Picturing China in the American Press
juxtaposes what the ordinary American news reader was shown visually in
Time
Magazine between 1949 and 1973 with contemporary perspectives on the behind-the-scenes history of the period.
Magazine is an especially fruitful source for such a visual-historical contrast and comparison because it was China-centric, founded and run by Henry Luce, a man who loved China and was commensurably obsessed with winning China to democracy and Western influence.
Picturing China
examines in detail major events (the Korean War and Nixon's trip to China), less considerable occurrences (shellings of Straits islands and diplomatic flaps), great personages (Chairman Mao and Henry Kissinger), and the common people and common life of China as seen through the lenses and described by the pens of American reporters, artists, photographers, and editors.
is of great interest to both scholars of communications, Chinese history, China Studies, and journalists.