Comments on: Chinese history lectures online: Frederic Wakeman, Jr.

By: Frog in a Well - The Korea History Group Blog

Frog in a Well - The Korea History Group Blog — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:04:00 +0000

[...] over at Granite Studio posted a series of three talks available online by the recently deceased historian Frederic [...]

By: jason

jason — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 05:38:31 +0000

“Prof. Jingcha” was right on. Ming Empire’s “restoration” efforts and Jerchen Empire’s “hyper-China” are evident of his hypothesis. I always enjoyed his frowning of Prof. Shi Jingqian’s (J. Spence’s) historiography.

By: Jeremiah

Jeremiah — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:10:07 +0000

Wu Ming,

In general I agree with you. But it’s like the time I watched Evel Knievel try to jump 50 school buses on television. You knew it was a next to impossible stunt but if there was anyone who could do it, this was the guy, and even if he didn’t make it, it was worth it just to watch him make such an effort.

Frederic Wakeman was my Chinese history version of Evel Knievel.

By: wu ming

wu ming — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:41:56 +0000

sounds like an interesting resource. i haven’t listened to them yet, but i have a hard time with any sweeping statement attempting to sum up a thousand year period of history as either continuity or rupture. some stuff changed, some stuff didn’t. it all depends on what one’s foregrounding, really.