Eminent historian Professor Jonathan Spence
2008 Reith Lectures: Chinese Vistas
One of the world's leading authorities on Chinese history, Professor Jonathan Spence, gives this year's Reith Lectures.
Lecture 4: The Body Beautiful
We see how China has slowly shaped its sense of Chinese bodies to answer different needs, from languorous courtship and formalized martial arts down to the demanding arenas of team sports and the ultimate Olympic challenges which she will host this August.
Recorded at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London.
Listen to previous Reith Lectures
Lecture 1: Confucian Ways
In the first lecture we will reflect on China's most enduring thinker, Confucius, and see how his message has survived countless negative assaults, and why he is being recycled by the Chinese Communist leadership today.
Recorded at The British Library in London.
Label Listen to Confucian Ways
Lecture 2: English Lessons
In this lecture, Professor Spence looks at China's relations with Great Britain through the prism of three centuries of trade, warfare, unequal treaties and missionary endeavours that shaped their mutual perceptions.
Recorded in St George's Hall in Liverpool.
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Lecture 3: American Dreams
We explore the two centuries in which the United States gradually moved from being a dominant beacon of freedom and democracy for China, to a more demanding global rival during World War II and after.
Recorded at The Asia Society in New York.
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