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God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. Jonathan D. Spence. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. $27.50 cloth.
In recent years, scholars have debated whether there will be a future "clash of cultures" between East and West as the world moves toward increasing globalization. Jonathan Spence's account of a Chinese who tried to mold & apply Western Christianity to his experiences in China is an example of how cultural interaction can spawn events detrimental to a country's inhabitants.
The master story-teller, Spence, weaves a fastpaced narrative account of the life of Hong Xiuquan, a native of Guangdong Province. In 1837, Hong, after failing the Confucian state examination a second time and near death with sickness, has a dream in which he ascends...