Frances Wood (; born 1948) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

librarian, sinologue and historian known for her writings on Chinese history, including

Marco Polo Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...

, life in the Chinese

treaty ports Treaty ports (; ja, 条約港) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Japanese Empire. ...

, and the First Emperor of China.

Biography

Wood was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1948, and went to

art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can offer elementary, secondary, post-seco ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in 1967, before going to

Newnham College Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicent ...

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, where she studied

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

. She went to China to study

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...

in 1975–1976. Ksenia Kepping and Frances Wood

Wood joined the staff of the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

in 1977 as a junior curator, and later served as curator of Chinese collections until her retirement in 2013. She is also a member of the steering committee of the

International Dunhuang Project The International Dunhuang Project (IDP) is an international collaborative effort to conserve, catalogue and digitise manuscripts, printed texts, paintings, textiles and artefacts from the Mogao caves at the Western Chinese city of Dunhuang and v ...

, and the editor of the ''Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society''. She was also a governor of

Ashmount Primary School The London Borough of Islington ( ) is a London borough in Inner London. Whilst the majority of the district is located in north London, the borough also includes a significant area to the south which forms part of central London. Islington has ...

for 20 years, relinquishing this post on the completion of her current term of office in July 2014. She has argued in her 1995 book, '' Did Marco Polo go to China?'', that the book of Marco Polo (''Il Milione'') is not the account of a single person, but is a collection of travellers' tales. This book's claims about Polo's travels has been heavily criticized by Stephen G. Haw,

David O. Morgan David O. Morgan (1945–2019) was a British historian who was professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His book ''The Mongols'' is considered a standard in the field. Originally published in 1986, a new expanded edit ...

and

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...

as lacking basic academic rigor. In May 2012, she appeared on ''In Our Time'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

, talking about Marco Polo; she appeared again in the 2015 episode on

Chinese legalism Legalism or ''Fajia'' is one of the six classical schools of thought in Chinese philosophy. Literally meaning "house of (administrative) methods / standards (法, Fa)", the Fa "school" represents several branches of "men of methods", in the ...

. In December 2012 she appeared on the ''

Christmas University Challenge ''Christmas University Challenge'' is a British quiz programme which has aired on BBC Two since 2011. It is a spin-off from University Challenge that airs daily over the Christmas period, and features teams of noteworthy alumni from British u ...

'' special as a member of the

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sid ...

team.

Bibliography

* 1985 ''Chinese illustration''. British Library. * 1991 (with Norah M. Titley). ''Oriental Gardens''. British Library. * 1995 ''Did Marco Polo go to China?''. Secker & Warburg. * 2000 ''Hand-grenade practice in Peking: my part in the Cultural Revolution''. John Murray. * 2000 ''No Dogs and Not Many Chinese: Treaty Port Life in China, 1843-1943''. John Murray. * 2002 ''The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia''. University of California Press. * 2005 ''The Forbidden City''. British Museum Press. * 2007 ''The First Emperor of China''. Profile Books. * 2008 ''China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors''. St. Martin's Press. * 2009 ''The Lure of China: Writers from Marco Polo to J. G. Ballard''. Yale University Press. * 2010 (with Mark Barnard). ''The Diamond Sutra: The Story of the World's Earliest Dated Printed Book''. British Library. * 2017 ''Great Books of China''. Head of Zeus.

References

External links

Frances Wood
on

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usu ...

(broadcast 5 December 2010)
Frances Wood on In Our Time discussing Marco Polo (broadcast 24 May 2012)

Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 18 March 2016 (video)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Frances Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Employees of the British Library English historians Living people British sinologists 1948 births