China Misperceived
China Misperceived: American Illusions and Chinese Reality is a non-fiction book by the American sinologist and cultural anthropologist Steven W. Mosher.
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| Author | Steven W. Mosher |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Non-fiction |
| Published | 1990 |
| Publisher | Harper Collins Publishers |
| Publication place | United States of America |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 216 |
| ISBN | 0-465-09805-3 |
Synopsis
The book is a historical overview and criticism of the material that shapes a person's perception of China. American anthropologists, newspapers, state-controlled media sources, and intellectuals such as Edgar Snow, Theodore White, and John K. Fairbank are all covered by Mosher is his writings.
Being one of the first American anthropologists allowed into China following the 1979 cultural exchange program, Mosher's own personal experience with the rural southwest regions of China grant additional insight to his writings. His writing reflects his own personal travels and studies through China in a way literature from a desk-bound scholar would not be able to replicate.
Mosher's book covers the perceptions and misperceptions people have had about China from the travels of Marco Polo and the author-titled "age of infatuation" during the 1930s and 1940s in which Communist China was ranked as a progressive force that the press flocked to following Edgar Snow's 1938 work, Red Star Over China.
The misperceptions of the West over China have waxed and waned through the belief in the yellow peril to the model Maoist Man of Communist China. Mosher lays out the self-deceptions apparent in U.S. President Richard Nixon's visit to China and the change from hard-line anti-communist to raising toasts in Chairman Mao Zedong's name. Mosher points out that this was simply the most glaring example of how political expediency, ideology, and propaganda by the Chinese have constantly and consistently blinded us to the truth.
The book ends on a note warning the reader that unless we can bring ourselves to view China in focus, our predictions of China's future will be ignorant and inconsequential.
Reviews for China Misperceived
"Man can bear very little reality. This simple truth explains both the success of Disneyland with country bumpkins and the success of Maoland with statesmen, journalists, and scholars. How the pursuit of realpolitik can lead straight into the realm of fantasy is an intriguing story that many influential politicians and eminent academics would certainly prefer to forget. It could only be told by a writer who is not afraid of making himself unpopular; Steven Mosher is uniquely qualified for this salubrious task. - Simon Leys, author of The Chairman's New Clothes: Mao and the Cultural Revolution
Few, if any, books have ever dissected America's shifting biases toward China so well. China Misperceived is a disturbing cautionary tale that should be in every foreign correspondent's carry-on luggage - Jay Mathews, former Beijing Bureau Chief of the Washington Post.
The first book-length study of the remarkable series of American misperceptions of communist China, Mosher's work is an important contribution to understanding the political psychology and history of these bizarre blind spots. It helps one to grasp the recurring failure to understand communist systems. - Paul Hollander, author of Political Pilgrims: Travels of Western Intellectuals to the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba, 1828-1978
References
- Mirsky, Jonathan. "The Myth of Mao's China". www.nybooks.com. The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- Young, Marilyn. "Denouncing China's Hands". www.nytimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- Finn, James. "The Inscrutable Sinologists". www.firstthings.com. First Things. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
- https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/steven-w-mosher-3/china-misperceived-american-illusions-and-chine/