China's Transformations: The Stories Beyond the Headlines

This successor volume to China beyond the Headlines takes the reader even farther beyond the "front stage" to explore a China few Westerners have seen. The contributors argue that the great gap between what specialists understand and the general public believes has led to distorted and potentially dangerous misunderstandings of the most powerful emerging player on the global stage. Seeking to bridge that gap, a group of prominent scholars, journalists, and activists challenge readers to move past the typical images of China presented by the media and to think about the common problems shared by China and the United States. In an entirely new set of essays, they explore such critical issues as environmental degradation, nationalism, unemployment, film and literature, news reporting, the Internet, sex tourism, and the costs of the economic boom to vividly portray the complexity of life in contemporary China and how surprisingly often it speaks to the American experience.

This successor volume to China beyond the Headlines takes the reader even farther beyond the _front stage_ to explore a China few Westerners have seen. Seeking to bridge the gap between what specialists understand and the general public believes, the contributors challenge readers to move past the usual images of China presented by the media and to think about shared problems. In an entirely new set of essays, they explore such critical issues as environmental degradation, nationalism, unemployment, film and literature, news reporting, the Internet, sex tourism, and the costs of the economic boom to vividly portray the complexity of life in contemporary China and how surprisingly often it speaks to the American experience.

Lionel M. Jensen is associate professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Notre Dame. Timothy B. Weston is associate professor of history at the University of Colorado at Boulder.