This is a fascinating, insightful collection of essays by some of the world's most renowned China experts, who share personal recollections of their time in China--often beginning in the 1970s, when foreigners were just beginning to navigate the linguistic and cultural terrain of that country--and reflect on what learning Chinese has meant to them in their careers and lives. Ian Johnson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist notes in his essay, it is only by knowing the language that we can effectively enter people's lives--their myths and histories, their interior lives and dreams. Trying to do this without speaking the language is usually fraudulent and results in only a clich