“We hear, in the media and in comments by politicians, a lot of very glib statements that oversimplify China, that suggest all of China is one thing or one way,” says Michael Szonyi, a professor of Chinese history and director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. China, of course, is as complicated as — if not more complicated than — any other country, and misunderstandings about it among Americans are both common and consequential. The relationship with China is “arguably — in anyone’s estimation — the most important bilateral relationship that the U.S. has,” says Jennifer Rudolph, a professor of modern Chinese political history at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Jennifer and Michael edited a book to address 36 questions that ordinary people, especially Americans, ask about China. The book is titled The China Questions: Critical Insights Into a Rising Power, and it draws on the expertise of the Fairbank Center and prompts these accomplished academics to write 2,000-word essays for a general audience that they typically never aim to reach.
View the entire list of questions on the Harvard University Press website. A sampling:
“Is the Chinese Communist Regime Legitimate?” (by Elizabeth J. Perry) “Is There Environmental Awareness in China?” (by Karen Thornber) “Will China Lead Asia?” (by Odd Arne Westad) “What Does the Rise of China Mean for the United States?” (by Robert S. Ross) “Can China and Japan Ever Get Along?” (by Ezra F. Vogel) “Will Urbanization Save the Chinese Economy or Destroy It?” (by Meg Rithmire) “Why Does the End of the One-Child Policy Matter?” (by Susan Greenhalgh) “Why Do Classic Chinese Novels Matter?” (by Wai-yee Li)Recommendations:
Jeremy: Drawn Together: The Collected Works of R. and A. Crumb, by Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb. The husband-and-wife pair became known for their funny, vulgar comics in the late 1970s, though Robert’s zany work goes back a decade earlier.
Jennifer: Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, by Katherine Boo. A work of creative nonfiction about a young boy and his family, and how the system is stacked against them.
Michael: The Fairbank Center website, which features a blog and a podcast. Also, Michael’s new book, titled The Art of Being Governed: Everyday Politics in Late Imperial China. And The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World, by Greg Grandin.
Kaiser: The North Water: A Novel, by Ian McGuire. A dramatic tale that includes whaling, murder, and brutality, and whose overall flavor Kaiser describes as Joseph Conrad meets Cormac McCarthy meets Herman Melville meets Jack London.
Gerry Shih on China’s Uyghur Muslims, under pressure at home and abroad
Yukon Huang, the China economy contrarian
Jerry Yang of Yahoo: Why I Believed in Alibaba
Inside China’s AI revolution, with Jessi Hempel
Jiayang Fan on beauty in China
Stephen Roach on the unhealthy economic codependency of China and America
Rana Mitter on studying the Nanjing Massacre
Scott Tong on his surprising family history
Why China needs a #MeToo campaign but won’t allow it: A conversation with Leta Hong Fincher
When American pilots fell out of the Chinese sky
Jane Perlez on Trump’s visit to Beijing
Gary Liu, CEO of the South China Morning Post
Takeaways from China’s 19th Party Congress, with Bill Bishop and Jude Blanchette
The China-Africa relationship, a decade after its blossoming
Authoritarian schooling in Shanghai vs. the American approach
A conversation with Chinese adoptees in the U.S.
Alarm bells in the ivory tower: Jim Millward on the Cambridge University Press censorship fiasco
Richard McGregor on the complicated ties between China, Japan, and the U.S. since World War II
North Korea behind the scenes, with Evan Osnos
China in drag: Michael Bristow discusses his new book on China’s — and one man’s — incredible transformation
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