About the Author

Peter J. Golas is professor emeritus at the University of Denver and the author of the volume on the history of Chinese mining in Joseph Needham's Science and Civilisation in China.

Reviews

Picturing Technology develops a rich and convincing analysis of technology's place in the material, intellectual and aesthetic traditions of Chinese civilisation. This pathbreaking work by one of the leading historians of technology in China also challenges us to rethink a key question about the rise of the modern world: how closely do skills in technological illustration relate to mechanical understanding, invention or technological achievement? -- Francesca Bray, University of Edinburgh