A thoroughly intriguing and intense novel looking at the life and times around the time of the last Chinese Emperor before the Cultural Revolution.Mr.Rutherford has obviously done some exceedingly detailed research which means he has been able to weave a credible story with some fictional elements but with a huge ground base of accurate and true facts which have been historically documented.The book is very fast paced and is very good at making you believe that the story is absolutely true in all it describes.
The main fictional character is the Eunuch Lacquer Nail who narrates the story during this period of China’s history..He gives his distinctive point of view of the happenings in the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace of the Chinese Emperor.His view on life and descriptions of it might or might not be reliable but they provide an insight to Chinese life at the time.
Another character who places a dominant role in the story is definitely person who lived at the time.He is called Edmund Backhouse and he wrote accounts of the Chinese court and the scandalous going-ons there.He was present at the siege of legations so was obviously going to be included in the novel..The authors however let’s his imagination go wild so that there are various imagined interactions between him and some of the fictional characters in the novel.
The novel has given me an insight into the Opium wars with China, the reason that Hong Kong was ceded to the UK and the diplomacy or otherwise which occurred at the time.It was a complex web to navigate at the time and this novel takes you there in a wonderful descriptive way.Thoroughly recommended for anyone with an interest in Chinese history especially if you not want to embark on a serious academic study of this period.

Where to begin?

I’ve been a fan of Edward Rutherford since picking up a copy of ‘Dublin’ in an airport newsagent for some holiday reading, a good solid tome of a book that would easily last the 5 days of my holiday.. at least I thought, I devoured the pages in less than 3 days, such is the style of his writing that leaves a reader wanting more!

‘China’ Is no different, a good solid book, it looks intimidating just from the sheer size of it (784 pages) - however once again I found myself slipping into the familiar and comforting writing style that Rutherford has.

The research he pours into his work is incredible, he takes historic events and creates characters and families to build around them, we follow the families sagas and dynasties through centuries of history, events and tragedies, love, life and death.

This is a book I will pick up again, maybe when I want to read something familiar and comforting.
I look forward to reading more of his work in the future, and urge everyone to read him at least once!

One of my favourite places to visit was China and I have become fascinated with its history and culture.
This book is very long and although there is a bit of padding it does hold the interest as it weaves its exotic historical tale. This is the first book by this author I have read and I did gel with the writing style. From the very beginning I was invested in the characters and cared about what happened to them. It does have the capacity to transport you so you forget where you are and lose sense of time
Remarkable

Consummate storytelling in place and time

I have read previous books by Rutherfurd, mainly those set in this country, around smaller locations, but over a much longer period of history – indeed even encompassing pre-history (London) This writer is a wonderful, in many ways, old fashioned teller of story – and I mean this without criticism. In telling history across millennia with necessarily a huge cast of characters the last thing to do is to overcomplicate with stylistic fol-de-rols, when plot and character and the reality of historical event are complexity enough.

In China. Rutherford is of course working with a huge geographical canvas, but restricts his canvas of time to a short, though complicated period of time – the First Opium War between Britain and China 1839-1842, and continuing, with some little time jumps, until just after the end of The Boxer Rebellion 1899-1901.

This period of time allows the examination of events from both the British point of view (another shameful example of greed and colonial arrogance) and conflicting sides within Chinese dynasties.

In China, rather than plethora of characters to engage with, through generations, Rutherfurd focuses on a small group, whose fortunes and family dynamics across the 60 years are followed. Rather than staying with queens and emperors, for the most part he looks at the lives of little people, though with gradations of influence

Jiang Shi-Rong, whom we first meet as a young man, is making his first steps up a civil service ladder, and has been raised correctly and morally, with habits of obedience to traditional Confucian values. Mei-Ling is the recently, happily married wife of a peasant, too poor to have had her feet bound. Extraordinarily pretty, had her parents been better off, she would most probably have been mutilated this way, and sold as a concubine to a rich merchant. Instead, she was a ‘love match’ choice of the Second Son of a higher status peasant. Mei-Ling has an even poorer younger cousin, who has, in her eyes, the status of ‘Little Brother’ He is a more volatile, rebellious character, and his fortunes will be linked with conflicts and factions.

Another character, Guanji, a Manchu, also suffers changes in fortune due to the capture of the then important port of Zhapu by the British, at the end of the First Opium War, as his family are killed, or take their own lives, in the battle to impose the profiteering values of British financial interest on a Chinese empire who declared the Opium Trade illegal

The British interpretation of events, with a British character who also follows where fortunes lie, is given by the aptly named John Trader.

A final major character is ‘Lacquer Nail’ whose life will change in a very dramatic way, once again linked to failing family fortunes, and the influence of Britain’s business interests in selling opium. Lacquer Nail gives insight into life in the Forbidden City, and makes connections with a real historical figure, the Empress Dowager Cixi.

Rutherfurd is a wonderful writer for those of us who love to get a sense of history, politics, economics, ideology and the like, but bound up with story, narrative, character. My, he does this well, and there has been so much to take away and ponder on. Not least how all of this nineteenth century history with the West imposing addiction on the East, has doubled back upon us. It also has much to say, on reflection, as China seems set to becomes the twenty-first century superpower

I was delighted to receive this as an ARC from the publishers, via NetGalley. All I will say is that the formatting as an ARC did not give me the beautiful design graphics and line drawings which I know are scattered within the book. I assume these will be available on published eBook release, which perhaps can be checked on the ‘look inside’ facility

China by Edward Rutherfurd is an epic tale of China in the 19th Century starting when the mighty Empire found itself literally out-gunned by the encroaching Western powers who were determined that the country's laws and regulations would not get in the way of lucrative trading. Britain in particular wanted Tea and brought Opium into China illegally to pay for it with the Opium Wars being one this country's less glorious episodes.
Rutherfurd's book has a cast of characters from Mandarins and Emperors,Warriors,Missionaries Peasants and many more. It spans a period of time know as "The Century of Humiliation" as China is ripped apart by foreign invaders and factional fighting between rival clans. As always with Rutherfurd's books it's as much a history lesson as a work of fiction and it's a fascinating insight into aspects of Chinese culture and customs or the era as a bonus.
I did find it dragged in places but on the whole a great read and up to Rutherfurd's usual high standards, I read his "London" and "Sarum" books several years ago. This book covers a far shorter period of time than those books and has a smaller cast of characters but as ever with this author it's a big old lump of a book.
A great book with plenty of memorable characters and not least shows that Western attitudes towards China today are pretty much the same as they were in the 19th Century.
If you've read Anthony Grey's excellent "Peking",an equally weighty tome, this is an ideal insight into an earlier China that finishes almost where Grey's begins historically.

I love Edward rutherfurds books they are so long and so very readable this one does not disappoint. It doesn't start as early as some if his previous novels but still a cracking read. Stick the kettle on lock the doors and sit back and enjoy.

China is a absorbing work of historical fiction straddling the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion. It is set against the backdrop of the final days of the empire.

It is narrated by characters who are generally close to power but not powerful, and captures some of the context and reasons for events, as well as being an enjoyable chronicle of the those characters, who generally all thrive despite what is going on around them.

We see the world both from the perspective of the British and the Chinese, and we see viewpoints of merchants, peasants, the military, the church and the ruling classes. A heady mix...

I have read several books by Edward Rutherfurd and liked all of them. This book, like the others, gives you a lesson in history but in fiction form. This book is a history of China from the Opium Wars up to and including the Boxer Uprising - a period of roughly 70 years. The author follows several fictitious families, both Chinese and British, throughout this period. It charts the ever changing relationships between both the people and the governments.

The more I read, the more I was drawn into the book. I had heard about both the Opium Wars and the Boxer Uprisings, but I didn't know Britain's part in these events, or the changes they instigated. The characters came alive to me - some more than others, I would love a sequel following the same families, but depicting the period from the end of the Boxer Uprising to the present day.

This book is not for somebody who likes to dip in and out of a book. It is a very large book, and needs some concentration. Personally, the more I read, the more I wanted to read - when I finished it, I had enjoyed it so much, it took a few days before I felt that I could leave this behind and start a new book.

If you enjoy sagas and also enjoy learning about history without being bored with non-fiction books, this is highly recommended. After a couple of 'chick=lit" books, I intend to re=read the rest of Edward Rutherfurd books.

Covering 60 years of Chinese history from the start of the Opium Wars to the Boxer Revolution China is another epic read from this author of London and Sarum etc.
As usual there is the cast of characters all so different whose lives we follow, from the Englishman wanting to make his fortune, to the young Chinese girl living in the countryside, the Emperors palace staff including the Eunuchs that work there and the Chinese politicians the good and the corrupt.
Certainly entertaining and a history lesson that is easily absorbed and understood. James Clavell’s Tai Pan did a wonderful job of describing the Opium Wars and development of Hong Kong but this book goes much deeper in to the strategy on both sides and the politics in play.
Wonderfully descriptive particularly of the Palaces and how the Emperor’s ruled such a vast kingdom.
We have all manner of insights from foot binding of female children, intrigues at the Emperor’s place, the Eunuchs who work there, missionaries trying to bring Christianity and above all the need to use China’s vast amount of opportunities to make other countries wealthier.
Well written and although engrossing at times I did find myself skipping the occasional pages.
With such a vast subject and so many changes over the years Mr Ruthefurd did well to contain this to around 800 pages.
My thanks to net galley and publisher for the opportunity to review this book honestly.