Book review: Understanding China through Comics

“Understanding China through Comics” is part one of a three-book series about the ancient history of China. This volume covers the years 2697 BC – 220 AD, starting from the Yellow Emperor through the end of the Han Dynasty. Its focus is on contextualizing China for an outsider and its comic format makes it a smooth and easy read.

Liu does a formidable job of explaining China throughout the book, focusing on clear developments such as Confucianism, the exam-education system and the evolution of government. It does, however, occasionally oversimplify facts and lacks the richness of detail of a good history book.

Also keep in mind, there are two more volumes, so the book will end very abruptly and may seem short.

Get it from Amazon (there’s even a Kindle version!).