Customer Reviews

Generation Of Giants: The Story Of The Jesuits In China In The Last Decades Of The Ming Dynasty

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The Generation of Giants offers an insight into how civilisations different from one another look with fascination or suspicion at and then react to each other, each side certain of their own superiority, either in beliefs, mores, wisdom, knowledge or their civilised way of life. I found this very refreshing: both sides are shown to be, in their own minds, justified in their approach and thinking, both sides are prejudiced and "conservative", defending what they earnestly believe to be right or innovations which they can see will be prejudicial to the order they have always known to be "just so" and must not be changed. It is only giants, who are capable to overcome this "gridlock" and look beyond to gaian understanding and appreciation. The book also shows how such ingrained superiority-prejudices can and do poison relationships to the detriment of both. Of particular interest is the fact that since the time of these giants, three hundred years, civilisations are still blundering along, repeating the same mistakes, still convinced that their way and their thinking are "correct".
The book is thoroughly enjoyable and informative in regards to history; it might offend anyone who is afflicted with a superiority-conviction.
G Hoover