Jonathan D. Spence, popular China scholar, dead at age 85

By HILLEL ITALIE
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The longtime Yale University professor and sinologist Jonathan D. Spence has died at age 85. The British-born scholar’s book “The Search for Modern China” became standard reading in his field. The 870-page publication began in the 17th century, at the peak of the Ming dynasty, and continued through the 1989 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. Spence authored more than a dozen books on China including a short biography of Mao Zedong; “The Chan’s Great Continent,” which looked into how Westerners perceived China, and “The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci.” His wife and fellow Yale professor, Annping Chin, said he died Saturday at his home in West Haven, Connecticut.