China: A 5,000-year Odyssey - Softcover

The book collects the results of Tan Chung’s life-long study. Standing at the forefront of academic research, he reviews China’s development and predicts the future trend of Chinese civilization with a well-rounded, global perspective. The new opinions and ideas in this book are thought-provoking and greatly inspire me.

(Xue Keqiao, Researcher, National Institute of International Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing)

In this book, Tan Chung presents the outcome of his long-term studies, illuminating the peaceful nature of Chinese development and highlighting the perils along the way. In general, this is a great story about China and an innovative monograph with both academic value and practical significance.

(Jiang Jinkui, Director, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Peking University, Beijing)

Reading this book, I feel Tan Chung’s romantic spirit about Chinese history. He is an elder scholar who experienced his life in three representative civilized countries: China, India, and the United States. In the book, he discusses the successes and failures in the development of Chinese civilization. Although one may disagree with his arguments, you cannot deny that this book is not only an expedition, but also a long-lost innovation.

(Wang Wen, Executive Director, Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China)

Such a bird’s eye view of Chinese history is rare and will be of use to millions of general readers as well as all students who study China, the emerging global power, all over the world.

(Manoranjan Mohanty, Former Professor, University of Delhi, and Honorary Fellow and Former Chairperson, Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi)

“Such a bird’s eye view of Chinese history is rare and will be of use to millions of general readers....” (Manoranjan Mohanty,)

“[T]his is a great story about China ... with both academic value and practical significance.” (Jiang Jinkui,)

In this endearing book on China, Tan Chung distills tons of information about China's historical evolution and complex vicissitudes in a freewheeling style describing how the third longest river in the world, Yangtze River, and the fifth longest, Yellow River, carved out the contours of China on the globe millions of years before the arrival of man-apes. From this geographical entity, there emerged a common civilization, political entity, and common entity of destiny within and around the valleys of these two civilization-forming rivers. The author advocates that China is a "civilization country" that has existed for more than two millennia but the nation-state world interrupted the Chinese odyssey for many centuries. Like the legendary phoenix rising from the ashes, China resumes its odyssey and also joins the comity of globalization leaving behind the "Thucydides Trap".