The 1911 Revolution: A China in Turmoil

In 2011, the centenary of the Xinhai Revolution sent shockwaves through the Strait, as grand celebrations were planned on both sides. A grand game was about to begin. Starting in January of the new year, Zhang Ming, a hugely popular professor with over ten million fans, would launch his latest work, Xinhai: A Shaking China. It focuses on the final years of the Qing dynasty and the opening chapter of the Republic of China, with leading figures including Yuan Shikai, Feng Guozhang, Li Yuanhong, Zhang Zongchang, Tan Yankai, Wang Jingwei, Zhang Biao, Wu Luzhen, Yinchang, Rui Cheng, Liangbi, Zaimu, Duanfang, and others. It is like a century-spanning action blockbuster, from the late Qing to the Republic. In studying historical figures of this kind, the book takes a stance of sympathetic understanding and argues that producing too many heroes leaves no heroes at all.