Editorial

On the desktop of my computer sit all my “active” project folders, stored there for quick access. Once a project has been completed, I move its folder into an archive, clearing a bit of desktop real estate and providing me with a sense of accomplishment for getting something done. Probably the biggest moment in my 2014 was the instant when I dragged the “Dissertation” folder across the desktop and dropped it into the archive—the first time in five years that I didn’t see that dissertation folder on the screen the minute I opened up my laptop. It was a huge relief to move the folder out of sight.

And once I finish writing this editorial, I’ll drag and drop my “Twentieth-Century China” folder into the archive as well, though that action won’t come with the same massive sigh of relief and exhaustion that archiving the dissertation folder did. After more than three years of working as the journal’s Managing Editor, I’ve decided that the time has come for me to leave TCC so I can focus on other projects—and a new job at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

It has been a pleasure and a privilege to work on TCC for the past three years. I’ve greatly enjoyed getting to know scholars from around the world and across the China field, and reading their work has often influenced my own. Copy editing the book reviews for each issue inevitably resulted in the addition of a title or two to my to-be-read list. And I couldn’t ask for better or more patient Chief Editors than Jay Carter and Kristin Stapleton, neither of whom showed any irritation with the fact that while organization is one of my strongest skills, meeting deadlines is not.

Thanks to Jay and Kristin, Book Review Editors Margherita Zanasi and Sue Fernsebner, the TCC Editorial Board, and the production team at Maney Publishing for all being wonderful colleagues over the past three years. Thank you also to everyone who has contributed to TCC—not just those who have written articles for the journal, but also those who read it. Your support is crucial in an academic publishing climate that increasingly threatens the viability of journals and questions their place in the scholarly world.

Reading this issue of TCC should demonstrate why journals like this one remain important, as it offers a venue for scholars to share their research and continue to advance our understanding of China’s long twentieth century. Chris Courtney’s article on a 1931 flood in Wuhan analyzes the endurance of popular religious beliefs during an era when the state sought to disseminate scientific explanations for natural disasters. Taking readers inside the world of tradecraft and assumed identities, David Ian Chambers examines intelligence work in 1930s Shanghai, when the city was a center of Soviet espionage. In her article, Mary Augusta Brazelton demonstrates how the leadership of the People’s Liberation Army enabled the practice of Western biomedicine to endure at Peking Union Medical College throughout the turbulence of the Mao years. Finally, Kenneth Kai-chung Yung considers the influence of Cold War currents on Chinese émigré intellectuals, arguing that they must be treated as global thinkers, whose work was not wholly shaped by their émigré experience.

In addition to these four articles, this issue of TCC includes three book reviews, available online at www.maneyonline.com/doi/suppl/10.1179/1521538515Z.00000000061.

Thanks to all of you reading this for your continued support of TCC.