New edition makes Chinese history easy for foreign scholars

He believes Chinese historians need "to break through the single-line narrative mode, in which history is represented merely as political history and revolutionary history, and greatly expand our research horizon."

Zhao Jianying, who heads China Social Science Press, says: "We've endeavored to translate many overseas historiographical writings into Chinese. These books greatly enrich our own scholars' research methods.

"However, it's better to go the opposite direction. Overseas academia needs to know about development and creativity of Chinese historiography nowadays."

He says the book represents the highest level of historical studies on the Chinese mainland.

French historian Robert Frank, secretary-general of International Committee of Historical Sciences, strongly recommends the book to Western historians.

"When you talk about a nation's history, you also have to insert it into a global perspective. That means you need to integrate the history of others (in such studies)," he said at the seminar in Jinan.

As an expert on World War II, he is also interested in the book's relevant contents. He point sout some French historians are breaking down Eurocentrism in their recent publishing and consider World War II to have started in 1937, when China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression(1937-45) broke out, rather than in 1939.

Frank also expects Chinese historians to have less Sinocentrism in their studies.

He says there will be debates in such pursuits, which are needed.

"What matters more in the study of history is the questions, not the answers," he says.