Table of Contents

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 (1978–1981)

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 (1979–1981)

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 Father’s 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 (1988–1989)

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: Today’s Everyday

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

The Loudness of the Lambs, Dru C. Gladney (2003–2004)

Men’s 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

About the Author

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.

Reviews

Any foreigner who has spent time in China will enjoy this book. . . . [M]ost visitors to China, academics or otherwise, will recognize many of the experiences were ones they themselves had or could have had. Such encounters often had unsettling consequences, revealing that one’s assumptions about China or Chinese culture were often incorrect. . . . For older readers, much of this book will be a trip down memory lane. For younger readers it can serve as an introduction to the vagaries of research: how, despite one’s meticulous preparation, factors such as access, living conditions, politics, and much more shape one’s experience of China.
*The China Journal*

China Tripping gathers short, lively, and personal accounts by some of the most influential American Sinologists of their experiences working in China from the tail end of the Mao years through the post-Mao reforms. China Tripping is a book about cross-cultural encounters, ranging from mundane acts of shopping and stamp collecting to boisterous drinking and dancing parties, from fortuitous meetings with powerful politicians to ‘sweaty’ academic discussions on politically sensitive issues, from emotional family reunions to intimate friendships. Organized chronologically, the essays suggest an ever-changing history of that cross-cultural encounter, with one constant—China always defies expectations.
*Kirk A. Denton, The Ohio State University*

With a sweep of forty years, China Tripping gives us a series of amusing, poignant, and downright absurd stories of foreigners and their encounters with China. Even though the country that they encounter shifts over time, what remains is a universal condition: the foreigner and the local, encountering each other with suspicion, with good will, and mostly with humanity.
*Ian Johnson, Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times correspondent*

Moving, surprising—and, on occasion, hilarious. These accounts of foreigners rediscovering China in the late twentieth century ring bells with anyone who has tried to grapple with this fascinating country and its culture. For those who have only ever seen the China of economic growth and tall skyscrapers, this book is a reminder of how far the country has come—and those who have tripped over it across the years.
*Rana Mitter, author of Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II*