Over the past 150 years, China has undergone the largest revolution in human history, transforming from a closed-off, self-isolated medieval nation into a modern country. This transformation affected the beliefs, marriages, education, food, clothing, housing, and transportation of billions of people, and was closely tied to China's history.
Historians often say, “Use history as a mirror to understand the rise and fall of nations.”
As the tides of history surged, people of the time were biased toward believing that history “had to unfold this way.” But today, we are eager to understand why it unfolded this way.
Why did things unfold as they did, and what can we learn from history?
