China Watching: Persepctives From Europe, Japan, and the United States

This symposium is a significant attempt to report on the current state of China studies by focusing on developments in three countries (a region in the case of Europe) and in three areas of study: economics, politics, and international security. The field has come a long way from its early roots in Sinology and linguistics. Although all of the authors make useful contributions, Richard Baum's survey of China watching by Americans is outstanding. Baum charts the generational shifts in the focus of research and identifies the best work in each period. One comes away from this book with the feeling that the best days for China watching may be past -- and that in the future, funds for research will be harder to raise.