesopotamia: The World’s Earliest Civilization.
China, ever since the Ancient times have always been very influential in terms of political, economic and military aspect. But how about China’s cultural aspect? China’s culture has also impacted many countries. A country’s might can’t be measured only in its economy of military but in understanding a country’s power, history and civilization the culture plays a huge part in identifying its defining features.
This book aims to look back at the richness and greatness of the Chinese culture and re – establish to the readers how its culture influenced most of the people living in this modern time. The book begins by talking about the Olympics that was held in China and how it should be a big reminder that China is home to one of the world’s oldest civilizations. The author then takes the readers back to Chinese history, about how their government helped to restore and develop the country’s art and culture.
The first two chapters tackled about the Chinese people and their cuisine. The cuisine of China is very well known all throughout the world. Food takes a major role in China’s culture. It shows the different ethnic groups and their distinct traditions and cultures, it also talks about famous Chinese cuisines that the country is known for and how their preparation for their food is connected to their ancient traditions. It also focuses on China as a multinational country with different ethnic groups. Such ethnic groups in China were the Hani, Hui, Lisu, Dong, Miao, Lahu and many more to mention. Chapter three talks about the complex Chinese languages and writing system. Chinese language and writing system was defines as a system of conventional spoken or manual and written symbols by means of which human being or as a member of a social group and participant in its culture, express themselves. The simplification of the Chinese characters as acquainted by Kiuper also emphasized that to understand the culture of China, one must understand the story of Confucius act the teaching and its Philosophy. There are several language families present in China but by far, the largest group is the speakers of Sino-Tibetan. Kuiper, explained the various Chinese dialects and their complex writing system. The succeeding chapters talked about the Chinese religious thoughts and philosophies like Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism in which all played a role in the foundation of Chinese society and governance. The last chapters of the book explain in detail about the history of Chinese art like, performing arts and their architecture, and how their art played a social and moral role to the Chinese people. Furthermore, it also discussed about how their art influenced other civilizations in different parts of the world and how it emerged as a sophisticated and distinct art form today.
In the books conclusion, the author re iterated the greatness and vastness of Chinese culture and showed how the modern world overshadows it by other aspects of China, like its booming economy, and encourages readers not to minimize the incredible vibrancy of the ancient Chinese culture.