The Making of Modern China: The Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty (1368-1912) (Understanding China Through Comics, 4)

Good book and easy way of getting down to brass tacks on Modern China. Worth the read.

A thoroughly enjoyable introduction to Chinese history for one who doesn't have time to be deeply interested.

Great! Informative!

This series is great! This is book 4 of 5 of a comic book history of China. I found the first book hard to follow ( it covered 2,700 BC up to 200 AD, and was like a blow by blow of barbarian hords doing the same thing over and over), but other books in the series have been awesome. If you want a comic book history of China, your only options are this 5 book series with lots of info and a portion of Larry Gonick's History of the Universe. It may be that Chinese living in the U.S. want to get a bit of history to their kids and these might be good for that. Or, anyone might want a history of China since it isn't taught here. The comic book format is definite faster to read than a book of dense text, and the different format might appeal to people who wouldn't otherwise be as interested. This series isn't particularly graphic for sex or violence and seems to minimize these, but not censored either. There are many pics of blood dripping off swords but no graphic sex scenes and nothing is used as an excuse for lots of gore or smut. But, yeah, history has a lot of violence, so there it is. For young kids, you might want to read first. For adults who grew up in the U.S. and never got any history of China in school (this is me), this series is a fast read. The comic format is used mainly to give visuals of things like a map with an army or something that doesn't exist now, like an old fashioned piece of equipment. This book covers 1368 up to 1912, or the middle ages in Europe up to World War 1. This was pretty interesting to me, more so than previous books, because it gets into more recent times and so seems more relevant. Events were easy to follow. As books come out, the series has gotten better and started to do more of what comics can do that books can't. For example, in this one, emperors tend to have a distinctive feature, like big huge chin or something, so I can tell each character apart from page-to-page and that helps me keep thing straight, which I definitely have trouble with when I read a book.

When I was in college, I had the opportunity to take a class on China for my minor. While I did quite well in the class, learning about the various Emperors and Dynasties was not easy. But writer/artist Jing Liu has figured out a wonderful way to reach out to those who are interested in studying Chinese history and that's through comics! I recently read "The Making of Modern China: The Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty (1368-1912) (Understanding China Through Comics)" from Stonebridge Press and this timeline is important to learning how China began its way of modernization but also the challenges that were met after China was invaded by the Monguls but how various Emperor's had difficult of trying to find out how to continue the country's stability with various currency and taxation. But how China had to endure corruption from officials, to overprinting money or not having enough silver to provide currency of the country's growing population. And due to bad leadership, bad planning and a growing population, trying to please the people through little taxation but then not having any currency to provide stability to the people made things difficult. As certain areas did well, smaller locations in the country side and mountainous regions started to become angry as they did not have the same type of treatment and they rebelled. And with too many rebellions happening throughout China, it no doubt caused instability. While things got better in the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the need of silver led to the country of opening its ports to people from other countries and when Britain brought Opium to China, that changed things as it drained the economy of silver in China and increased opium addiction inside the country which led to the first Opium War. Seeing how China's openness to foreign trade led to China using their money and military to fight the British, which the British had superior weaponry and firepower and ushering China into Modernism. There is so much that happens between 1368-1912 and Jing Liu does a magnificent job of showcasing history in a simplistic way for people to read and understand China's history and how they entered into modernism but also how it led to turmoil within the country and with other countries. It's a well-written comic and educational as well! Overall, I was really pleased with "The Making of Modern China: The Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty (1368-1912) (Understanding China Through Comics)" and I definitely recommend it!

This is a quite good broad-based summary of China's history from the start of the Ming Dynasty to the close of the Boxer Rebellion. The text is simple but not simplistic, the language and meaning always clear. It does a nice job explaining economics, often given short shrift in quick summaries, and an especially good job in lucidly laying out cause and effect. The art is rough and simple (intentionally so), and mostly enhances the text in terms of given visual support for concepts of scale and comparison, such as showing a comparison of tax revenue through piles of coins. it's not a book one reads for the aesthetics, but it's a very good choice for a clear, quick history.

This 4th volume of Understanding China Though Comics series covers the Ming to Qing Dyanasty timeframes (1368-1912), and does so in a manner that makes it easy to grasp critical turning points and big events shaping China into the country it is today. Despite it necessarily being a high-level review book that is easy enough for any grade school child to read, this series provides enough detail and "flavor" of the times and events occurring, from many different perspectives (emperors, government officials, administrators, students, common people, specific historical figures) to provide great interest and a more comprehensive understanding of how people of that era may have lived and felt as the world changed around them. It's very easy to be drawn into this book, therefore, because it's not just a dry recitation of events in history, but a telling of a very interesting story, where you want to find out what happens next. Even if you have no knowledge of Chinese history specifically, or of events in larger Asia and Britain/West in the recent past 500 years, this storybook provides a wonderful jumping off point to pique your desire to learn more. Understanding history will provide a greater context for events today, and I believe everyone could benefit from this comprehension. This is a wonderful series, and author Jing Liu has done a fantastic job condensing a large amount of information into a format that is short and very accessible for all ages. I wish I had seen such books as these during my early school years!

Graphic Novels are the rage right now, but many people bash them for not being literary enough. This may be true, but they are an excellent way of delivering complex information about historical and contemporary narratives that are otherwise seemingly unrelatable or irrelevant to modern American youth. Though I work k-5 currently, I've worked right up to undergrad and currently live with some very bright youth. The #1 reason why they don't read unfamiliar narratives or topics: I don't care about _______. What does it have to do with me? Maybe you don't have time to answer that question, but it's similar to a 3yo refusing to eat something without tasting it first. The Making of Modern China Volume 4 allows young American minds to delve in a more engaging way into a world historical narrative that may seem totally unrelated. But the use of many familiar terms, symbols and imagery that DON'T rely on racist notions of the 'other' and especially the 'Chinese other', make this history more accessible than a typical text. As a history teacher I'd likely start students off in jigsaw groups of reading the various sections of the book AND THEN set them down the path of a broader lit review and summarizing report. If you also happen to be a wiz at US history, there are plenty of opportunities to stop and connect to what they already know through structured instruction, or general cultural exposure. Economies and earnings are always a great way to connect. I really thought this graphic novel (though it isn't fiction) does a great job of simplifying key elements of China's transition toward modern times, but leaves plenty of room to springboard into more substantial questioning and research.