Americans in China

Reviews / Votes

This wonderfully moving work recovers real human lives and voices that lay at the core of US-China relations. The lived experiences, hopes and dreams, fears and admonitions of a wide spectrum of Americans were fundamentally altered by their deep connections with China. Their stories reveal that many of the questions Americans have had about the world's largest nation are longstanding, unresolved, and as important as ever. * Gordon H. Chang, Oliver H. Palmer Professor in Humanities, Stanford University * A lifelong personal and professional involvement with China-and with the people-to-people interaction that is the lifeblood of Sino-American relations-makes Terry Lautz the ideal author for this fascinating book. He seamlessly weaves stories of thirteen disparate Americans, deeply involved with and committed to China, into the overall tapestry of that country's history and its interactions with the United States. Even readers familiar with the period will learn a lot from it. I certainly did. * Jan Berris, Vice President, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations * Americans in China puts compelling human faces on the complex, ever-changing interactions between the United States and China. Terry Lautz provides thirteen masterful portraits of Americans who have sought personal meaning through their encounters. Some wanted to change China, others to transform themselves, and still others endeavored to alter the course of US-China relations. For the relationship as a whole, the mixed dynamics of paternalism, admiration, optimism, and concern are energizing impulses. * David M. Lampton, Professor Emeritus, Johns Hopkins University-SAIS * This book is what we have been looking for: a poignant and necessary perspective on US-China relations. Terry Lautz presents and challenges the unending contradictions of the relationship, humanizing it at every turn and with every voice. With his selection of three Americans of Chinese ancestry-C. N. Yang, Shirley Young, Melinda Liu-within his cast of characters, he directly confronts the notion of Chinese Americans as perpetual foreigners and suggests the value of American bicultural transnationals to help build stronger relations with their ancestral home country. * Nancy Yao Maasbach, President, Museum of Chinese in America * readable, fully rounded ... There is something both hopeful and cautionary in these accounts, at a time when relations between the United States and China are at their lowest ebb in decades. * Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs * This is a thoughtful and imaginative book. It will serve as a useful teaching resource and introduction to those wanting to read more about the stories of some quite remarkable American people as well as the broader history of USChina relations since 1949. * Elizabeth Ingleson, London School of Economics * Lautz is a great storyteller, and he masterfully uses the narratives of individuals to tell the larger story of the last seventy years of US-China relations. * Elizabeth Ingleson, Journal of Asian Studies * The book combines an academic sensibility with flowing prose, and it reads as much as an old friend's story as it does a study of historical connections. * Terry Lautz, The PRC History Review *