With remarkable photographs and a succinct narrative the internationally respected writer and sinologist Jonathan Fenby sweeps through an astonishing century of China's history. The reader sees the country and its people living under the centuries' old imperial regime through all the changes, upheavals and national and international violence which led up to Mao Tse Tung's 1949 proclamation of the People's Republic. A unique and insightful volume. With maps, reading references, and index.