Sinologist's dictionary recounts Chinese history from 'a to 'z'

Professor of Chinese politics in Australia hopes his scholarly work will remedy misconceptions about both China's past and present

As a young student at Cambridge University's Gonville and Caius College, Kerry Brown was fascinated by an elderly man who would shuffle into the college hall on most nights to eat dinner.

That man was Joseph Needham, regarded as one of the greatest Sinologists of the 20th century.