One of the world’s leading authorities on Chinese history, Professor Jonathan Spence, will give the 60th anniversary BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures.

Jonathan Spence is the Sterling Professor of History at Yale University in the United States, where he teaches Chinese history. English by birth, Professor Spence has written many acclaimed books on Chinese civilisation and the role of history in shaping modern China.

Professor Spence said: "It had never occurred to me that I might be asked to give the Reith Lectures. Now that I have been asked, and for the sixtieth anniversary lecture no less, all I can think of is the American stock phrase 'Out of sight!'."

Mark Damazer, Controller of BBC Radio 4, said:

"I am thrilled that Jonathan Spence is to be the Reith lecturer. His body of work on China is extraordinary. He will bring a completely different set of perspectives to China - just before the Olympics begin. I am confident that Professor Spence will break fresh ground and force the audience to rethink some of its assumptions - very much in the finest tradition of the BBC's most prestigious set of lectures."

Outlining the content of his lectures, Professor Spence said: "I am calling these lectures Chinese Vistas in order to suggest the long view that we need to have when we think about China today. China's current options, for both good and ill, are intricately enmeshed with her past experiences."

"In the first lecture we will reflect on China's most enduring thinker, Confucius, and see how his message has survived countless negative assaults, and why he is being recycled by the Chinese Communist leadership today."

"In the second lecture, English Lessons, we will look at China's relations with Great Britain through the prism of three centuries of trade, warfare, unequal treaties and missionary endeavours that shaped their mutual perceptions."

"In the third lecture, American Dreams, we will explore the two centuries in which the United States gradually moved from being a dominant beacon of freedom and democracy for China, to a more demanding global rival during World War II and after."

And in the last lecture, The Body Beautiful, we will see how China has slowly shaped its sense of Chinese bodies to answer different needs, from languorous courtship and formalized martial arts down to the demanding arenas of team sports and the ultimate Olympic challenges which she will host this August."

There will be four Reith Lectures, all of which will be broadcast weekly at 9.00am on BBC Radio 4, beginning on 3 June. The lectures will also be broadcast on the BBC World Service and they will be available on this site.

Professor Jonathan Spence

Professor Spence was named a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George and in 2006 a Fellow at Clare College, Cambridge. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985 and was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1988, the same year he was appointed to the Council of Scholars at the Library of Congress. In 1993 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society and in 1997 was named a corresponding fellow of the British Academy.

His books include The Death of Woman Wang (1978); The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (1984); The Question of Hu (1987); Chinese Roundabout: Essays on History and Culture; The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution 1895-1980; The Chan's Great Continent: China in Western Minds; and God's Chinese Son (1994).