I feel honoured and privileged to participate in this ceremony celebrating The China Quarterly's 50th year. Throughout the years the journal has remained the core source for retrospective information on modern China. It is the journal staff, the editorial board, the readership, and the writers who submit papers that have kept the journal at the top of the field. Over the years this tradition forged by those who went before me, has shaped and greatly facilitated what an editor can do with the journal. It seems that most editors have found it wise to build upon what was already there while attempting to expand coverage and encouraging work in new or somewhat neglected areas, and I was no exception. Since I am the first editor who was not involved in The China Quarterly's 35th anniversary symposium, although I was present at that event, I will concentrate a bit more on details of my editorship.

I took over as editor of The China Quarterly as Hong Kong was about to complete its transition to a new administration. Upon my assumption of the editorship, two very different factors impacted my work. Naturally one was events that unfolded in China and the second was the policies of the journal's owner (the School of Oriental and African Studies [SOAS]) and the presses that were in charge of getting the journal out (first Oxford University Press and then Cambridge University Press). Past editors of The China Quarterly have noted the difficulties associated with taking on the editorship in times of political and social turbulence in China.Footnote ¹ That generally was not the case for me. Former editors also have noted turbulence in the journal's relationship to its home and that did prove time consuming on occasion during my tenure.

I would say transition was the overall theme during my editorship – both in China and in terms of the journal. Deng Xiaoping, the man most associated with China's transformation and transition to a more market-oriented economy, died in February 1997. That was followed by the completion of Hong Kong's transition to Chinese rule in July of my first year. The following year, Zhu Rongji succeeded Li Peng as Premier. In contrast to my first two years, 1999 saw some more traumatic events in China: severe sandstorms in Beijing, China's announcement of the development of a neutron bomb, and the traumatic suppression of the Falun Gong movement. December of 1999 also marked the completion of the transition of Macau to Chinese rule. The following year, China began long distance resettlement in connection with the Sanxia or Three Gorges Project and the government consolidated internet regulations while controversy arose with the Vatican over the canonization of 120 saints whom the Holy See declared were martyred in China. In 2001, China scored some international successes with the International Olympic Committee awarding Beijing the 2008 Olympic Games and in the same year the country joined the World Trade Organization. Conversely, tensions with the US grew that year over the forced landing of an American spy plane in Hainan along with heightened alerts in the Taiwan Straits. US–China strains were somewhat ameliorated in 2002 as US President George W. Bush visited China. Finally, as Julia Strauss took over as The China Quarterly editor, Hu Jintao replaced Jiang Zemin as head of the Communist Party.

In many ways the challenges I initially faced upon becoming editor were similar to those noted by Brian Hook in his 1995 editors' perspective at the time of the 35th year anniversary of The China Quarterly.Footnote ² There was an administrative and managerial challenge made more difficult due to pressures inside SOAS caused by general under-resourcing, ongoing changes in the general UK university system and the pressure that this put on a multi-disciplinary journal with service to the international academic community. If anything, such pressures had increased since Brian's time and perhaps were more personally felt as the SOAS Geography Department of which I was a member came under fire and was closed before the end of my editorship. There was also the personal challenge for me to spread out beyond my interests and to look at all the changes going on in China and China's relationship to the world in order to facilitate widening the disciplinary aspects covered in the journal. I know other editors also have felt that expanding the topics covered in The China Quarterly is a good if sometimes challenging idea.

The impact of the Hong Kong handover on The China Quarterly was more than a symbolic marker for the transition between David Shambaugh and me. David had come up with the excellent idea of a three-paper set to commemorate the change to show a British view, a local Hong Kong view, and a Chinese view. While difficulties confirming authors arose, first David, and to lesser extent I, had to meet the challenge of assuring we had a set which gave three representative perspectives. In contrast, my later attempt to put together a slightly differently focused three-paper series for the 1999 Macau transition proved even more difficult. In the end only one general paper, which Herbert Yee and I co-authored, appeared in our December 1999 issue.Footnote ³ I regard this limited contribution to mark what was the formal end of foreign enclaves on the China coast – a city I have written on, mapped, lived in – as one of my failures as editor. An area where previous editors had little success and I also was not able to move forward was in getting The China Quarterly carried for individual sales in bookstores.

Special Issues

The China Quarterly special issues certainly reflect the times, and in some cases, the influence of the editor on the journal. This was the case during my editorship. Some special issues were driven by my own research interests and areas I felt were somewhat neglected by the journal whereas others represented opportunities that arose from various connections made on trips as editor or personal contacts. I can claim little credit for the first special issue to appear with my name as editor of the journal, “Contemporary Taiwan.”Footnote ⁴ This was really the work of David Shambaugh but it was easy for me to help out in the final stages as I was one of the contributors. “Reappraising Republican China” was also convened and planned in David's time but a topic of keen interest to me.Footnote ⁵ Moreover, I had an overlapping interest with David in moving the journal toward pre-1949 topics, so I quickly became involved in the final production of this special issue and the book that followed SOAS Contemporary China Institute's “Studies on Contemporary China” series.Footnote ⁶ I was happy to see the trend to work on historical topics continue under Julia Strauss.Footnote ⁷

The “China's Environment” special issue was the first one I did wholly on my own.Footnote ⁸ It was my own field of interest and time has shown that the environment would become a crucial topic in China studies. We were able to lay down a marker of the environmental situation as of the late 1990s. The special issue on “The People's Republic of China after 50 Years” marked a political milestone and was an attempt to build on “The People's Republic of China after 40 Years” volume.Footnote ⁹ The “50 Years” Special Issue included repeat performances by John Burns and Michael Yahuda, as well as some new topics as we tried to broaden the view – the environment, urbanization, intellectuals, art and literature. I think this issue did a good job at showing the progress during the ten years since its predecessor as well as foreshadowing some of the bumps that came to appear on the road ahead.

“Elections and Democracy in Greater China” also was a special issue in the traditional mould of China Quarterly topics.Footnote ¹⁰ Ramon Myers approached me about doing such an issue. A conference held at Stanford's Hoover Institution in 1999 brought together an interesting mix of papers, mostly about the People's Republic, but also contained works on Taiwan and Hong Kong suggesting that these polities might act as models for future developments on the mainland. Likewise, Steve Goldstein proposed the idea to me for “Taiwan in the 20th Century.”Footnote ¹¹ I got much more involved in the detailed planning of this issue. It was Steve's idea to try to bridge the period before 1945 with what happened after 1950 and this idea appealed to me as very timely since there was a surge in writing about the Japanese period in Taiwan. This special issue went on to become one of our best-selling book issues up to that time and kicked off our newly formed “China Quarterly Special Issues New Series” with Cambridge University Press.Footnote ¹²

A special issue that fell into my lap, “Religion in China Today”, appeared after Julia Strauss had taken over as editor.Footnote ¹³ It was board member Pitman Potter who facilitated the contact with the issue editor, Dan Overmyer. I saw this issue as another way in which The China Quarterly could stimulate further publication on a topic not so often covered in the past and of immediate relevance due to the suppression of the Falun Gong, the controversies with the Vatican, and growing numbers of religious adherents in China. Likewise, David Goodman approached me about a special issue on “China Campaign to ‘Open Up the West’” which looked at the impact of this policy at various administrative levels and was completed under my successor.Footnote ¹⁴ This issue appealed to me as it tried to look at what the impact of policy would be on the ground in various provincial-level units.

“China and Europe since 1978: A European Perspective” was the last special issue to appear with me as editor.Footnote ¹⁵ While material on Chinese and European relations was appearing in various sources,Footnote ¹⁶ the amount of coverage on this topic was small when compared to US–China relations at that time. Thus I thought this issue could help redress that imbalance and provide an opportunity for Europeans to candidly assess their relationship to China. Judging from recent developments, some of the ideas in this issue are still relevant today.

Trends in The China Quarterly during My Years

During my editorship the trend for more ethnic Chinese scholars to study overseas and to produce publications of high quality in English continued.Footnote ¹⁷ After the retrocessions, contributions dealing with Hong Kong and Macau decreased for about a decade. I feel this was a time when authors were taking a moment to wait and see how things went. In contrast, publications on Taiwan in The China Quarterly were to continue at roughly the same level. Politics and the economy remained the major subjects covered. Submissions on law, the environment, the internet and civil society/non-governmental organizations all increased. Increasing statistical rigour and growing opportunities for fieldwork helped improve the quality of quantitative studies while papers written by non-Chinese became based more than ever upon direct field experience. Chinese policy can no longer be explained (and perhaps never could be fully explained) by reading the tea leaves that were central Communist Party statements. New forums of information and new forms of wealth and regional growth have made understanding where China is going a much more complicated process. This trend will continue.

Changes in the Journal Format and the Special Issues

There were some format changes in The China Quarterly during my editorship. I introduced an annual Acknowledgement List for those not on the Editorial Board who had contributed their efforts to make the journal a success.Footnote ¹⁸ This was in recognition of how much the journal depends upon the China studies community as a whole to review submissions, to write book reviews, and to offer suggestions. The willingness of those not on the Editorial Board to review article manuscripts has been essential since it means editors are able to call upon the most relevant reviewers for papers. Changes in research rating systems in several countries mean that book reviews do not count for promotions. Thus reviewers are taking ever more precious time from more remunerative work to write book reviews which provide a great service to the community. The majority of manuscript and book reviews come from people who are not on the Editorial Board and it seemed like a good idea to publicly thank them as well. In addition, a Glossary of Chinese Characters began to appear at the back of the journal beginning with Issue No. 161 (March 2000), which was intended to be an experiment. Eventually Julia Strauss modified this so that characters became included in the text from June 2006. Arguably, more important than these changes was insuring that many of the journal's core items, such as the Chronicle and the format for organization of articles remained largely the same as in past.

As noted previously, during my editorship, there was a transition of The China Quarterly from partnership with Oxford University Press to Cambridge University Press beginning with Issue No. 165 (March 2001). The transition to Cambridge was done as part of a SOAS package in conjunction with several other journals published by the School. Also during my editorship, the journal began its major venture into electronic copy – a trend that has affected all publishing. Indeed the greatest immediate challenge The China Quarterly faces is competition from a growing number of quality China-related websites that provide relatively free information. I feel there will remain a need for quality print and online materials that go through a rigorous review process and are replete with verification of sources, and The China Quarterly will be there to provide that service.

My years as editor of The China Quarterly allowed me to meet many people in the China field that were to become close friends. Alas, being editor in some ways was a two-edged sword as I was not able to devote as much time as I should have to the SOAS Geography Department, which closed before I finished my years as editor. Still, my years editing The China Quarterly were the best of my academic life and I appreciate the viewpoints and opportunities it gave me.