Fateful Ties: A History of America's Preoccupation with China

by Gordon H. Chang

Overview

Americans look to China with fascination and fear, unsure whether it is friend or foe but certain it will play a crucial role in their future. This is nothing new, Gordon Chang says. Fateful Ties draws on literature, art, biography, popular culture, and politics to trace America’s long and varied preoccupation with China.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674050396
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	04/13/2015
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Gordon H. Chang is Oliver H. Palmer Professor in Humanities and Professor of History at Stanford University.

Table of Contents

Note on Romanization ix

Introduction 1

1 Ties of Opportunity 9

2 Physical and Spiritual Connections 49

3 Grand Politics and High Culture 90

4 Revolutions and War 130

5 Allies and Enemies 168

6 Transformations 203

7 Old/New Visions 237

Afterword 263

Notes 269

Acknowledgments 305

Index 307

Editorial Reviews

02/23/2015
Stanford University historian Chang analyzes the past 300 years of Sino-American relations, as the world’s most populous nation is poised to regain economic supremacy. It’s a succinct, sharply focused analysis, and Chang underlines America’s status as a fledgling nation while China was an ancient empire, opening with the familiar scene of the Boston Tea Party. He notes that by the 19th century, Americans required 30 million pounds of Chinese tea per year to quench their collective thirst. As a result, New England entrepreneurs with surnames such as Forbes and Astor sailed Yankee clippers laden with furs across the Pacific to seek their fortunes. Americans, unlike their European counterparts, came to China as the “three M’s, merchants, missionaries, and military,” with Rev. Harry Luce—father of Time and Life founder Henry—among the most influential. American Protestant missionaries left the most enduring legacy by setting up institutions of higher learning. Meanwhile, at home, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prevented legal immigration until 1943, but Pearl S. Buck (the child of missionaries) gave Americans insights into China in an era before mass media. Chang acknowledges that his own heritage, which dates to the 1850s Chinese diaspora in California, provided the impetus for this research, and though his title carries ominous undertones, he ends with an optimistic view of future relations. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

A rich narrative populated by often-familiar characters and events seen through the parallax perspective of their thoughts on, or relationship to, China.
— Sheila Melvin Caixin

Chang’s interest lies in the preconceptions and fond assumptions about China that would lead, at times, to far-reaching policies and actions by the U.S.
— Eva Shan Chou Times Higher Education

Gordon Chang, in Fateful Ties, fully acknowledges the U.S. preoccupation with China… Well aware of the risks inherent in the relationship, Chang casts a wide net as he focuses on the role cultural, educational, business, and political connections play in the relationship… Chang’s work deserves a broad audience and will more [than] likely stand the test of time.
— D. L. Wilson Choice

[A] thought-provoking history of our 400-year preoccupation with China.
— Kirkus Reviews

Whether discussing mutually beneficial trade and discourse or souring relations leading to conflict, Chang argues that ties between [China and the United States] are not predestined but that the futures of both nations are nonetheless deeply intertwined.
— Casey Watters Library Journal

Chang analyzes the past 300 years of Sino-American relations, as the world’s most populous nation is poised to regain economic supremacy. It’s a succinct, sharply focused analysis, and Chang underlines America’s status as a fledgling nation while China was an ancient empire.
— Publishers Weekly

Chang’s elegant analysis of America's long cultural obsession with China spans such diverse issues as the nation’s early mania for tea and porcelain through the outpouring of ‘yellow peril’ literature in both the late-nineteenth and again in the early-twenty-first centuries. His many insights add a much needed depth and scope to understanding this often troubled but always important relationship.
— Michael Schaller, author of The U.S. and China: Into the Twenty-First Century

Fateful Ties is a brilliant narrative of America’s obsession with China from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Chang’s eloquently written history takes this country’s ongoing mythmaking about China seriously and subjects it to a richly detailed critical analysis. An essential book for anyone interested in going behind the ‘rise of China’ headlines.
— Marilyn B. Young, Professor of History, New York University

From the Publisher

Fateful Ties is a brilliant narrative of America’s obsession with China from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Chang’s eloquently written history takes this country’s ongoing mythmaking about China seriously and subjects it to a richly detailed critical analysis. An essential book for anyone interested in going behind the ‘rise of China’ headlines.

Marilyn B. Young

Chang’s interest lies in the preconceptions and fond assumptions about China that would lead, at times, to far-reaching policies and actions by the U.S.

Times Higher Education - Eva Shan Chou

A rich narrative populated by often-familiar characters and events seen through the parallax perspective of their thoughts on, or relationship to, China.

Caixin - Sheila Melvin

Chang’s elegant analysis of America's long cultural obsession with China spans such diverse issues as the nation’s early mania for tea and porcelain through the outpouring of ‘yellow peril’ literature in both the late-nineteenth and again in the early-twenty-first centuries. His many insights add a much needed depth and scope to understanding this often troubled but always important relationship.

Michael Schaller

Gordon Chang, in Fateful Ties, fully acknowledges the U.S. preoccupation with China… Well aware of the risks inherent in the relationship, Chang casts a wide net as he focuses on the role cultural, educational, business, and political connections play in the relationship… Chang’s work deserves a broad audience and will more [than] likely stand the test of time.

Choice - D. L. Wilson

03/01/2015
America has maintained a connection with China from the birth of the United States, instigated in part by a tax on Chinese tea. This connection continues to the modern day, with both investment in and a fascination with Chinese economic growth. Chang (history, director of Ctr. of East Asian Studies, Stanford Univ.; Friends and Enemies) recounts the history of America's relationship with China by looking at its political and human impacts. The author chronicles the activities and opinions of numerous Chinese leaders and missionaries, as well as American policymakers, to follow the progression of Sino-American relations throughout the 20th century. The book explores a full range of experiences and opinions while providing a rich body of citations that, while not ideal for the casual reader, are a bonus for researchers. Whether discussing mutually beneficial trade and discourse or souring relations leading to conflict, Chang argues that ties between the two countries are not predestined but that the futures of both nations are nonetheless deeply intertwined. VERDICT A valuable resource for academics and those seeking in-depth knowledge on the historical relationship between the United States and China.—Casey Watters, Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ.

Library Journal

2015-01-19
Christopher Columbus carried a letter of introduction from his Spanish sovereigns to China's emperor. Thus, the discovery of America was an accidental consequence of the European desire to reach the riches of Asia.The American Colonies shared this yearning, writes Chang (History/Stanford Univ.; co-editor: Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present, 2006, etc.) in this thought-provoking history of our 400-year preoccupation with China. One of the major causes of the American Revolution was the strictness of the British navigation laws, which allowed no direct trade between America and Asia; in fact, the tea dumped during the Boston Tea Party was Chinese. Chang reminds us that in 1800, China was by far the world's richest nation. Intrigued by this vast, ancient culture, many leading Americans (Franklin, Jefferson, Emerson) believed it "could serve as a model for their own visions of an enlightened society ruled by reason." They "believed China held promise for them not just for material enrichment but for ideas and social practices that Americans might adopt." By 1850, other observers concluded that it was backward, idolatrous and resistant to change. Worse, the arrival of Chinese immigrants produced a nasty racism, and the shameful 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act remained law until 1943. Nonetheless, encouraged by travelers and missionaries, the romantic view persisted, although the goal was now that a morally superior "America would uplift China and remake it in its own spiritual and worldly image." This closeness peaked during World War II, crashed with the 1949 communist takeover, revived with the restoration of relations after Richard Nixon's 1972 visit, and vanished after 2000 when it became clear that China, a superpower for a millennium, planned to reassume that role. The American-China romance was largely one-way. An intriguing exploration of a significant, if peculiar, aspect of American history.

Kirkus Review