Finished Odd Arne Westad's Restless Empire: China and the World Since 1750. Aside from the author's explorations of hybrid identities and a little tidbit on Mao's Hundred Flowers Campaign -- one which differs completely from what I learned at school, and I'm inclined to think Westad is correct -- this was mostly a refresher of sorts for me. A great book for anyone unfamiliar with this period in Chinese history.

I also read From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia by Pankaj Mishra. While Mishra did a great job of covering the basics of three Asian intellectuals and how their responses to contact with Western powers in the imperial heydays shaped the nascent nationalisms of some Asians, he then went on to fit these facts into a narrative that can charitably be called tendentious. Jamal al-Din al-Afghani ( a Persian, in fact, never mind the name ), Liang Qichao, and Rabindranath Tagore are trotted out to present a Muslim, a Confucian, and a Hindu denunciation of the West. That's not to say that these men didn't have anything to say on the matter. Far from it. Trenchant criticisms and observations made with a Tocqueville-esque perspicacity abound. The fault with the book came in what was omitted, by design or otherwise. What he tries to sell as opposition to dominance comes across as opposition to being dominated. That's a rather risible stance when one is trying claim the moral high ground. I was hoping for little gems of consilience here, what with not just one world culture but three having an outsiders perspective looking in. Still, the legacies of al-Afghani and Liang have relevance today, from bin Laden to Mao and how two world cultures present challenges to West, especially America.