[Wikipedia] John Mark Dutton Elvin was an English and Australian academic. A professor emeritus of Chinese history at Australian National University, he specialised in the late imperial period. He was also emeritus fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford.
![“Perhaps the most overpowering contrast [with the West] is the virtual absence in premodern China of the idea of a transcendent creator God who is distinct from Nature in a fundamental qualitative sense. The Chinese had notions of a supreme god in various guises (that is, ‘hypatotheism’), and also…” quote by Mark Elvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/053/mark-elvin-51757_china_perhaps-the-most-overpowering-contrast-w_1625650.jpg)
![“[There is a] gulf that can exist between different emotional and perceptual worlds—all 'Chinese'—in recent times [post-Deng Xiaoping].” quote by Mark Elvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/3de/mark-elvin-51757_quote_there-is-a-gulf-that-can-exist-between-d_2001605.jpg)
![“The resurrection of this once popular work [Ping Jinya's forgotten bestseller of the 1930s, Tides in the Human Sea ] is a reminder that the histories of 'Chinese literature' currently in circulation are far from being histories of what most people actually read.” quote by Mark Elvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/fb5/mark-elvin-51757_books_the-resurrection-of-this-once-popular-wo_2339656.jpg)
