Lords of the Rim

I have read this one twice and bought several copies to give to those who have an interest in China. Worth the read. Full history of China. Written by a British diplomat who grew up in China. Highly recommended. An Englishman gave me my first copy.

Dealing with China or overseas Chinese? This book provides a fast-track to understand some basic tenets of the culture, their background, emergence and relevance in today's business world.

The Seagraves never fail to inform, Their efforts are stellar in all books that I've read and reviewed. Always a five-star production.

Great book and lots of good info. Seagrave books never disappoint.

Thank you!

This is about "how to be a billionaire". It is a hybrid of Chinese history, business entrepreneurship, and financial market evolutions. The focus is about how many Chinese adventurers left China, for lands far away, and built the most successful international business network that Asia has ever seen, if not the world. All three are things that I love, and this was reflected by the author as well. This is a densely packed book, full of deep drill down research covering thousands of years. There are no shortcuts here, just quality writing, professionally researched and well explained.I have heard of only a few of these key Chinese figures like Sun Tzu, who created the Art of War. He is often considered the inspiration for Machiavelli's "The Prince". His famous 13 chapters are now basic reading for many Japanese executives within major Keiretsu groups like Mitsubishi. The discipline needed for business has come from war. In Japan, business is today's modern war.Also described is San Bao, the Chinese sailor who discovered Africa, Europe and even America in 1421, well before Christopher Columbus. He is considered the actual figure from which "Sinbad the Sailor" was modeled after. The world's seven seas have been sailed by the Chinese sailors for a long time. He took huge ships as long as modern football fields in massive groups. His flotilla of Vast Red Ships sailed to Africa, Australia, Europe and even North & South America! His trips were documented in stone tablets left in all of these locations that were later authenticated.There are limited gold deposits within India, but there is plenty of gold within India today. This is mainly because of a long history involving Chinese trade. This gold story is well explained, one of many that makes your head shake in amazement from the author's clear description of events. When many visitors see theater they notice the make of the actors and can see the direct influence that originally came from Chinese opera in classical Indian live performances today. Trades brings people and cultures together is many amazing ways.Sterling Seagraves, knows his subject well, perhaps too well. Some of the pages almost seem like text books crammed full of information you feel almost guilty about not fully absorbing right away. His ability to bring a complex observation and explain it so simply is a real skill. I did not know how Chinese dialects came about as so different to the ear, yet similar in a written form. His ability to explain this and connect it to the creation of the "Great Wall" was fascinating.I did not understand the kind of hometown connections that connect certain kinds of Overseas Chinese dominated businesses had. I did not know how politics compliment them, in one market after another, no matter what the country or region. So much, from this master storyteller was well explained. The most recent 60+ years since Mao, had less of an impact, as it was subject matter that was more modern and familiar.The Top 3 Takeaways from this book that really impact any reader are:1) There is a very long history in China and the rest of Asia that has no comparison in Europe.2) Business in Asia has been at the core of shipping and trade for much of the region that is connected by water.3) Just like Europe, food and culture across Asia has widely spread all over and continued in the business attitudes used today.No matter what level of Chinese history you may know or understand, this book will upgrade you. The traditions of Overseas Chinese and the businesses that they built are complex and very successful. It is not a smooth history, one full of challenges, and this book explains them well. You wish the book continued despite its more than 400+ pages. Very much worth a read, a nice pleasurable long one. Highly Recommended!Please visit us for our Friday Feature Review where TMJ Partners Blog will review books, movies, services and anything else with a financial theme. Follow us now for our free TMJ Partners weekly updates on LinkedIn, home of TopMoneyJobs.com. Thank you for reading and learning more about how money is made in finance!

I was pleasantly surprised by this offering of Sterling Seagrave's as normally, his works would be double the thickness of this book but hey, isn't it this saying that don't judge the book by its cover? The book spanned thousands of years, going back through time in China illustrating to us what events led to the exodus of Chinese overseas. I simply couldn't put the book down reading about those legendary statesmen like Sun Ping, Sun Tzu, Wu Tze Shih, Chao Tsao, & so forth. I vaguely knew of what my older generations told me about them when I was a kid but now, everything is coming back to me. Sterling Seagrave is at his best unwoven all the complex threads that have had been set up by those master puppeteer, who in this case is none other than overseas Chinese. I don't believe the author is making up stories here at all. Many readers found the content rather far-fetched but people in the region would disagree with that because South-East Asia is undeniably an interesting place to be. Rather, I'm astounded by his in-depth knowledge of what's happening in the South East Asia. Many of the incidents mentioned were happening in my time & I could still vividly remembered what I read in the newspaper or what I heard from the older generations who used to work for those tycoons. Whilst it's true that the second part of the book is becoming overbearing (probably it's because I have known of the incidents already or that it's already been covered in other Sterling Seagrave's offering), overall, this is still a well-researched book. A job very well-done, indeed.

This is a fine little book comprised of, as the Publisher's Weekly review put it, a Chinese merchants' history. If you are wondering what you will find within its pages, the subtitle, The Invisible Empire of the Overseas Chinese, is a good indicator. Lords of the Rim is a tapestry of sorts: a series of case studies and interconnected anecdotes involving overseas Chinese and the often-secret societies they have formed. Sterling Seagrave traces their origins, shows us where they're at presently, and explains how they make their money. Mr. Seagrave is a journalist-turned-author and his research, as always, is impressive. His writing style is simple, but effective. He's exceptionally good at making history come alive, and is at once intellectual and fun.I've heard critics say he's prone to invention, but I've never heard of anyone finding evidence of this. He remains one of my favourite writers; his book about Ferdinand Marcos is spellbinding as are his The Soong Dynasty and Dragon Lady. His depth of knowledge regarding East Asia is staggering. One of my only reservations with this book is the author's prediction that parts of southern China may one day secede. Im not so sure I agree, and it seems to me that predictions on that scale are not one of mankind's strong suits. That aside, Lords of the Rim is a nice, informative book.Troy Parfitt, author

This year (2017) they finally caught up with him. In this book SS dishes the dirt on so many bad hats, not all of them Chinese, that it was bound to happen sooner or later. The theme of the book, the multi-thousand-year rise and rise of the Overseas Chinese maffiosi, is so important and fascinating that one forgives a very amateur historian and very professional investigative journalist his inability to keep to a coherent time-line - he simply cannot resist putting in all the anecdotes he had unearthed about all the underworld dons, black marketeers, smugglers and collaborators that swarm through his pages, even if it meant back-tracking or leaping forward in time. Impossible to treat as history or even verified fact, the story is a good one and the subject essential reading for anyone having anything at all to do with the Far East, which today includes virtually all of us. I have personally travelled and worked in 11 of the Far Eastern countries concerned, and wish I had read this excellent background material much earlier.

This book is amazing! It is a very good introduction to the History of China and its culture.The only drawback is the physical binding of the book that makes difficult to hold while reading it. But the content is amazing!!

gives a good background

excellent book, a " must read" for anyone with an international outlook

Sehr interessantes Buch über die Auslandschinesen in (hauptsächlich Südostasien).Sehr kenntnisreich, kann ich nur empfehlen.