China Views Nine Eleven

The events of September 11, 2001, had reverberations which were felt across the world, not just in the United States. In their aftermath the United States refocused its foreign policies, a process that had a major impact upon the Asia Pacific region, especially China. In this cross-disciplinary collection of essays, almost two dozen scholars, the majority of them from China, range across a wide spectrum of issues to address just how Nine-Eleven affected the United States globally and at home. Different authors discuss non-Americans’ images of the United States, the nation’s international position and policies, the mindset and influence of neo-conservatives, American internal politics, debates over immigration, the cultural repercussions of Nine-Eleven for television, literature, drama, art, and music, and the implications of efforts to commemorate the events of September 11, 2001. Uniting all these essays is the effort to view the events of September 11, 2001, not in isolation but in a much broader context, a framework encompassing the entire sweep of US involvement in the world since the seventeenth century, and the country’s political, intellectual, cultural, and literary history and traditions. The dialogue among them produces a complicated and fruitful dialectical network of cross-fertilization across different areas, a stimulating and intricate cat’s cradle from which the enterprising reader may draw new and profitable intellectual discoveries.

China and the United States, two massive economic and military powers, cannot avoid engaging with each other. Enjoying what is often termed “the most important bilateral relationship in the world”, the two sometimes cooperate, but often compete, as their interests come into conflict. Both countries are separated not just by the Pacific Ocean, but also by their very different histories, experiences, societies, customs, and outlooks. Non-governmental, unofficial relationships and exchanges are often as important as formal dealings in determining the climate of Sino-American relations. For several decades in the mid-twentieth century, Chinese and Americans were virtually isolated from each other, trapped in icy hostility. Chinese scholars are now making up for lost time. This assortment of essays, most by mainland Chinese academics and students, focuses upon the role of culture – very broadly defined – in Sino-American affairs. Taking a holistic approach, in this collection over thirty authors focus on such topics as the influence of ideology, the impact of geopolitics, the use of rhetoric, soft power, educational encounters and exchanges, immigration, gender, race, identity, literature, television, movies, music, and the press. Cultural factors are, as the authors demonstrate, enormously significant in affecting how Chinese and Americans think about and approach each other, both as individuals and at the state level.

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