Book Review--Doing Fieldwork in China

Halfway through reading Doing Fieldwork in China, I was struck by two major factors that seem to have contributed to the book’s general orientation. The first is that this volume of essays signals the entry of European sinologists into the field of post-socialist China studies, and shows that they have acquired a level of scholarly respectability that puts them in contention with other sinologists worldwide. The fact that of the 14 contributors, eight are based in European educational institutions (in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark; of the remaining six, three are from the U.S., two are from China, and one is from Australia) clearly demonstrates the rising prominence of the European academics in China studies.