This unique book is the first to bring together a group of influential China experts to reflect on their cultural and social encounters while travelling and living in the Peoples Republic. Filling an important gap, it allows scholars, journalists, and businesspeople to reflect on their personal memories of China. Private experiencesvivid and often entirely unanticipatedoften teach more about how a society actually works than a planned course of study can. Such experiences can also expose the sometimes naïve misconceptions visitors often bring with them to China. China experts relate stories that are always interesting but also more: they tell not just anecdotes buttelling anecdotes. Why are there no campus maps? (Because, if you dont know where youre going and why, you dont need to be here.) Whats the allure of Mickey Mouse? (He could break all sorts of rules and get away with it.) Whats a sworn brother in China? (Somebody who fights for your honor even when youre not looking.) Covering nearly a half-century from 1971 to the present, these stories open a vivid window on a rapidly evolving China and on the zigzag learning curve of the China trippers themselves.

Jeremy A. Murray is Associate Professor of History at California State University, San Bernardino.

Perry Linkis Chancellorial Chair for Teaching Across Disciplines at the University of California, Riverside.

Paul G. Pickowicz is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History and Chinese Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: Early Trippers

Dirty Underwear, Paul G. Pickowicz (1971)

China Was Not Utopia, Anita Chan (1971)

Broom? Silk? Perry Link (1973)

Where Are the Child Psychologists? Martin King Whyte (1973)

Third-World Students in China, Donald Clarke (1977)

Part II: Openings

Young Journalists, Stephen R. MacKinnon (19781981)

The Operation of Power, Donald Clarke (1978)

The Rehabilitation of Sociology, Martin King Whyte (1979)

A Night with the Post Office Guys, James M. Hargett (1979)

Stamp Connections, Wendy Larson (1979)

Buying Socks, Perry Link (1979)

A Single Room, Vera Schwarcz (1979)

Death of a Tourist, Morris Rossabi (1979)

Expats, Stephen R. MacKinnon (19791981)

Part III: Stop Overexciting the Masses!

No Signs, No Maps, Charlotte Furth (1981)

Stop Overexciting the Masses! Thomas D. Gorman (1980)

Bureaucracy and Nosiness, Donald Clarke (1980)

The Stupidest Thing I Did in China, Suzanne Cahill (1980)

Representative of the Bourgeoisie, Charlotte Furth (1981)

Famous American Spy, Suzanne Cahill (1981)

Encountering Shandong, Joseph W. Esherick (1980)

High in Tibet, Melinda Liu (1980)

Part IV: Where Are We Going?

My Fathers Hometown, Mayfair Yang (1982)

High-Rise Counterculture, Paul G. Pickowicz (1982)

Second Uncle and His Wife, Mayfair Yang (1982)

Manuscript, Stanley Rosen (1982)

The Local Officials: Whiffs of the Qing Dynasty, Mayfair Yang (1982)

A Fitting Chair, Jennifer Anderson (1983)

Thank You Very Much, Dru C. Gladney (1984)

Where Are We Going? Thomas D. Gorman (1984)

Old Lady, Stanley Rosen (1985)

Part V: Reading Tea Leaves

Books on Secondary Extraction, Geoffrey Ziebart (1985)

Making Assumptions, Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom (1986)

Internal Document, Stanley Rosen (1986)

Brotherhood, Geoffrey Ziebart (1987)

Mickey Mouse at Peking U, David Moser (1988)

Reading Tea Leaves, Richard P. Madsen (19881989)

Eating Bitterness, Vera Schwarcz (1989)

From Clayderman to Cui Jian, James A. Cook (1991)

Catholic Church in Tianjin, Richard P. Madsen (1992)

Part VI: Welcome to Our Foreign Friends

Welcome to Our Foreign Friends, David Moser (1994)

Cradle of the Revolution, Andrew D. Morris (1996)

A Night at the Movenpick, Perry Link (1996)

Opium War, Andrew D. Morris (1996)

Special Powers, Jeremy Brown (1997)

Relationships, Not Names, David Moser (1998)

Estrangement, Nick Admussen (1999)

Part VII: Todays Everyday

Living in the White House, Marketus D. Presswood (2000)

The Loudness of the Lambs, Dru C. Gladney (20032004)

Mens World, Jeremy Brown (2004)

Malleable Rules, Philip F. Williams (2004)

Tashkurgan, Justin M. Jacobs (2007)

Mainlander, Jeremy A. Murray (2008)

Avoiding Long Lines, Paul G. Pickowicz (2010)

Hainan Fishing Captain, Jeremy A. Murray (2012)

Black Is Beautiful! Marketus D. Presswood (2013)

Darth Vader and the Triceratops, Maggie Greene (2014)

A Phone Call from the Party Secretary, Melinda Liu (2016)

Afterword, Minxin Pei

About the Contributors