China Images in the Life and Times of Henry Luce (review)

Reviews 185 same vein, the SoutheastAsian Journal ofSocial Science, which has been in print for over twentyyears, should have been included in the subsection on Major English Language Journals and Newspapers. The usefulness of this book lies mostly in its reference value for the generalist who may wish to study Singapore in greater depth. Some specialists would also find parts of the Dictionary informative for its extensive coverage ofpeople, events, and themes. There are a few small inaccuracies (including a title that never appeared in print), which can be overlooked. Finally, this volume is highly recommended for all libraries with a Southeast Asia collection. Stephen H. K. Yeh University ofHawai'i Patricia Neils. China Images in the Life and Times ofHenry Luce Savage, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1990. ix, 326 pp. 12 pages ofplates. $35.00. Patricia Neils' book is the first devoted exclusively to publisher Henry Luce (1898-1967) and his involvement with China. In her introduction (pp. 1-13), Neils sets out to undo the injustice ofthe perception ofLuce as a demagogue who first attempted to Christianize the Chinese and then became a fanatical anticommunist , using his pre-television media empire of Time, Life, and Fortune magazines, the March ofTime radio series, and Time Newsreels, shown in theatres throughout the United States, in an effort to sway American opinion against Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communists in favor of the fascist regime of Chiang Kai-shek. To this end, Neils revisits the problématique of locating an accurate (in the sense ofbeing proven accurate by later developments inside China itself) image of China from 1898 to the 1960s, by focusing on Henry Luce's personal experiences in China, the China images produced by Luce's media empire, and the making of a China policy in the United States during the same time period. The empirical data Neils utilizes to make her case comprise a painstakingly detailed investigation into the China-related editorials and news stories carried in Time and Life; Luce's own writings, now preserved in the Henry Luce archives; interviews and correspondence with Luce's employees and associates; and, of course, previous scholarly works that comment on Henry Luce as a person and as a China image-maker. The bulk of the book, from chapter 3 to chapter 9 (pp. 35-244), deals with the controversy over who Luce was, through a chronocopvright1994logical presentation ofthe inability ofotherAmericanjournalists, as well as acaby Universityofdemies and policy makers, to come to grips themselves with what Chinawas, and Hawai'i Presswhat policy the United States government could have adopted in order not to 186 China Review International: Vol. i, No. i, Spring 1994 "lose" China to the Communists. The titles ofchapters 3-9 are suggestive ofthe pendulum swing of China's image in the U.S.: "1926-1936: Heroes and Bandits," "1937-1941: The Red Star and the Good Earth," "1942-1943: Our Honored Ally," "1944: The Stilwell Crisis,""1945-1946: The Vigil ofa Nation,""1947-1948: Too Little, Too Late," and '"Ghosts on the Roof and other Political Fairy Tales." The thread throughout Neils' recounting of China's images is her own image of a different kind of Henry Luce. She describes Luce as a man who "inherit[ed] a profound interest in and appreciation of the fundamental values of diverse religions " and "shared his father's devotion to education" (p. 24), a man who launched his newsmagazines not for money and wealth but to "instruct" the magazines' readers (p. 47), and a man who was interested in understanding China by traveling there and whose "interest in China had always gone beyond political developments" to include philanthropic efforts and the reestablishing of intercultural ties between the American and Chinese people (pp. 211-213). Above all, Henry Luce was, according to Neils, a man whose "assessment of the China situation was not far wrong" (p. 292). During China's "leaning to one side" in the direction of the Soviet Union in the 1950s (chapter 9), "Time and Life's attitude toward Communism was uncompromisingly negative and more concerned with its seemingly monolithic and expansionistic nature than it had been in either the 1940s or the 1960s when such images seemed...