Good Deeds & Gunboats: Two Centuries of American-Chinese Encounters

Deane, a former correspondent in China, analyzes in historical context the reactions of individual Americans to China over the last 200 years. Represented are presidents, traders, poets, engineers, students, generals, diplomats, mercenaries and journalists: Herbert Hoover, Joseph Stilwell, Edgar Snow, Paul Robeson, Douglas MacArthur, Agnes Smedley, Paul Theroux. Attitudes run the gamut from the rabid Sinophobia of Theodore Roosevelt (``an immoral, degraded and worthless race'') to the passionate partisanship of Koli Ariyoshi, a Honolulu newspaper editor who suffered persecution for his sympathy with the Communist revolution. Deane's affectionate reminiscences of his own experiences in China, combined with clear-eyed analysis, eloquently illustrate Service's observation in the foreword that there is a chemistry between Americans and Chinese that favors friendship. Photos. (Aug.)