Book Talk: "China Watcher-Confessions of a Peking Tom"

Richard Baum, distinguished UCLA political scientist discusses his just published memoir.

Click here to watch video of Prof. Baum's USC presentation.

China Watcher-Confessions of a Peking Tom
 

This audacious and illuminating memoir reflects on 40 years of learning about the People's Republic of China through China watching — the process by which outsiders gather and decipher official and unofficial information to figure out what's really going on behind China's veil of political secrecy and propaganda.

China Watcher has just been published (March 1, 2010) by the University of Washington Press.

Richard Baum is distinguished professor of political science at UCLA. He directed the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies from 1999-2005. He serves on the USCI Board of Scholars and has served on many editorial boards (China Quarterly, China Information, Asian Survey, and The Journal of Contemporary China among them).  He is author and editor of eight books on Chinese politics and numerous articles. During his 35 years on the faculty, he has held visiting scholar or professor appointments in China, Hong Kong, Japan,  India, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

Prof. Baum's recent work concerns (1) the impact of China's post-Mao reforms on local governance in the PRC; (2) globalization and political institutionalization in post-reform China; and (3) US-China relations and the prospects for war and peace across the Taiwan Strait. As a media commentator, Professor Baum shares his expert knowledge of Chinese Politics with CNN International, the BBC, NPR, the Asian Wall Street Journal, South China Morning Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Voice of America (VOA).

Professor Richard Baum gave a talk on the political impact of China's information revolution at USC in 2007.  A link to the article can be found here.

RSVP appreciated, but not required: uschina@usc.edu.