{"product_id":"floating-chinaman-hua-hsu-9780674967908","title":"A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure Across the Pacific","description":"\u003cp\u003eWho gets to speak for China? During the interwar years, when American condescension toward \"barbarous\" China yielded to a fascination with all things Chinese, a circle of writers sparked an unprecedented public conversation about American-Chinese relations. Hua Hsu tells the story of how they became ensnared in bitter rivalries over which one could claim the title of America's leading China expert. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe rapturous reception that greeted \u003ci\u003eThe Good Earth\u003c\/i\u003e--Pearl Buck's novel about a Chinese peasant family--spawned a literary market for sympathetic writings about China. Stories of enterprising Americans making their way in a land with \"four hundred million customers,\" as Carl Crow said, found an eager audience as well. But on the margins--in Chinatowns, on Ellis Island, and inside FBI surveillance memos--a different conversation about the possibilities of a shared future was taking place. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Floating Chinaman\u003c\/i\u003e takes its title from a lost manuscript by H. T. Tsiang, an eccentric Chinese immigrant writer who self-published a series of visionary novels during this time. Tsiang discovered the American literary market to be far less accommodating to his more skeptical view of U.S.-China relations. His \"floating Chinaman,\" unmoored and in-between, imagines a critical vantage point from which to understand the new ideas of China circulating between the world wars--and today, as well.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Hua Hsu\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0674967909\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780674967908\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Harvard University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/07\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.10lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.30h x 6.40w x 1.00d","brand":"Hua Hsu","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43992272273663,"sku":"9780674967908","price":42.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_75e70aa9-e6fc-431e-864e-d8678173349a.jpg?v=1683315081","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/floating-chinaman-hua-hsu-9780674967908","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}