Shaping the Blue Dragon: Maritime China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (Liverpool UP, 2024) offers a vivid look at China's dynamic and longstanding relationship with the sea. Through the lives of pirates, maritime advisors, cartographers, admirals, writers, and travelers, Ronald C. Po brings maritime China to life — revealing a world far more connected and sea-orientated than often assumed.
Richly detailed and captivating, Shaping the Blue Dragon should interest those in Chinese history, East Asian history, and the maritime world. But this is also a book for anyone who loves great stories. Packed with figures from a pirate king ruling the South China Seas to a gentry son-turned-traveler shipwrecked on his voyage to Southeast Asia, Shaping the Blue Dragon is a compelling blend of narrative and analysis.

During our conversation we also talked about Po's first book, The Blue Frontier: Maritime Vision and Power in the Qing Empire (Cambridge UP, 2018) (a must-read!). Listeners who want to know more about this book in particular should also check out the episode about the book The Chinese History Podcast

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