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1 Past and Present This book is about the representations of China found in American films, Or, more precisely, about the images and myths regarding China found in such films. It is based on two underlying premises. First, that film both reflects and fuels widespread, and often deeply rooted, perceptions and attitudes. In a book about the interactions of film and history, French historian Marc Ferro argues that cinema is both a “source” and an “agent” of history. A film is a “source” in that it reveals not only the physical and social realities of the past but also the attitudes and beliefs of the period in which it was made. It acts as an “agent” in a two-fold way. That is, it shapes visions of the past—think, for example, of how Gone with the Wind has influenced memories and perceptions of the Civil War1 —that almost invariably have an impact on future behavior and decisions. “Attitudes and policies are formed,” writes Jerome Ch’en in a book about China and the West, “approaches and procedures are chosen, on the basis of things as they are perceived, not as they really are.”2 Ch’en may not have been thinking principally of how film shaped perceptions of China—he was concerned, rather, with the role played by “missionaries and converts, scholars and students, traders and emigrants”—but no one would deny that, once film turned to China, it created powerful perceptions that became part of a landscape of shifting sympathies and strident fears. This brings us to the second general premise: that is, in the case of American perceptionsofChina,screenimagesbearonarelationshipbetweentwocountries— that is, China and America—that is as deeply problematic as it is critically important . No country has figured more prominently in recent American history: since the onset of the cold war the presence of China has loomed large in domestic American politics as well as foreign policy. Fears of China arguably prompted the United States to fight in Korea and, later, in Vietnam. Speaking of the Korean War, historian David Halberstam makes the point that the war “was never just C H A P T E R 1 The Pendulum Swings . . . and Swings Again 2 Chapter 1 about Korea. It was always joined to something infinitely larger—China, a country inspiring the most bitter kind of domestic political debate.”3 And if China was a critical player in the nation’s recent past, it has become abundantly clear that no country promises to play a more important role in America’s future. Even as early as 1970, China’s growing importance was sensed by historian Henry Steele Commager. “What was said of America in Tocqueville’s day,” wrote Commager , “can be said of China in ours, that no student can be indifferent to its existence, no economist omit it from his calculations, no statesman ignore its immense potentialities, and no philosopher or moralist refuse to accommodate his speculations to its presence.”4 In the years since Commager wrote those words, China’s “immense potentialities ” have loomed larger with every passing day. “The most important thing happening in the world today,” declared a succinct Nicholas Kristof in the pages of the New York Times on December 10, 2003, “is the rise of China.” Barely a week goes by that we do not read about how China appears to be catching up to, if not surpassing and challenging, the United States. Headlines tell us that “China is drawing high-tech research from the U.S.” even as it races to replace the United States “as economic power in Asia.” Its construction of a “vast network of fast trains” means that the United States “falls further behind.”5 Almost as if there were no other important countries or national groups in the world—as if the European Union, and the nations of Latin America barely existed—Americans tend to view the contest for global hegemony in terms of America and China. Every realm of experience—the Olympic medals won by athletes, the achievements of schoolchildren—is measured in terms of this contest. The coming century , suggests one commentator after another, will belong not to America but to the Chinese. “If the 20th was the American century,” writes William Grimes flatly, “then the 21st belongs to China. It’s that simple.”6 In recent years, perceptions of this contest have given rise to insistent comparisons between China’s “rise”—as it is inevitably called—and America’s “fall.” Books about China...

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