num_pages: 316
description: In illuminating detail Winchester bestselling author of The Professor &amp; the Madman (Elegant &amp; scrupulousNY Times Book Review) &amp; Krakatoa (A mesmerizing page-turnerTime) tells the story of Joseph Needham the Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China long the world's most technologically advanced country. No cloistered don this tall married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual. A nudist he was devoted to quirky folk dancing. In 1937 while working as a biochemist at Cambridge he fell in love with a visiting Chinese student with whom he began a lifelong affair. His mistress persuaded him to travel to her home country where he embarked on a series of expeditions to the frontiers of the ancient empire. He searched for evidence to bolster a conviction that the Chinese were responsible for hundreds of humankind's most familiar innovationsincluding printing the compass explosives suspension bridges even toilet paperoften centuries before others. His journeys took him across war-torn China consolidating his admiration for the Chinese. After the war he determined to announce what he'd discovered &amp; began writing Science &amp; Civilization in China describing the country's long history of invention &amp; technology. By the time he died he'd produced almost single-handedly 17 volumes making him the greatest one-man encyclopedist ever. Epic &amp; intimate The Man Who Loved China tells the sweeping story of China thru Needham's life. Here's a tale of what makes men nations &amp; humankind greatrelated by one of the world's best storytellers.
language: English
title: The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom
publisher: Harper (NYC)