The threshold to the third millennium is marked by the dramatic rise of China as a superpower. Sabine Dabringhaus tells the story of a country that has sought a unique path through the 20th century, navigating between tradition and modernity, freedom and oppression, state communism and predatory capitalism. From the fall of the last dynasty in 1911, the exuberant nationalism of the 1920s and 1930s, to Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution and economic liberalization, profound cultural and societal upheavals have taken place in China. China in the 20th century was a land of contrasts in an age of extremes. Current issues—pollution, corruption, and censorship—can only be understood against the backdrop of the last century. Sabine Dabringhaus traces these fundamental forces.