“To see the future, one must grasp the past,” said Confucius. Jonathan Fenby, the author of The Penguin History of Modern China takes the expertise gained as former editor of the Observer, the South China Morning Post and Reuters World Service to flesh this out in an engaging discussion of how the history of China – from being the sick man of Asia in the 19^th century through civil war, revolution, turmoil and the rise of 21^st century China - impinges on its present.