Review of Mackerras, C., D. H. McMillen and A. Watson, eds, 'Dictionary of the Politics of the People's Republic of China', London and New York, Routledge, 1998, xii, 267pp., with map, £60.00.

Abstract

At the beginning of World War II Penguin Books produced a political dictionary that was, in effect, a handbook to: the then recent troubles in Spain; the rise of Nazism; the political organisation of the U.S.S.R.; numerous brief biographies; and the various racist and repressive theories which were gaining ever greater support on the mainland of Europe. Illustrated by maps, it was quickly reprinted and its contents expanded. It was, in many ways, the first highly relevant "subject dictionary" in this field for all social classes in Great Britain and the world beyond. Perhaps with some justification, one might claim that the present volume will serve a like enlightening function - in a peaceful way - as an interpretation of another twentieth century fact, the recent politics and the like history and economy of the People's Republic of China. The role of informed interpreter, from a position of careful scholarship, as well of spatial proximity, now comes from Australia, where a non-American China dialogue of some seriousness is more authoritative, dispassionate and generally helpful to "outsiders". As in folklore, so in language, China has been keen to involve Australia in its fresh dialogue with the outside world. Thus the past dozen years or so have seen: many exchanges between Australian scholars and the Chinese departments of "Oceanic Literature"; the many Chinese terms in the 'Macquarie Dictionary'; the many Chinese students studying Australian literature, both in Australia and China; and the 'Macquarie Dictionary' more recently being translated into Chinese. The present volume has as its editors three Australian professors of Asian Studies, while of the other thirty one contributors, twenty three come from Australia, two from the U.S.A., one from New Zealand, and only four from East Asia.