ABSTRACT
In 1997, a polling firm asked a focus group of Shanghai youth to select during which era they would most like to be alive.1 A plurality of the students chose the Tang dynasty (618-907), explaining that it was the period of “great China.”2
These results reflect a widely held belief that the Tang era was a unique historical conjuncture of Chinese cosmopolitanism and power. Perhaps even more so than today, Tang society was remarkably receptive to foreign influences in nearly every cultural practice, from music to literature, food to clothes, and religion to medicine. Moreover, the Tang empire was the dominant power in East Asia and had the most powerful economy in the world, further elevating its reputation in the eyes of Chinese today.
