my book review

In the late qing dynasty, China went from prosperity to decline, and the image of China was severely distorted in the eyes of foreigners. In order to change the prejudice of some westerners towards China, gu hongming, who had a good knowledge of both the east and the west and was a maverick, resolutely wrote the English work Chinese spirit in 1914, which maintained the dignity of Chinese culture. In his book the Chinese spirit, gu draws comparisons between Chinese and americans, British, germans and French, highlighting the Chinese character and the three characteristics of Chinese civilization: deep, broad and simple, indicating that Chinese people have these four outstanding spiritual qualities alone. Of course, in that era, some of gu's thoughts were inevitably extreme and biased, and it was impossible for any nation in the world to have perfect thoughts. We should take the attitude of "taking the essence and discarding the dross", treat our own culture objectively and learn from the good points of others. After reading this book, we have to say that gu hong-ming is a genius, a man who has learned Chinese and western, mastered nine languages, obtained 13 doctorates and had profound thoughts.