My next guest on the weekly Marvels of China: Pathways to the Pacific Rim Show is renowned author, master storyteller and historian Eric Jay Dolin.
His book When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs and Money in the Age of Sail illuminates its readers with one of the least understood areas of history. Throughout this epic journey to the past, Dolin retraces the complicated history shared between the "Middle Kingdom" of China and the newly-independent United States of America in the late-18th and early 19th centuries.
"That is why every time I heard or read news stories about America and China, it occurred to me that-given the intense focus on the evolving ties between these two countries- it might be revealing to explore the origins of their relationship. Therein lay the genesis of this book, whose goal is to tell the story of how America and China first met, and what their relationship was like in the beginning. As it turns out, the story revolves mostly around trade, for that was the primary medium through which America and China came to know each other."
Far earlier than most Americans realize, there has been a hearty appetite for Chinese products in this country -and a complicated relationship to go with it. After independence, and with the USA cut off from trade with Europe and the West Indies, Americans were ambitious, bound and determined to compete on the world stage -and off to China they went.
As you can imagine there's much more to this engaging story, and Eric Jay Dolin will be with us.
Tune in this coming Saturday morning, May 21, 10:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m. to AM1490 WGCH and everywhere at WGCH.com.
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