Becoming China: Jeanne Marie Gescher's book tells the story of China's 5,000 years of history
In the new book, Becoming China, Jeanne Marie Gescher makes an ambitious and valiant attempt to cover the broad sweep of 5,000 years.
At a joint press conference in March with China's Premier Li Keqiang in Canberra, Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull reflected, "China's history, 3,000 years of civilisation, is so remarkable". Without waiting for a second, Li interrupted him, holding up five fingers of his right hand. "5,000!" he said. "5,000 years?" Turnbull corrected himself, as the journalists laughed. "There
