Picturing China in the American Press

David D. Perlmutter is professor and associate dean for graduate studies and research in the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications at the University of Kansas. A documentary photographer, he is the author of three books and the editor of a fourth on war, politics, visual images, new media, and public opinion: Photojournalism and Foreign Policy: Framing Icons of Outrage in International Crises (Greenwood, 1998);Visions of War: Picturing Warfare from the Stone Age to the Cyberage (St. Martin's, 1999); (ed.) Guide to Political Communication (LSU Press, 1999); Policing the Media: Street Cops and Public Perceptions of Law Enforcement (Sage, 2000).

• Chapter 1 Prologue: Translating Images of ChinaChapter 2 Opening China: War and RevolutionChapter 3 The Korean War, 1950-1953Chapter 4 Armageddon For Jinmen?: The Taiwan Straits of Crises, 1954-1959Chapter 5 Interlude and Stasis, 1960-1967Chapter 6 Journey to China, 1968-1973

The primacy of imagery is one of the defining attributes of the post-modern world. This is particularly true in media coverage of foreign events and issues in remote settings. No country has frightened and fascinated Americans more than China in times ofcrisis and peace when the images of its panic-stricken soldiers crossing the Chinese-North Korean border and the massive hysterical crowds waving a little red book across the country appeared in the U.S. media. A top-notch scholar in the field of visual communication, Perlmutter captures in a painstaking fashion the changing faces of China that has intrigued Americans, both officials and civilians alike, for decades. This book adds a unique and perceptive dimension to our understanding of the love-hate relationship between the United States and China that spans more than 100 years. It is a significant contribution to Sino-American studies and visual communication research..