Published in: November-December 2007 issue.
Desiring China: Experiments in Neoliberalism, Sexuality and Public Culture
by Lisa Rofel
Duke University Press. 252 pages, $21.95
CHINA’S VERTIGINOUS RISE as a global economic player is being watched with fascination by those who once dismissed China as a moribund Communist state. This change in perception has triggered an urgent need in the West for the production of knowledge about the country. Over fifty scholarly books have been published since 1990, and several more are forthcoming. Lisa Rofel’s collection of essays entitled Desiring China is the latest offering to a world eager to make sense of this “inscrutable” nation.