China's development from a traditional society to a technologically advanced, completely modern republic has been extraordinarily rapid. Due to developments since the mid-1980s, Chinese daily life for many has jumped directly from that constrained by an agricultural economy to that liberated by the information age. In Perspectives on Communication in the People's Republic of China, James Schnell chronicles these changes and their impact on mass communication. He looks closely at Chinese newspaper reports and television programs and listens to government officials and people in the street, providing readers with an insider's view of the current state of communication in China, from the political to the personal.
Grouped under the major categories of politics, education, and health are observations gleaned from Schnell's nine visits to China as a visiting scholar and military attach. Ethnographic case studies are supported by examples from the media and supplemented with extensive references. Schnell concludes his fascinating look at contemporary China with an examination of cross-cultural communication on the most sophisticated level: that between President Clinton and Chinese officials during Clinton's 1998 visit to China. This book is must reading for students of Asian studies with an interest in communications and is ideal supplementary reading for courses in both communications and Asian studies.