China Watcher

Rick Baum has been both a leading scholar and a scholarly leader in the field of contemporary Chinese politics since the 1960s. This book provides intensely personal portraits of the American scholarly community and of a changing China, from the Cultural Revolution right up until now. I read it with great enthusiasm and enormous pleasure. It's the kind of book that's hard to put down. -- Harry Harding, University of Virginia Richard Baum has given us a rare and intimate gift: a wonderfully funny and revealing chronicle of adventure, as experienced by one of the greatest China watchers of our time. Baum's odyssey through four decades of China's rise reminds us that true friendship to China requires not only patience, but honesty. As the Chinese expression puts it, he has always dared to step off his horse to examine the flowers up-close. -- Evan Osnos, China correspondent for The New Yorker The special charm of China Watcher is the way Baum draws the reader into a world of musty archives and political rivalries, both grand and petty, to give us insights into the political, social, and economic transformation of China. Along the way we are treated to cameos from a wide range of actors, some of whom- like George H. W. Bush and Chalmers Johnson- go on to great notoriety. I literally had trouble putting the book down. -- Michael L. Ross, UCLA Baum is one of the most insightful China watchers around and he provides a first-hand overview of developments in China interwoven with the nature and significance of China watching. He blends his own personal journal with the larger events, displaying liveliness and analysis. -- Thomas Gold, University of California, Berkeley Simply wonderful! I read it right through. -- Andrew Walder, Stanford University Both informative and humorous, this book is well-written, amusing, and provides a comprehensive view of the field of modern Chinese studies. -- Merle Goldman, Harvard University and Boston University Written with flair, Baum's memoir takes readers through a turbulent half century of China-watching and U.S.-China relations, offering a unique personal perspective on unusual Sino-American encounters. Baum takes us through the sometimes backbiting halls of Sinological academia to the Tiananmen uprising in Beijing, the Tibetan Plateau, the back streets of Hong Kong, the White House, and other locales. An intriguing and often humorous read. -- David Shambaugh, George Washington University and the Brookings Institution An enthralling memoir, and a fascinating snapshot of recent China-U.S. relations, from the doyen of modern China watchers. -- Rob Giffordformer NPR Beijing correspondent and, author of China Road Richard Baum has been watching China for decades with a combination of bemusement, shock, awe, and smarts, and he has instructed generations of China watchers. Now he's finally shared the secrets of tea-leaf reading and produced a wonderful book that should be must-reading for anyone interested in where China has come from and where it's going. -- John Pomfret, author of Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China China Watcher is a fascinating, vivid, and personally honest book that is revealing about China itself and the efforts of outsiders to make sense of China's policies and prospects. This book held my interest all the way through. -- James Fallowsnational correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly and, author of Postcards from Tomorrow Square An insightful and entertaining account of what 'China watching' is really like, from one of the most distinguished scholars in the field. Rick Baum combines a compelling tale of his own personal journey through China's recent tumultuous history with fascinating portraits not only of many of its key figures, but of the equally colorful cast of Western academics, diplomats, journalists, and intelligence operatives, who, like Baum, have long struggled to make sense of this huge and often mystifying nation. An important slice of the China story you're unlikely to find anywhere else. -- Mike Chinoy, USC U.S.-China Institute, former CNN Beijing bureau chief For China watchers like myself, who lived through the period which Baum writes about, the book offers an excellent review of significant events and Baum's interpretation of them. -- China Review International, China Review International This book will resonate with anyone whose career-shaping fascination with mainland China originated in the decades before the policies of 'reform' and opening'... For readers whose interest in China came later...China Watcher: Confessions of a Peking Tom lays the groundwork for appreciation of the challenges of Western China-watching since the Communist Revolution... for students or casual readers who may be new to China studies, this book supplies a readable overview of major developments in the PRC since the rapprochement in US-China relations ushered in by ping-pong diplomacy and the 1972 Nixon visit. -- The China Quarterly, The China Quarterly

This audacious and illuminating memoir by Richard Baum, a senior China scholar and sometime policy advisor, reflects on forty years of learning about and interacting with the People’s Republic of China, from the height of Maoism during the author’s UC Berkeley student days in the volatile 1960s through globalization. Anecdotes from Baum’s professional life illustrate the alternately peculiar, frustrating, fascinating, and risky activity of China watching — the process by which outsiders gather and decipher official and unofficial information to figure out what’s really going on behind China’s veil of political secrecy and propaganda. Baum writes entertainingly, telling his narrative with witty stories about people, places, and eras.

China Watcher will appeal to scholars and followers of international events who lived through the era of profound political and academic change described in the book, as well as to younger, post-Mao generations, who will enjoy its descriptions of the personalities and political forces that shaped the modern field of China studies.