Gordon H. Chang. Fateful Ties

It probably goes without saying that China’s recent rise to prominence on the global stage, where it joins the U.S., has prompted multiple scholars to reexamine the historical relationship of the two powers. To this growing conversation, Gordon H. Chang contributes a valuable new voice. In this work of primarily intellectual history, Chang covers over two hundred years by focusing on “Americans whose creative imaginations considered what China meant or, more precisely, might mean for the United States” (6). As Chang states, this is a book about “mentalities,” which he defines as the “images and perceptions” of China that animated Americans (5). Since the book’s subject matter resides mostly in the minds of Americans, we might view it as an update to Harold R. Isaacs’s pathfinding work, Scratches on our Minds: American Images of China and India (1958). That book, which also traced America’s imaginings of China over time, contended that Americans have historically oscillated between the poles of respect and admiration for China, on the one hand, and fear and loathing, on the other.

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