《The Man Who Loved China》

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In sumptuous and illuminating detail, Simon Winchester, the bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman ("Elegant and scrupulous"— New York Times Book Review ) and Krakatoa ("A mesmerizing page-turner"— Time ) brings to life the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, long the world's most technologically advanced country. No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual, who practiced nudism and was devoted to a quirky brand of folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he instantly fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair. He soon became fascinated with China, and his mistress swiftly persuaded the ever-enthusiastic Needham to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire. He searched everywhere for evidence to bolster his conviction that the Chinese were responsible for hundreds of mankind's most familiar innovations—including printing, the compass, explosives, suspension bridges, even toilet paper—often centuries before the rest of the world. His thrilling and dangerous journeys, vividly recreated by Winchester, took him across war-torn China to far-flung outposts, consolidating his deep admiration for the Chinese people. After the war, Needham was determined to tell the world what he had discovered, and began writing his majestic Science and Civilisation in China , describing the country's long and astonishing history of invention and technology. By the time he died, he had produced, essentially single-handedly, seventeen immense volumes, marking him as the greatest one-man encyclopedist ever. Both epic and intimate, The Man Who Loved China tells the sweeping story of China through Needham's remarkable life. Here is an unforgettable tale of what makes men, nations, and, indeed, mankind itself great—related by one of the world's inimitable storytellers.

文思淼（Simon Winchester）先生 ，出生于1944年9月28日，因其在新闻和文学方面的贡献在2006年获得英国女王伊丽莎白二世的新年荣誉表彰，获官佐勋章（OBE，Ｏrder of the British Empire）。他是位地道的英国作家，毕业于牛津大学圣凯瑟琳学院地质学系，并曾在非洲及海上石油钻井平台工作。其后他曾担任英国《卫报》20余年的外派记者，并赢得多项荣誉。近期一直为国家地理杂志、Condé Nast Traveler, Smithsonian 等旅游杂志提供专稿， 并为纽约时报撰写书评。他在《卫报》外派期间曾亲睹爱尔兰“血色星期日”事件，在成为一名成功的作家之前，他曾作为被阿根廷军队关押在福克兰群岛的记者而出名。在BBC电视公司1992年拍摄的关于此次福克兰岛入侵事件的电视片《一个非礼貌的行径》中，以他为原型的角色由演员Paul Geoffrey扮演。文思淼一生游历过世界很多地方，现居住在美国麻省和苏格兰西部岛屿上。《教授与狂人》、《喀拉喀托火山》等作品多次登上《纽约时报》畅销书榜单。《李约瑟——一个揭开中国神秘面纱的人》是他最新完成的作品。

作品列表

• 2008 - 炸药、书和指南针——李约瑟的传奇一生（英文版书名）

• 2005 - 有裂缝的边缘世界：记1906年美国与加利福尼亚州大地震

• 2004 – 文思淼的加尔各答（在印度的短篇作品文集）

• 2003 -《喀拉喀托火山》

• 2003 – 一切的意义——记牛津英语辞典的创作

• 2001 – 改变世界的人：威廉•史密斯和英国当代地理学（即《教授与狂人》）

• 1999 – 断裂的地区：重返巴尔干

• 1998 – 克洛索恩的外科医生：一个杀人犯、疯子和牛津大辞典创作的传奇

• 1996 – 世界中心的河流：上溯长江之游

• 1995 – 小世界：全球摄影项目1987-94 （与Martin Parr合著）

• 1992 – 太平洋恶梦：日本怎样挑起第三次世界大战（科幻小说）

• 1992 – 香港：龙的传人 （与Rich Browne, James Marshall合著）

• 1991 – 上升太平洋：新世界文化的诞生

• 1988 – 韩国：神奇土地之旅

• 前哨：大英帝国现存文物之旅

• 1984 – 那些贵族：当代英国的阶级与权利

• 1983 – 囚旅日记：阿根廷

• 1983 – 石头帝国：拉吉的建筑（与 Jan Morris 合著）

• 1976 – 美国心跳American Heartbeat

• 1975 – 神圣的恐怖