Enmeshed in rich historical materials and analysis, this book is a welcome addition to the still relatively small body of literature on Sino-American mutual perceptions. While most recent English works on the subject tend to be authored by political scientists, this study of the Chinese views of the United States is nicely done by a historian who has a good grasp of modern Chinese history and the history of U.S.-China mutual interactions.
Jing Li's book covers the century from 1900 to 2000 with a broad focus on the evolution and expression of the Chinese views of the American state, intelligentsia, and general public. This is a century in which China has undergone earth-shaking changes both in its domestic society and its relations with the outside world. The elite and mass opinions of America, needless to say, have varied significantly in this time span and sometimes even totally reversed course. Nevertheless the author has strived to find enduring themes in the ever-evolving Chinese perceptions of the United States and factors that have contributed to their formation and change. The distinguishing feature of the book is that the author has aimed at “investigating the way in which large historical forces shaped Chinese perceptions and attitudes” (p. 5) of the United States. Among other things, such historical forces include the interplay between China's relations with America and its internal affairs and between Chinese cultural predispositions and views of the United States, contention between various social groups’ cognitions about America, and the realignment of all these forces at different historical stages and their unique influence on the Chinese perceptions.
While the book covers the entire twentieth century, the focus still rests with the post-1949 period, namely the People's Republic of China. There is only one chapter for the period of 1900–49, and the remaining seven chapters are all about the Communist era in which the Chinese perception of the United States experienced dramatic changes and ups and downs. The two case studies of People's Daily and Dushu magazine during 1979–89 are particularly well done. The first one reveals how the Chinese government used its official media to direct and balance the public's views of the United States according to its changing domestic priorities and needs. The second one traces the evolution of the coverage of America by a nongovernmental popular magazine (somewhat like Reader's Digest in the United States), reflecting more the changing views of the United States by Chinese intellectuals and scholars. These case studies, together with other chapters, provide many insights about how different Chinese groups looked at the United States and the gradual increased sophistication of their perceptions over time.
The strength of this book, interestingly, may also harbor its weakness. While it is sensible to put the evolution of Chinese views of America in the domestic and historical context, sometimes the narrative deviates from focusing on perceptions to lengthy and detailed discussion about Chinese domestic politics and U.S.-China relations per se, which are not necessarily related to the main subject of inquiry of the book. As the author points out, it is not easy to make sense of the sometimes contradictory Chinese views of America. The book tries hard to accomplish this task, but probably with limited success. As each chapter often deals with perceptions of different groups and individuals from different angles, it is difficult to establish cumulative knowledge from which to derive useful generalizations.
The representativeness of some of the perceptions studied in the book is also questionable. For example, He Xin's views of the United States and the “ferocious anti-American feelings” (p. 211) in China Can Say No are interesting to analyze, but to make a sweeping statement from these limited cases that in the 1990s “anti-American sentiments were gaining strength at all levels of Chinese society—state, intelligentsia, and general populace” (pp. 3–4) could be problematic. The book also acknowledges that the majority of the Chinese “liked America fairly well or very much” (p. 223) in the same time period. One important omission of this study is that it does not tap into the mainstream views of the Chinese scholars and specialists who study the United States. Their perceptions tend to be more sophisticated than those represented in the book. In addition, the author makes almost no reference to the existing scholarship and perceptual studies of U.S.-China relations except in a very brief historiographical note at the end of the book. This makes it difficult to judge the author's new contribution to the field.
As a whole, this is a very informative and insightful book about the evolution of Chinese views of the United States and their domestic and external historical background. It can be used as a textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in diplomatic history and international relations. It can also serve as a timely and illuminating read for a general audience who is interested in Chinese domestic politics and Sino-American relations.
