Overview

The Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography, the first publication of its kind since 1898, is the work of more than one hundred internationally recognized experts from nearly a dozen countries. It has been designed to satisfy the growing thirst of students, researchers, professionals, and general readers for knowledge about China. It makes the entire span of Chinese history manageable by introducing the reader to emperors, politicians, poets, writers, artists, scientists, explorers, and philosophers who have shaped and transformed China over the course of five thousand years. In 135 entries, ranging from 1,000 to 8,000 words and written by some of the world's leading China scholars, the Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography takes the reader from the important (even if possibly mythological) figures of ancient China to Communist leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. The in-depth essays provide rich historical context, and create a compelling narrative that weaves abstract concepts and disparate events into a coherent story. Cross-references between the articles show the connections between times, places, movements, events, and individuals. Volume Four focuses on key individuals from the People's Republic of China's post-opening era, starting in 1979.

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Kerry Brown is Professor of Chinese studies and director of the Lau China Institute, King's College in London. Until November 2015, he was director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Before moving to Australia, he was head of the Asia Programme at Chatham House, an independent policy institute based in London, and led the Europe China Research and Advice Network (ECRAN) funded by the European Commission. Educated at the University of Cambridge, University of London, and University of Leeds, he worked in Japan and the Inner Mongolian region of China before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He worked in the China Section and served as First Secretary in Beijing from 2000 to 2003, and was head of the Indonesia East Timor Section from 2003 to 2005. He is the author of What's Wrong with Diplomacy: The Case of the UK and China (2015), China and the EU in Context (2014), The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China (2014), Carnival China: China in the Era of Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping (2014), Hu Jintao, China's Silent Leader (2012), Ballot Box China (2011) and the edited collection China 2020 (2011), Friends and Enemies: The Past, Present and Future of the Communist Party of China (2009), The Rise of the Dragon-Chinese Investment Flows in the Reform Period (2008), Struggling Giant: China in the 21st Century (2007), and The Cultural Revolution in Inner Mongolia (2006). He was a coeditor of the Berkshire Encyclopedia of China (2009) and editor in chief of the of the Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography, vol. 1-3 (2014). His study Xi Jinping: China's CEO was published in early 2016.

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